Is it unreasonable to want to book annual leave in a new job?

[wintercandyland]

Just that really. Started a new job a month ago but want to go on a summer holiday in about 4 months. Flight prices keep increasing and I’m worried that if I leave it another month to ask, they will have gone up again, but is it a bit awkward to even bring up annual leave when you haven’t been there that long?

just ask what the process is

Just ask. They won't think anything of it.

You may be cutting it fine for school holiday leave but sounds like you want June anyway.

Why would this be at all unreasonable?

A lot of the time people join with leave already booked. Of course it's fine to want to book leave.

What is the AL policy where you work?

Why are you worried about putting in a holiday request for 4+ months time? It's a perfectly normal thing to do so I don't understand the angst ... I could understand if you had stared last month and then were wanting to put a 3 week holiday in starting March 1st but that is not the case.

Where I work you just put a request in through our holiday booking system. We do have an unofficial "Holiday book" because I work in retail and its hard to keep track of who is off when (and we have a lot of staff to coordinate) so you can check to see which dates are free and which ones already have the maximum staff off before you put your request in, but it's not mandatory.

Sounds fine.

Your employer doesn't expect new staff not to take a holiday do they? Just ask what the procedure is, no one here knows

Think I booked AL on day one

It’s quite usual in a new job that you’d already have made plans for future hols and you need to straightaway ensure they can go ahead. I’ve job-hopped loads and never had a side-eye from day/week one requests.

You've asked 2 different questions, so the vote might be a bit weird.
Your title is Is it unreasonable to want to book annual leave in a new job?, which is YANBU.
Your final sentence is is it a bit awkward to even bring up annual leave when you haven’t been there that long? which tye answer is YABU.

I booked annual leave for a holiday already in the works on my first day!

It's fine! In my work it's preferred not to take annual leave in the first 3 months of probation (unless it was booked before an offer was made) but that doesn't stop anyone booking leave for further down the line at any point.

I have an employee who's been with us a few weeks and I've already asked her (along with the other member of our team) if she's planning to be off at all over Christmas as we need to make sure the department is covered while being fair to everyone.

I booked annual leave within a week of starting a new job.

Unless your planning on using a substantial amount of your entitlement immediately, I can't see any problem

*you're

It's fine. As long as its not for a holiday during your first month there.

Perfectly normal. Check your holiday allowance and book leave with your manager.

It's perfectly reasonable for anyone, including a recent starter, to book leave, but if your workplace is anything like mine, all the available leave for this summer may have gone by now-I suggest you do it ASAP.

Fair enough, thanks everyone!