Aibu or is this holiday booking system ridiculous?

[pinkflamingo561]

My husband's company has this policy where they all submit their first, and second choice dates for holidays at the same time. They look at everyone's requests, then allocate the holiday. After than, people can then book whatever.

The problem is, they don't do this until very late. They still haven't done this for next year, and I am a teacher and we have a daughter in school, and we were hoping to book our summer holiday ASAP to get a better deal.

They have said to my husband, they will ask people for dates in a few weeks, as it has to be in line with the rest of their company.

Seems very limiting to me. What's their rationale for keeping people waiting for so long? Is there a business need or are they just massively disorganised?

YANBU, that’s madness.

Yeah it’s absurd. What if you wanted to book a wedding or something?!

I can understand not having a completely first come first served system that allows for those who can’t book things a year ahead to still get some school holiday leave and the like. But there should be some way of you being able to get at least some of his leave fixed now, especially given it’s only nine months away.

We generally take requests for peak periods (school hols) and wouldn’t look at next summer until after Easter but if people want to book a break, then we usually just allow that. We don’t tend to have issues in the summer though, but Christmas and Easter we tend to tell teams the days not enough staff in so they work it between themselves. It is hard to work it, and whilst some people want to book holidays early, some don’t want to have to think about next summer yet. Hard to strike the balance.

I’ve just started a new job and, officially, we can’t book next year’s holiday until next year BUT there are just three of us who can’t be off at the same time so we’ve already sorted it out between us 😂. In my previous job (all NHS) leave requests went in 12 months in advance!

Because it needs to be "in line with the rest of the group" as in all the departments do it at the same time. Which doesn't make sense as their absences don't affect each other. I think it may be due to organisation.

Sounds batshit in that case! Sorry to hear it.

It down to you can’t please everyone
your only want to be able to book earlier as it suits you and your circumstances

other people with no ties and want to be more spontaneous would be as pissed off at having to book early as you are about having to book late

To be fair OP, I havent event thought about next summer plans as we can't afford to go on holiday. It's only November, and I have to sort out logistics for the childcare I can organize, then I will plan my annual leave around that. I wouldn't appreciate being told to book my annual leave 10 months in advance.