Pre-booked holiday I forgot to mention

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Hi,

I'm starting quite a big new job at the beginning of August. I have a holiday booked in early September for one week and I completely forgot to mention it during the interview and negotiation process. There was quite a lot of other stuff to sort out as part of the negotiation, and the holiday was booked ages ago and just slipped my mind. It is a week in UK staying at a few Airbnb (most of which can be fully cancelled for free).

This is a big opportunity for me and I want to really live up to it and don't want to make wrong impression early on. But I also don't want my family to miss out on the holiday - I have a small child.
What would you do ?

@lilydragon , if this is happening a lot - people not mentioning holidays at the right point - is the right point to say it being made clear to them, during the recruitment process?

Just email now and say you have a week booked that was booked before you applied for the post.

No need to apologise, lie about it or anything else. This is not a big deal or unusual in any way.

Just go? I’ve only ever known people tell them about a holiday once they’ve got the job. I went abroad for a few nights when I’d started a new job 2 weeks earlier, they have to honour it and I 100% wouldn’t be letting my child down x

Don’t you ask the question? It has been standard whenever I have moved roles.

This would be zero issue where i work at all.

I'd say this but show willing. Say, I'm fully prepared to cancel it or drop out if it would be tricky, but if it's no problem, that would make my family happy.
No harm in asking.

I really wouldn't. That's setting it up as it being a big inconvenience when actually having a holiday booked really isn't. Be factual but polite, don't set it up as the start of an unnecessary negotiation

The only issue is that you may have to take it unpaid as you may not have accumulated enough days to take as paid annual leave.

Unless there is info about the company that op hasn’t shared (such as the whole of September being a major festival or something for them) I can’t imagine that this would be a significant issue. Also as others have said it is not peak time they may be grateful you’re not asking for some of August!
op still has quite a few weeks before starting the role and the company are clearly quite slow with their onboarding processes.
I’d be inclined to email/make contact and say something like I’d hoped to take a few days leave September x dates and hoping that the company could please confirm this is authorised. I wouldn’t go into I forgot to tell you, you forgot to ask me, it’s only x weeks after I start etc.
(imo 6 weeks after start date is a sensible time to take a break, you’ve had chance to complete induction and settle in which can be tiring, so probably ready for a rest and reset)
if for some reason they don’t authorise perhaps a compromise could work. For example if they can’t authorise a full week could you work a day or two at the start of the week then take the remainder?

Thanks everyone - I feel better about contacting them about it. I wish I was already there so I could sound it off in person, but it is what it is. If they aren't keen we will postpone to spring and may just do long weekend in September. And I can also take laptop and be at least a bit available if needed.

I wouldn’t take the holiday because of needing to learn the job and get to know the other employees. Cancel it and book once you have completed about six months in the job.

I like this!

Just tell them about the holiday and be flexible if needed. I wouldn’t lie about DH booking a surprise, they might wonder what surprises he will booking in the future; also it makes you look less professional if your DH plans things that may impact your work without your input.