what would you do re. asking for holiday in new job?

[Snowbell]

Need your opinions and advice please. I am about to start a new full-time job on 27th June. My DP wants to arrange a summer holiday for us asap. He is on at me to phone my new employer (public sector, local council, by the way) and ask them if it is OK to book a holiday, fitting in with everyone else in the dept, of course. He wants us to go ideally before the school holidays start - this means I will only have been in my new job 3 weeks at the most.

Since I am starting a new job at the start of the summer and I would have two weeks holiday to take before the end of the year anyway, do you think it is a reasonable question to ask of my new employer, before I even start?! Or do you think it will look bad, and get me off to a bad start. I worry that they will think that all I have on my mind is holidays, not learning the new job. I would like to go away in the summer, but would like to be in the job a few weeks, hopefully make a good impression and then broach the subject. If it means we have to go away at peak time in August, then so be it(we could do this as DD is only 3.5). But DP wants me to ask now.

What would you do?

when you applyed for the job did they ask if you had any holidays booked?

Slightly different, but DS1 was born 2 1/2weeks after DH started one new job (he had a few days off then) and 2 days after DH started another new job I had my 12 week scan for DS2 .

Can you take holiday in September? TBH I would feel uncomfortable about requesting holiday so soon. It's a different story if you had already booked one and ideally mentioned it when you accepted the job. It's a difficult situation - I would speak to your new employer as soon as possible if you really want to go away then. Some companies do not allow holiday to be taken in a probation period (if there is one), especially if you haven't "earned" the days yet.

I would phone and ask, personally. I'm sure they'd rather yu were up front about it and gave loads of notice. They can always say no and they won't think badly of it. I started a new job a couple of years ago and asked for time off when I started (3 weeks) and they let me even though I'd on;ly been there a month.
Go for it!

Oh and my employer had a policy whereby they honoured hols already booked/arranged when new person started.

as an employer it would piss me off tbh.

it has just happenend to me and it really annoyed me that she didnt tell me at the interview or when she was offered the job

would recommend waiting until August

I think this is a tricky one as you didn't have it booked at the interview. If you phone to ask presumably you don't have anything booked yet so don't have anything concrete, would you then have to call back to confirm you had booked something.
You will perhaps come across as being a bit of a pain. IME when people go for a holiday shortly after their training when starting a new job they invariably come back have forgotten everything they learnt.

I would definitely try to wait until September (much better to avoid expensive school holidays while you can...)
Good luck

I would ask in such a way as they can easily say no - explain that you haven't yet booked anything and could you have a week or two off over the summer or do they require you to wait until you've been there a certain length of time.

If you already had something booked, then I think you should be honest when accepting the job (as Enid says), but unless it's a real pain, most employers would accomodate. One week after DH starting his last job we had a baby and he had a week of, two weeks after him starting the previous job we got married and he had a fortnight off. In both cases, he said when he was offered the job, asking whether they'd rather wait till after the event, and not only did they not mind, but each company gave him the time off without using leave, and gave us lovely presents. He's had some pretty good employers - none of mine would do that, and I got severly messed about on a summer holiday just after starting my first job.

thanks for all your comments, everyone, you've been really helpful.

I am happy to go away in September. DP is not keen as he says he has had too many holidays out of season when half the things are shut and its getting cold. I think I am going to wait until I start the job and see how the land lies. I will be on probation for six months, and would have two weeks holiday to take before the end of the year. As most companies don't like you to carry it over, I would have to take it at some point.
DP will just have to wait.