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Is it a bad idea to have 2-3 months off after getting a degree? [duplicate]

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I graduated from college recently and did not have plans for a graduation trip. I got a job right after college and have been working for a month so far. My best friends want to plan a month-long graduation trip 5 months from now. When is it possible to ask for time off after having just started working? Are there reasons that are more acceptable than others?

Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? That depends. How much vacation time will you have accumulated by the date of the trip? How much vacation time do you get each year? — May 2 '16 at 5:23
@Dawny33 it's not a duplicate as this question is talking about already being employed for a month. He's not talking about taking a break between jobs. He's talking about taking a break while already HAVING a job. — May 2 '16 at 6:17
I'd give you a time off starting straight after you asked, you could re-apply for your position when you feel like working for a living. — May 2 '16 at 12:05
@Kilisi Just for asking? That seems a harsh reaction. There has got to be a way to ask what is acceptable without seeming like you are unserious about work. Maybe taking a week off after 5 months is OK, for example. — May 2 '16 at 12:27
@Kilisi - these kids will sense your contempt for them and will leave the first chance they get, so does it really matter if it's 6 months or a year? — user8365, May 2 '16 at 19:27

score 3 · Answer 1 · 2016-05-02 11:19:59Z

This depends on the company, I would try to discuss this with your company. Since you've worked there for only a month, I doubt that you'll have built up enough vacation days in 5 months to take a full month break. There are however some companies that don't make a big deal out of this or allow you to "buy" extra vacation days. So contact your manager and HR about this.

Also, it's also important to see this from a different angle. Depending on where you work, taking a full month holiday could be considered career suicide. Your employer will wonder whether this will be a repeating occurrence even though it probably wont. Also, question yourself on whether you will be heavily missed that month. If the answer is yes, then your employer will NOT be happy about this. If the manager needs to actively look for a replacement for you for that entire month it's quite a big deal.

In the end, I feel like you'd need to communicate this clearly with your manager while keeping this in mind. Personally I find it very likely that your request would be denied. However, seeing as you're asking this far ahead in time. I don't see the harm in asking.

Whether you graduated from college is slightly irrelevant. You've already started a job. Asking for a month off at the start of your employment is always VERY awkward and unusual. If you feel that the company is very strict on rules. I don't think you'll be able to make your case to your manager.

I could imagine a conversation with your manager going something like this. (not as a mail, I'm terrible at writing those and I prefer personal contact)

Hi [name], I have a request to make. I understand this is awkward, but I figured I should still ask. In about 5 months time I would like to take time off with some friends for a long graduation trip that would take a month. Would it be possible for me accompany my friends for this trip?

If your manager says no after this, I wouldn't pursue this anymore. At that point it's either your job or your trip. It would also be possible that you would not be paid for that month either if you manager were to somehow agree with you to give you a month unpaid vacation. I'd call yourself lucky at that point.

Magisch 16.5k134776 · Answer 2 · 2016-05-02 07:21:35Z

Depending on where you work, maybe. But I wouldn't count on it.

In the US, that time would most likely have to be unpaid, and its almost unheard of to get a whole month (!) off so soon after joining a company.

In most of Europe, this would be either possible or completly impossible depending on the company. It is generally within the rights of the employer to not allow vacation during a probationary period (which often lasts a couple of months) in europe.

Generally speaking I would advise you to reconsider that. Your employer may react very negatively to it or even terminate you for asking (both legal in the US and Europe if you're still in the probationary period).

I would think that in Europe it depends more on the country and collective bargaining agreements than on the company. And nothing is true "in general". For example you write that employers can decide not to allow any vacation during a probationary period. That's true in Germany but where else? In the Netherlands you can certainly take a day off during a probationary period while in France you accrue leave days during one year and can only take them in the following year (i.e. you can go for up to one year without any). — May 2 '16 at 20:17
And being in a probationary period does not mean it's legal to terminate for any reason, certainly not for asking. — May 2 '16 at 20:17
@Relaxed At least in germany (my frame of reference) during probationary period anything goes. I could terminate you in it because I slightly dislike your shoelaces. — May 2 '16 at 20:20

Michael Karas 1,7581611 · Answer 3 · 2016-05-02 14:18:01Z

I would say that you should simply give up the idea of this graduation trip. You clearly had an intent to start working after graduation by accepting the job straight away. If you had organized and planned this ahead you could have made a arrangement to have your employment start date occur after the graduation trip was over.

At this point even going to the company to ask about this is showing that you seem to value going off to have a fun time with your friends is more important than getting yourself well situated and integrated into the company. You would do well to wait till you have earned time off and then take a trip at that time. Since it is rare to get more than a couple of weeks of vacation at a new position you can see how asking for a whole month off (unpaid or otherwise) is going to float like a brick.

user8365 · Answer 4 · 2016-05-02 19:34:50Z

You can tell from a lot of the responses that few companies will give you a month off an many managers will hold this against you by labeling you as lazy.

Start looking for another job and tell them you need a month off in-between. Your current employer won't like the short-term stay and you're not going to be able to give them much notice.

With such a short stay, you probably don't even need to mention this job down the road on your resume. Everyone will tell you you're performing some type of career suicide. You have plenty of time to recover from this initial mistake.

Life is short. Take advantage of long trips while you're young because you won't have many other opportunities. Whether you do this or not, you're always going to have to prove yourself at your job. No one is going to keep a bad employee when the only thing they've managed to accomplish is not asking for a one month vacation. A dead man can perform that duty.

bethlakshmi 70.3k4136277 · Answer 5 · 2016-05-02 20:48:51Z

This one is significantly different from country to country and company to company. Trying to do a cross-cultural take on this, my process would be:

General process

1 - Check in on rules for new hires - in some cases, you may be on probation or have a slow accrual of vacation time. Companies anticipate that new hires have a learning curve and that they may need to be extra diligent in their first few months. It can be as high as 6 months to a year in some cases.

2 - Check in on vacation policy for EVERYONE - this is where culture can vary widely by country. In the US, 2 weeks is typical, 3 weeks is long, 1 month is almost unheard of. In Europe, 1 month can be the norm.

3 - Ask your boss - now that you know what the company has written down, ask your boss for his expectations on your role and your work. It may be different, and you should figure out if you have a special case - for better or worse. But don't be too surprised if your boss holds to the company rules. I'd take the tone of asking in an open ended way - "hey, I'm thinking about a big trip, what's your expectation on new employees asking for time off? When's the right time to ask? How long do new people usually take?"

Rule of thumb

As a general rule of thumb, the longer your travel, the earlier you should ask. My rule of thumb (in the US) is - double what you are asking for and ask that much earlier. It's not perfect, but it's decent math. For example:

If you're asking for 1 day, ask 2 days ahead

If you're asking for 2 weeks, give 4 weeks notice

If you're asking for 1 month, give 2 months notice

It errs on the side of caution.

Also - give your boss the big picture. If you want a month, are you planning any other time off that year? How much? In many US settings, a boss will expect that if you take 1 month off, then you will ask for NO OTHER vacation time at all that year. It's wise to see if that's what your boss is thinking.

Acceptable reasons

People are expected to be able to plan ahead for fun & optional stuff. Vacations, special events, even weddings should not be big surprises that suddenly require an outage. And the longer, bigger or more expensive the trip, the more you are expected to be planning ahead. In many cases, I expect that people planning big expensive travel will ask me BEFORE they book the travel - better to figure out anything difficult before the non-refundable plane fare gets booked.

People are NOT expected to have much or any advanced notice for less fun stuff in the world - funerals, serious illnesses, family member crisises - having to drop everything to help family is understood and expected to be an emergency situation. I've been fortunate enough in several companies that my bosses understood when family issues came up in my first 6 months. Keep in mind that a caring office will remember that you had an issue in the family, and will continuously ask you about it in an effort to be nice and helpful - so if you start lying about this stuff, you'll have to be a good liar for a long time.

New Hire Expectations

Many bosses expect their new hires to get big travel plans finished before joining a new job. I've had some cases where the employee had booked travel and hadn't planned on the job offer, in which case the travel items for about 6 months are usually brought up before the first day of work. Usually as soon as the employee accepts the offer, I get an email about the need to take time off with the acceptance.

score 3 · Answer 6 · 2016-05-02 11:19:59Z

This depends on the company, I would try to discuss this with your company. Since you've worked there for only a month, I doubt that you'll have built up enough vacation days in 5 months to take a full month break. There are however some companies that don't make a big deal out of this or allow you to "buy" extra vacation days. So contact your manager and HR about this.

Also, it's also important to see this from a different angle. Depending on where you work, taking a full month holiday could be considered career suicide. Your employer will wonder whether this will be a repeating occurrence even though it probably wont. Also, question yourself on whether you will be heavily missed that month. If the answer is yes, then your employer will NOT be happy about this. If the manager needs to actively look for a replacement for you for that entire month it's quite a big deal.

In the end, I feel like you'd need to communicate this clearly with your manager while keeping this in mind. Personally I find it very likely that your request would be denied. However, seeing as you're asking this far ahead in time. I don't see the harm in asking.

Whether you graduated from college is slightly irrelevant. You've already started a job. Asking for a month off at the start of your employment is always VERY awkward and unusual. If you feel that the company is very strict on rules. I don't think you'll be able to make your case to your manager.

I could imagine a conversation with your manager going something like this. (not as a mail, I'm terrible at writing those and I prefer personal contact)

Hi [name], I have a request to make. I understand this is awkward, but I figured I should still ask. In about 5 months time I would like to take time off with some friends for a long graduation trip that would take a month. Would it be possible for me accompany my friends for this trip?

If your manager says no after this, I wouldn't pursue this anymore. At that point it's either your job or your trip. It would also be possible that you would not be paid for that month either if you manager were to somehow agree with you to give you a month unpaid vacation. I'd call yourself lucky at that point.

Magisch 16.5k134776 · Answer 7 · 2016-05-02 07:21:35Z

Depending on where you work, maybe. But I wouldn't count on it.

In the US, that time would most likely have to be unpaid, and its almost unheard of to get a whole month (!) off so soon after joining a company.

In most of Europe, this would be either possible or completly impossible depending on the company. It is generally within the rights of the employer to not allow vacation during a probationary period (which often lasts a couple of months) in europe.

Generally speaking I would advise you to reconsider that. Your employer may react very negatively to it or even terminate you for asking (both legal in the US and Europe if you're still in the probationary period).

I would think that in Europe it depends more on the country and collective bargaining agreements than on the company. And nothing is true "in general". For example you write that employers can decide not to allow any vacation during a probationary period. That's true in Germany but where else? In the Netherlands you can certainly take a day off during a probationary period while in France you accrue leave days during one year and can only take them in the following year (i.e. you can go for up to one year without any). — May 2 '16 at 20:17
And being in a probationary period does not mean it's legal to terminate for any reason, certainly not for asking. — May 2 '16 at 20:17
@Relaxed At least in germany (my frame of reference) during probationary period anything goes. I could terminate you in it because I slightly dislike your shoelaces. — May 2 '16 at 20:20

Michael Karas 1,7581611 · Answer 8 · 2016-05-02 14:18:01Z

I would say that you should simply give up the idea of this graduation trip. You clearly had an intent to start working after graduation by accepting the job straight away. If you had organized and planned this ahead you could have made a arrangement to have your employment start date occur after the graduation trip was over.

At this point even going to the company to ask about this is showing that you seem to value going off to have a fun time with your friends is more important than getting yourself well situated and integrated into the company. You would do well to wait till you have earned time off and then take a trip at that time. Since it is rare to get more than a couple of weeks of vacation at a new position you can see how asking for a whole month off (unpaid or otherwise) is going to float like a brick.

user8365 · Answer 9 · 2016-05-02 19:34:50Z

You can tell from a lot of the responses that few companies will give you a month off an many managers will hold this against you by labeling you as lazy.

Start looking for another job and tell them you need a month off in-between. Your current employer won't like the short-term stay and you're not going to be able to give them much notice.

With such a short stay, you probably don't even need to mention this job down the road on your resume. Everyone will tell you you're performing some type of career suicide. You have plenty of time to recover from this initial mistake.

Life is short. Take advantage of long trips while you're young because you won't have many other opportunities. Whether you do this or not, you're always going to have to prove yourself at your job. No one is going to keep a bad employee when the only thing they've managed to accomplish is not asking for a one month vacation. A dead man can perform that duty.

bethlakshmi 70.3k4136277 · Answer 10 · 2016-05-02 20:48:51Z

This one is significantly different from country to country and company to company. Trying to do a cross-cultural take on this, my process would be:

General process

1 - Check in on rules for new hires - in some cases, you may be on probation or have a slow accrual of vacation time. Companies anticipate that new hires have a learning curve and that they may need to be extra diligent in their first few months. It can be as high as 6 months to a year in some cases.

2 - Check in on vacation policy for EVERYONE - this is where culture can vary widely by country. In the US, 2 weeks is typical, 3 weeks is long, 1 month is almost unheard of. In Europe, 1 month can be the norm.

3 - Ask your boss - now that you know what the company has written down, ask your boss for his expectations on your role and your work. It may be different, and you should figure out if you have a special case - for better or worse. But don't be too surprised if your boss holds to the company rules. I'd take the tone of asking in an open ended way - "hey, I'm thinking about a big trip, what's your expectation on new employees asking for time off? When's the right time to ask? How long do new people usually take?"

Rule of thumb

As a general rule of thumb, the longer your travel, the earlier you should ask. My rule of thumb (in the US) is - double what you are asking for and ask that much earlier. It's not perfect, but it's decent math. For example:

If you're asking for 1 day, ask 2 days ahead

If you're asking for 2 weeks, give 4 weeks notice

If you're asking for 1 month, give 2 months notice

It errs on the side of caution.

Also - give your boss the big picture. If you want a month, are you planning any other time off that year? How much? In many US settings, a boss will expect that if you take 1 month off, then you will ask for NO OTHER vacation time at all that year. It's wise to see if that's what your boss is thinking.

Acceptable reasons

People are expected to be able to plan ahead for fun & optional stuff. Vacations, special events, even weddings should not be big surprises that suddenly require an outage. And the longer, bigger or more expensive the trip, the more you are expected to be planning ahead. In many cases, I expect that people planning big expensive travel will ask me BEFORE they book the travel - better to figure out anything difficult before the non-refundable plane fare gets booked.

People are NOT expected to have much or any advanced notice for less fun stuff in the world - funerals, serious illnesses, family member crisises - having to drop everything to help family is understood and expected to be an emergency situation. I've been fortunate enough in several companies that my bosses understood when family issues came up in my first 6 months. Keep in mind that a caring office will remember that you had an issue in the family, and will continuously ask you about it in an effort to be nice and helpful - so if you start lying about this stuff, you'll have to be a good liar for a long time.

New Hire Expectations

Many bosses expect their new hires to get big travel plans finished before joining a new job. I've had some cases where the employee had booked travel and hadn't planned on the job offer, in which case the travel items for about 6 months are usually brought up before the first day of work. Usually as soon as the employee accepts the offer, I get an email about the need to take time off with the acceptance.

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Is it possible to ask for time off after having just started working? [duplicate]

marked as duplicate by Dawny33, gnat, Jim G., Chris E, Aaron Hall May 2 '16 at 20:23

marked as duplicate by Dawny33, gnat, Jim G., Chris E, Aaron Hall May 2 '16 at 20:23

marked as duplicate by Dawny33, gnat, Jim G., Chris E, Aaron Hall May 2 '16 at 20:23

marked as duplicate by Dawny33, gnat, Jim G., Chris E, Aaron Hall May 2 '16 at 20:23

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Is it possible to ask for time off after having just started working? [duplicate]

marked as duplicate by Dawny33, gnat, Jim G., Chris E, Aaron Hall May 2 '16 at 20:23

marked as duplicate by Dawny33, gnat, Jim G., Chris E, Aaron Hall May 2 '16 at 20:23

marked as duplicate by Dawny33, gnat, Jim G., Chris E, Aaron Hall May 2 '16 at 20:23

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Rule of thumb

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