To take your first week as holiday

[JTBB33]

to accept a job offer and then have a holiday in your first week. It was an internal job offer with a significant pay rise. I’ve made lots of plans for their first week, only to just be told their current manager has approved that first week off?
now I have to rearrange all the meetings and plans.
am I being unreasonable to be miffed about this?

Yes you have read it incorrectly. OP agreed a start date after much discussion, and the holiday was booked subsequently (and agreed by the current manager without her knowledge).

I'm shocked that the majority are saying that YABU. This person agreed a start date with you and then applied to their old manager to approve holiday that is after that start date and therefore after the date that they cease to be managed by that person. Plus, you asked them if they had any holiday booked and presumably they said 'No', because this holiday has only just been approved?

I think it's really bad - particularly of the previous manager who should have referred them to you, not approved it. A massive and inappropriate overstep by previous manager.

I'm shocked that the majority are saying that YABU.

Most of those saying YABU, are assuming this holiday was booked in advance.

The OP didn't make it clear that the leave had been booked and approved after the new job had been offered and the start date had been agreed.

You should’ve mentioned this in your OP! I’ve just had to change my vote! Yes, it should’ve been cleared with you, not their old manager.

@JTBB33 your update changes everything.

Given they now fall under 'your team' in those leave dates and the leave was requested AFTER they accepted the job, you could 100% refuse the leave if you so wished. Bloody cheeky of them - they did it deliberately knowing that it would put you in an awkward situation in terms of refusing and knowing you probably would have said no if they had asked directly - and it would change my entire view of them as an employee.

Talk about getting off on the wrong foot.

Yes, given your updates, it's all a bit sneaky. YANBU. They should have come to you, when arranging holidays after being offered the job. Your OP doesn't give the full picture and will affect the poll.

I’d probably just have a long look at myself in the mirror and think stop being a bitch, there’s more to life than this- you can rearrange the meetings- don’t make the new employee feel uncomfortable- what a shitty thing to do. Grow up . It’s a job not the world

This is bad then. So they interviewed with you, agreed a start date then afterwards got approval from soon to be ex manager for a holiday on your time?

I'd go and speak to HR about this. I don't think they should be getting paid on their new salary and someone (you or HR or ideally both) needs to speak to them about how this was approached.

And get HR to change the date of change of departments. Make this holiday come out of the other manager's budget!

Yes. All in the diary

I’m not being a bitch 😂 I just couldn’t imagine doing it myself! I wondered if perhaps I was just over consciousness?

Terrible advice.

I think you're right to be annoyed because the leave was approved after the offer - your new staff member should have checked with you, even though his/her current would have had to formally approve it.

Pretty stupid thing to do, I'd worry about their judgement and professionalism. Hopefully there's a probation period.

Did you invite your new person to all the meetings and had they accepted them? How did they tell you about their leave?

What budget do you think this comes out of?

I’m afraid this would make me wonder if I’d made a mistake hiring this person.

yeah a bit rude and cheeky of both the employee and the manager. In my work until the employee actually switches over the new manager can't authorise leave on the system so the old one would still have to physically approve it. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that's why they've done it - just thinking 'I want this leave off and old manager is the only person who can put it through on the system,' rather than being deliberately cheeky - but they should have checked with you.

on the other hand it could work out better for you overall. Clearly they had quite a bit of leave to use up and it's normal to want to use it over the summer - at least now they can come to you with a fresh start and get stuck in rather than doing a week or two then going on leave, then back again.

Yabu, the main issue is this should have been communicated better and you are fair to be annoyed about that

YANBU except for the drip feed.

Ridiculous - the start date should have been pushed back. I've just had to rearrange 2 days of induction for a bereavement (funeral), which is completely understandable but still time consuming. I'd be really annoyed for a holiday no-one bothered to mention before.

Sorry, not particularly hot on MN etiquette. I had presumed that it would be an assumption from the original post that the holiday came after the agreement. Obvs would never be annoyed about someone having leave! Anyway, I moved everything around in less that an hour, so it’s no biggy!

I don’t know why people read it any other way? It was clear to me that it had been approved post agreed start date due to the fact op had already arranged first weeks training etc

no YANBU op, I think that’s really poor tbh and I’d be super unimpressed if I was you, both by the previous manager and the employee!
If new employees had come to you and explained something had come up, could they possibly take AL and push start date back a week then fair enough, but the way this has been done would really pee me off!

I think it's normal to honour annual leave that's already booked in tbh.

They probably thought it was good to take leave before starting rather than during induction phase. Shame it wasn't mentioned to you, but like you say the inconvenience was minor to you.

You’re the one in the wrong here, if you were concerned about when they had holidays you should’ve asked. Most places will ask and if going for an external interview, I would normally tell somebody I had a holiday booked, but internally I might be more inclined to assume they already knew.

Was the start date well known in advance? Did they know they were expected to start the new role on this date? Or was this just decided after the job offer got made? It’s the six week holidays and it’s August. Most people will be wanting time off over the summer.