how far in advance can you request time off?

by Alison Green on January 28, 2014

A reader writes:

I know it’s awkward to request time off too late (since it may be hard to find cover, etc). But what’s the etiquette about making leave bookings ages in advance (like a year in advance)?

I like booking as far ahead as possible (to get the best deals on flights, miles, etc.), and I am wondering if this puts managers in a difficult position (i.e. no reason to say “no” to the leave, but would they rather work to a 3-month forecast when they know what projects are coming up)?

What’s your opinion on this – or is it highly specific to the workplace involved? Sometimes surprise is expressed when I book leave a year ahead (jokingly – as in “woah – any plans for 2016 while we’re at it?” or something), but I’ve never been asked not to do it and it’s always been approved. Would appreciate your guidance!

To some extent, I think this is dependent on individual workplaces. In some, it wouldn’t get a second thought, and in others you might get told that it’s impossible to approve it with confidence that far ahead.

But generally, I’d say this is fine to do. In the majority of cases, it’s going to be a non-issue. If anything, many managers will appreciate that you’re being so organized and planning-oriented.

There are some circumstances I can think of where I, as your manager, might need to say something like, “You know, that’s generally a busy time for us and it’s hard to predict this far out whether it’s going to end up being an easy time to be away” — but then we could talk about it and figure it out. A reasonable manager isn’t going to be judging you for making the request; they’ll just tell you if it’s a problem.

In fact, with everything of this sort, if you’re in doubt, the best thing to do is just ask your manager. In this case, you could say just, “Hey, I usually like to plan out my time off pretty far in advance so that I can get good deals on tickets, etc. Does it cause any problems on your end if I do that?”

You may also like:
{ 78 comments }

{ 78 comments… read them below }

  1. [anon]*

    When I’ve done that I usually have had my bosses just say, “Remind me in [month three months before my travel].” But those have been places where I got on well with my managers and any mandatory business-needs, can’t-take-vacation times were routine, predictable, and well-known.

  2. Brett*

    Our practice: We are required to book our vacation weeks in December of the previous year (on a seniority basis). Once the vacation weeks are all scheduled, then individual vacation days can be requested.
    Once the year starts, you technically cannot request any whole week off that you did not request off in December, and the number of employees who can request a week off depends on unit size (for our unit, no more than one employee can request any given week off). In practice, we let employees request off entire weeks as individual PTO days once the vacation schedule is done in December, but not before that.

    1. annie*

      I am curious, how does this work in practice? I find that I rarely know in December when I’ll be taking a vacation the following year, so I’d struggle in this situation. For example, in December you might not yet have gotten invited to a summertime family reunion, or planned Grandma’s 90th birthday party, or decided to get married in the fall. Plus, since we’re a small company, I try to take vacation during slow periods where it will be easier on the rest of the team, and that often changes based on things like projects assigned or client needs, so I may not know in December if my May is going to be super busy or dead. I guess I’d adapt if I had to, but this seems unnecessarily bureaucratic to me.

    2. FRRibs*

      Sounds like what we do, except that historically it has lead to old timers with six weeks vacation taking up every choice holiday and working short weeks, while supplemental workers are stuck squeezing in a day here or there. I worked here six or seven years before I got a Thanksgiving off.

      1. Brett*

        Same situation here. Holiday weeks are always gone after the first 2-3 people fill in all their weeks. But you can still often get most of a holiday week with vacation days.

  3. bad at online naming*

    I have done exactly this. “Hey [boss], my friend’s wedding is [over a year away] and [far away], and I’d love to take an entire week or two off around then to travel as well. Of course I’ll check in with everyone a bit closer to the date.”

    Totally fine in my workplace, but I can see how others might want a bit less warning.

  4. CollegeAdmin*

    I’d like to ask a follow-up question – generally, how far in advance do people ask for time off? (And is there a difference in doing so for vacation time versus a personal day? I still don’t understand exactly what the difference is.)

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      It depends on the job and the workplace. And seniority. If you’re pretty senior, I have no problem with you saying to me, “I’m going to take tomorrow off” because I trust you to manage your own workload. On the other hand, if you have a job where I need someone to fill in for you or make other arrangements while you’re gone, I expect more notice. Just varies.

      1. John*

        Add to that — if you are requesting it on short notice, proactively explain why it shouldn’t be an issue. (“I’m ahead on all my projects, my main client will be out of pocket and Smith will be back from vacation to cover in the unlikely event that something comes up.”) That shows that you are not just thinking about your own needs.

        1. Katie the Fed*

          I called in once for a mental health day and was totally honest about it. We had been working a crisis for months and I had been doing weekends and holidays and I was just exhausted. I woke up one morning and just needed a day off, so I called and said exactly that. “I really, really need a day off today and my projects are complete, so-and-so can handle it if X comes up. If you really need me, I’ll come in, but I just need a break today.”

          I prefer to be honest than pretending I’m sick. But you do have to know your office culture well.

    2. Yup*

      Check your employee manual for a description of vacation vs personal. My experience in past jobs is that personal days are a category for emergency short-notice things, just to give employees a nice extra buffer so that the occasional snow day etc doesn’t eat into your true vacation days. But different places have different definitions of what they’re for, and maybe different procedures for how each should be requested.

      In general, I request the big blocks of vacation time (like a week at the beach) as soon as I know about them, usually a few months in advance. I usually request the odd day off or long weekend a week or two in advance, which is considered plenty of notice in my office. The only restrictions are around time off in the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s stretch, which my boss won’t officially approve before a certain point in the year so that he can treat everyone’s requests fairly and with an eye on the current workload at that time. YMMV.

    3. HR lady*

      One aspect is the amount of time you need to take off. If it’s short, then shorter notice seems more acceptable. If you need to take off a longer period of time (maybe 3 days or more) then more notice is needed.

      So I might ask you tomorrow if I could take next Monday off (about 3 business days notice). But I wouldn’t ask you tomorrow if I could take next week off.

      On the other hand, if I know 4 weeks in advance that I’ll need one day off, I’ll probably go ahead and ask for it now. So it’s not like I’d delay asking for the time off just because it’s a month ahead of time.

    4. Wilton Businessman*

      It depends. I let my manager know 14 months in advance that I was taking two weeks for a second honeymoon. That’s the only two week vacation I’ve taken in 13 years.

      Otherwise, at the beginning of the year he and I sync our vacation calendars and that’s all the notice either one of us needs.

      Day here and there I let him know as soon as I know.

    5. Paper*

      The rule of thumb my office works to is double the amount of time you want off. So, if I were to take this Friday off, I’d need to tell my boss today, two days in advance. If I want two weeks off, I need to let him know a month in advance. Of course, those are (reasonably flexible) minimums – I gave a year’s notice when I was booking my honeymoon, because I had that information and there was no reason not to share it. But there’s no need for cover in my role, beyond a “if there’s a crisis, email X” in my out-of-office

  5. majigail*

    As a manager, my only problem with this is the one person that routinely asks off two weeks at the holidays long before anyone else. It keeps everyone else from having an opportunity to take time off during that time. This year, I gave the rest of the staff two weeks in September to request chunks of time off during the holidays and determined who could have how much time off then. I prioritized people’s request by number of days (i.e. if you wanted just one day off, I was going to make that happen, two days, etc moving up to the two week request.) In the end, I was able to grant everyone’s requests, but everyone seemed a lot happier because no one was “stuck.”
    That all said, I wouldn’t bat an eye if someone asked for a week off in October 2014 today.

    1. CAA*

      I do something similar. Any time from the Monday before Christmas to the Friday after New Year can be entered in our system, but I won’t approve it until September 30. On September 1, I send out an email telling people they need to get their PTO requests for the December holidays in by the end of the month. If someone has an exceptional situation that requires them to firm up their plans earlier, they can discuss it with me and I’ll make exceptions as needed.

      Other than that, I do appreciate a heads-up for unusually long or inflexible requests as soon as they’re known, like an employee going home to India for four weeks or someone getting married on May 15 and wanting to take a honeymoon immediately following.

    2. Adam V*

      That’s my only real caveat to asking for time off that far in advance. If you’re asking so that you get priority when everyone else is going to want time too, that’s not going to engender good feelings among the rest of the team (even if you’re the most senior person there).

      However, I like to take a vacation around my anniversary, which isn’t near any major holidays, and it’s never been a problem since it’s just a normal week for everyone else.

  6. Elizabeth West*

    The most I’ve ever asked for time off in advance was three months, and it was usually around holidays when ex-bf and I were planning a visit (we were long-distance). My old boss did make one exasperated remark about how it always seemed to fall at month end, but I couldn’t do much to help him at that time anyway (accounting), and I always made sure I was caught up completely before going anywhere.

    For an upcoming nerd convention at the end of February, I’ve reserved a month ahead to get a room (suite! To myself! I deserve it after everything I’ve been through! :P), but I’m only going to be gone for one day and can easily finish all my stuff before then. Plus it’s only 30 miles away. There’s another one in VA at the end of June that I want to go to, but that’s our FY end and NOBODY will be here. They’ll all be using up their PTO that doesn’t roll over. My current boss likes to assume we can manage our own time, because grown-ups.

    2. EE*

      Hello fellow accounting convention nerd!

      I’ve just started a job and really want to take the last week of May and first week of June off (I’m in Australia so 4 weeks PTO a year is the norm). A little scared about what my manager will say about it being month-end.

      Year-end is 30 June though so I figure I can pull sad-eyes about needing a pre-audit break. Fingers crossed! I’ve decided not to ask until I’ve been through my first month-end process, so a couple of weeks from now.

  7. Katie the Fed*

    as a manager, it doesn’t matter unless it’s for the holidays. Then I try to be as equitable as possible, so it’s not going to be first-come-first-served for requesting leave between Christmas and New Years, as well as Thanksgiving week.

    But otherwise, I don’t really care if it’s two more vs. a year in advance.

    1. Katie the Fed*

      argh, that’s “two months vs a year”

      I’ve got to stop typing while distracted.

      I just realized I’ve already requested leave for my honeymoon in October. :)

  8. MaryMary*

    I think the only problem with requesting time off far in advance is not knowing what the personnel or work situation is going to be. At my last job, I had ten managers in ten years (not necessarily one per year, there were a few who I reported to for a couple of years, and one year I went through four different managers). If I requested PTO a year or more in advance, there was a good chance whoever approved it wouldn’t be managing me by the time I went on vacation.

    1. RobM*

      To a large degree, I don’t see how this matters. If the employer / manager knows for a year in advance that you will not be available in the second half of August and Fred, is taking the middle of September off then that can be entered into the project planner or team diary or whatever you use, and resources allocated accordingly.

      This schedule planner shouldn’t evaporate or become suspect because your current manager wins the lottery in May and a new one takes over.

      1. MaryMary*

        In theory, you’re right. But my ten managers in ten years experience was at a Fortune 500 company, and there was no centralized system to track planned PTO. If you had a good manager, they’d make sure the new manager knew you had approved PTO coming up. Otherwise, you were on your own to tell the new manager you had a preplanned (and preapproved) vacation coming up, and you had to hope they wouldn’t have a problem with it.

    2. EvilQueenRegina*

      The other side of the personnel issue is around who might be there to cover for you – you might request a week off months in advance at which time Bob is the person who would cover, and he might say it’s fine, but then in the meantime he might leave and be replaced by Jane, and Jane could then say “Well, I’m going away that week myself and booked it long since” so then there could be a problem.

      1. RobM*

        But, unless you’re an absolutely key worker, without whom everyone else might as well just go home and spend the week praying for your safe return, I would say that its not the end of the world if you’re away for a week and so is the one person that can cover for you.

        And if it *is* that much of a problem then I would suggest that it’s the employer’s problem. It’s quite possible that you could go away Saturday morning to a place where you cannot be contacted; safe and secure in Jane being present, willing ready and able to cover for you.

        Jane, being lucky that is is my tortured analogy and I prefer happy things like winning the lottery to sad things like being hit by buses, wins $100 mil on a lottery and simply doesn’t care about work any more and certainly doesn’t show up.

        What does the firm do then? If one role _really_ is that important then you need more than one person able to cover for it.

  9. Milos*

    I haven’t had to deal with requests more that a couple of months in advance, but I can’t imagine anything 6-12 months away being a serious issue either (unless the manager leaves the company before scheduled vacation).

    Advanced notices provides for more than enough planing and if a company is depending solely on one individual they are most likely doing something wrong anyway.

  10. NylaW*

    I’ve never asked more than a year in advance. I think the most advance notice my boss had of any vacation time was my honeymoon which was about a year ahead of time once we confirmed all the dates for the wedding. The next was my FMLA for the birth of my daughter and even that changed last minute because you can’t schedule babies. :)

    I don’t see anything wrong with asking a year in advance or more if it’s something that takes a lot of planning, plane tickets, booking tours, etc. but it really is workplace specific and even boss specific. Look at your employee handbook or ask for a copy of the company vacation policies because you might be surprised by what’s in them and what restrictions there could be.

  11. Sam*

    I gave my boss 13 months notice for my vacation time, but i’m taking a month off. She approved it, and it’s giving us time to plan who will take over my duties in that time

        2. Katie the Fed*

          Oh that is awesome! My fiance did something similar a couple years ago. I’ve wanted to but I can’t get away for more than 2 weeks. Be good to that awesome manager of yours :)

  12. Cube Ninja*

    My general rule with my staff is that I prefer not to see vacation requests any less than 1 week in advance or any more than 90 days out. The 90-days rule prevents folks from putting in requests for Thanksgiving/Christmas days on January 2nd (it’s been a problem in the past) while still allowing for a good bit of advance notice.

    If someone were to approach me and say “Hey, I have coming in December” or “I have the opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream of visiting the chocolate teapot mines of Singapore” or something similar where there’s a firm plan, I’ll definitely consider approving it outside of my usual 90-day window.

    On a semi-unrelated note (for US employers), sometimes just following the law is stupid. I had someone resign because we as a company wouldn’t approve a 6 week leave for him to fly to east Asia to help care for a dying cousin. FMLA only applies to immediate family and we have the ridiculous “but then we’d have to make an exception for everone” mentality. He’d been with the company over seven years, was a model employee and had 3 weeks of PTO banked at the point he asked.

    1. Cube Ninja*

      WordPress was hungry and ate a word. “Hey, I have (family event) coming in December” is how that should read.

    2. The gold digger*

      “but then we’d have to make an exception for everone” mentality.

      I think I mentioned my co-worker whose son was murdered. Another employee, who had already submitted her resignation, wanted to give her unused PTO (they won’t pay it out) to the grieving mother. Current employees were donating PTO, so it’s not unheard of. HR refused. So petty.

    3. KellyK*

      The answer to that is, “No, you wouldn’t. That’s why it’s called an *exception.*”

      And really, seriously, if someone else had something that major come up, you would *want* to accommodate it, if you were any sort of decent person. (If you can’t spare them, then you can’t spare them, but saying “no” just because you’re not legally obligated is amazingly jerkish.)

  13. Mena*

    I think early notice is always appreciated and for the most part it gets your ‘claim’ on the calendar. However business needs may change over time, and although you’ve already submitted your request, there may be an occasion when as the time nears, it just isn’t possible (e.g. a change in company hours or days open, a shift in customer demand, etc.).

    But for my team, the earlier the better and it goes on the calendar.

    1. Anonymous*

      This kind of bothers me and would make me feel like I wasn’t welcome to take vacation.

      Well sure you can book and expensive cruise/trip/something where nonrefundable tickets happen, but I might change my mind at the last minute because I want to and our business isn’t robust enough to handle the demands of someone being gone. If my boss told me when I submitted a leave request that he might revoke it as the time nears? I would look for a new job because that’s a pretty clear indication that he doesn’t really want me taking vacation.

      1. KellyK*

        Yeah, I agree with this. Barring an actual emergency, if you get vacation time approved, your company should honor that.

        It’s reasonable for your boss to say, “That should be okay, but I can’t make any promises until X months out.” But that should actually be stated.

  14. doreen*

    It really does depend. There are two reasons I generally won’t approve leave 6-12 months in advance. One reason is the multiple people who have on Jan 2 handed me a request for every day they want off up to an including December 31. The other reason is that the chances are good that one of us will be transferred within 6 months -we have multiple offices doing the same work in different geographic areas, and there are constant transfers because a position opens up closer to home or because the workload shifts between regions causing staffing shifts. I’d probably make an exception for something like a honeymoon immediately after a wedding or anything similarly inflexible but I usually don’t want requests more than three months in advance.

    How far ahead do I need to know? If someone asks me today to take off tomorrow that’s fine – as long as they recognize that I might not be able to approve it depending on coverage.

  15. MK*

    The problem with requesting time off so early in advance is that, well, things change. If I had asked my boss for time off in May six months ago, she would probably have granted it, not reason not to. But last month we found out that it would be impossible for me to be absent at that time, for reasons completely beyond anyone’s control (municipal elections). Booking things too early can be great for getting great deals, but one runs a higher than ordinary risk of having their plans cancelled unexpectedly.

  16. Dan*

    I have to be honest, in my professional career, we don’t have coverage requirements (except for the receptionist, but I digress…) so the whole office blows town for the winter holidays. Since I prefer to do other things with my PTO, I’m actually one of the few who goes into the office.

    So what do I with my PTO? I do a lot of foreign travel on miles and points, and I’ll book that stuff many months in advance. Since most airline schedules don’t get published more than 330 days in advance, there’s no point in asking more than 11 months out.

    Because I do plan that far in advance (and it’s not the norm for my office) it started to become a bit of a joke between my boss and a VP that I did work for.

    I have a new job, and one thing that slightly annoys me is the maximum PTO bank. At Old Job, they just looked at your balance on Dec 31 and made the reductions then. At new job, the maximum bank applies at any given point in time. So you can’t roll over a bunch of a vacation from a previous year, save for the whole year, and blow a bunch at the end.

    1. EE*

      I recently moved to Australia where I discovered it’s against the law to restrict rollover! One effect of this is (note: accounting nerdery time) you have to record a provision for annual leave in the financial statements because it’s possible some workaholic will quit and you’ll have to pay them 3 months of banked leave. In the jurisdictions I’ve audited before salary is just salary, regardless of whether you’re in the office or on leave.

      1. Audrey*

        I’m not sure about this. I’m in Australia, and work for a university where you are not allowed to accrue more than 40 days of annual leave (two years’ worth). Anyone with a balance greater than 40 days on 1 February is forced to be on leave until the balance is under 40 days. One workaholic colleague spends nearly every February on leave.

        I think employers here are obliged to pay out the balance when someone resigns.

        1. EE*

          Sounds like my coworker must have been mistaken. In which case I’m still in the dark as to why Aussie accounting is different, since paying out banked leave is standard in Europe.

          1. Audrey*

            I think the 40 day limit may be part of the enterprise bargain between the university and the union. I do believe there were some instances when an academic member of staff resigned, and claimed that he or she had taken no leave during their X years at the university, so therefore they were owed Xx4 weeks pay, where X is a double-digit number. So now all staff have to record their leave and keep the balance down.

            But it makes perfect sense to have a provision for annual leave, since it is a liability that must be paid one way or another.

  17. S*

    I have the opposite “problem” with my manager – he handed me a post-it with his planned vacation weeks for the year today and told me to plan my years’ worth of PTO (30 days – yeah, we’re lucky!) asap.

    I dislike planning my time off that far ahead, as I don’t make any real vacation plans anyway and I’d rather save my PTO up to take it when I really need it instead of when I have to just because it comes up on the calendar, but it doesn’t roll over… And so I ended up with 20 days left in late October last year, which gave me a long holiday break as well as a few nice four day weekends in November – he was understandably not pleased. But in my defense, because I don’t book big vacations, I don’t mind it when my time off gets pushed back due to unforeseeable business needs – which also happened several times last year. Add to that that the law suggests that employees “should” take two consecutive weeks, and scheduling time off can become quite difficult.

    We’re still working this out… :)

  18. B*

    My spouse works a job that requires way advanced requests and then sits on them, without approving, until hectored and hectored near the day itself. Whole bunch of fun, and expensive, too, since we end up planning last minute flights. Best example: requested 2 days off 6 weeks in advance. Found out Tuesday of the week that it was OK to take Th and Fr off. We were flying hundreds of miles away.

    What explains that?

    2. Adam V*

      > What explains that?

      Disorganization and a lack of understanding that it’s causing problems for you.

      1. KellyK*

        Or a lack of *caring* what problems it causes. It should be pretty obvious that if you don’t get back to people regarding leave requests that it screws up planning.

  19. Jules*

    It would be best to look at the company’s culture.

    My husband and I are from different continents and thus we usually travel every year or every other year to visit family since we were married. Since it’s a built in this, I usually tell all future supervisor. While it made job search hard but at least no one is suprised.

    Also, it helped that I usually have super insane busy season so I try to schedule things on the low season. This year though, *shakes fist at project* my vacation might be smack dab in the middle of deployment. I was considering re-scheduling my flights but the bosses are discouraging that since it would cost a lot of money.

    Oh, and before booking those flights, I checked with my boss if those dates are ok.

  20. Chocolate Teapot*

    I try and give advanced notice of holiday plans, but sometimes things crop up at the last minute which are unforeseen. (Family issues, special offers on flights, concerts etc.)

  21. ScaredyCat*

    At my current company, I’ve seen people request time off, as far as 6 months in advance. And no one bats an eyelash.

    At my past company, there was a policy of always having at least 30% of the team available. So if you wanted off you had to discuss it with the rest of the team, to make sure the availability was covered. Otherwise, it was in your best interest so that you won’t have something unexpected sprung on you… most of the time.

  22. Purr purr purr*

    Slightly unrelated to the OP’s question but I had a former colleague who used to do this (I try and do it with the holidays I book too) but the only problem is her advance bookings were always for the Christmas period. The nature of our rotational work means that some field staff have to work over the Christmas period and a handful of people are required to be in the office as ‘support’ (although office staff are excused from working Christmas day and boxing day). The field and office staff are both taken from our department. The problem with this colleague is that she’d always get Christmas off because she’d booked it so far in advance. When the rest of us would try to book Christmas closer to the time, we were told that we’d have to wait while our boss looked at staffing requirements and who had worked Christmas in the previous 4-5 years. The general rule was if you had Christmas off one year, you were fair game to work it the next. In practise, it meant working Christmas once every two or three years depending on staffing and experience levels. In the 5 years I was at that company, she never worked a single Christmas!

    2. Adam V*

      Yeah, that’s crap. Management should have sat down with her and told her “look, you’ve had Christmas off for the last couple of years, so we’re going to let the other coworkers have a chance to take it off this year while you work. We’re sorry, but we need to be fair.” Plus, having her submit her request that far in advance means you’re having this conversation early enough that she can make other plans.

  23. Mary*

    It is a conundrum. To avail of low fares you need to book way in advance but cannot book until the holidays are approved by the manager. However if you are the only one in your department doing that then you become the holiday hog and no-one likes you when you have the best times taken off.

    Our company usually begins approving leave for a year in Jan but need agreement of co-workers in the dept as well as managerial approval. A good discussion in Jan & Feb usually shows up conflicts and people work hard to make it work.

    Not approving leave until 2/4 weeks before a big vacation is really stressful for the employee as they may need to make bookings and prices can go up steeply.

    So if you dept colleagues are happy for the advance warning and there are no potential conflicts then a manager should approve immediately to keep the employee happy.

    And write it down so you don’t forget. I saw a manager once totally forget about 2 weeks leave he had approved months in advance and it was not pretty. Many people who have vacation days booked never talk about their plans at work so I thought it understandable the employee never brought it up in general discussion.

    1. EvilQueenRegina*

      I remember once at a former job our manager rang one employee at home thinking he’d just no-showed – the employee’s nephew answered saying “We’ve all been at So and so’s funeral today.” One of our other managers had known about it but he was out himself that day and hadn’t recorded it anywhere. That wasn’t pretty either.

  24. Graciosa*

    I’ve never had a problem with a boss, but I have made extra effort to tell clients about vacation plans very far in advance. There seems to be a trend toward having people “just check email” while on vacation – or “just dial in to this important meeting” or “just answer a few questions about this critical project.” My vacation is meant to be my time off, and I’m not relaxing if I’m checking my email every day.

    I start telling my clients early and often when I will be out “because I want to make sure everything is taken care of before I leave since I won’t be available and you won’t be able to reach me.” My vacations have become much more enjoyable since I started doing this, and long notice periods prevent anyone from complaining too much – they had plenty of time to plan.

  25. LP*

    I just started at a temp job and don’t know whether or not I’ll be hired in a month, so I just sent my manager an email saying “I have a yearly vacation planned in April, how soon would you like to know the dates?” That way I wasn’t asking whether or not she would hire me, just if she’d like to know and when.

    My vacations are usually the same times every year, and I like to give my temp jobs a heads up if it’s going to interfere with my hire/not hire date. So far it hasn’t affected it.

  26. EvilQueenRegina*

    The only time I’ve ever planned very far in advance (booked at about this time of year for a December wedding) was to attend a cousin’s wedding which was on a Sunday and far enough away that I needed to stay overnight and spend all the Monday travelling home. Most of the time I try and do it a few weeks in advance.

  27. EMIL NYANKENE*

    I have been in the usa for six years now and i need four weeks to visit Africa my mother land next year March 2015 but i want to request four weeks in advance.Can you please show me the suitable way to write it and to convince my boss to grant me all the four weeks.Thank you very much.

  28. MemoryAlpha*

    A zombie thread revival, but I didn’t see our method mentioned. My guidelines to the staff are that generally vacation requests cannot be made more than 6 months in advance. There are exceptions to this:
    1. A wedding;
    2. A BIG vacation like a cruise to Antarctica or an African safari;
    3. The graduation of your child or grandchild (2nd cousins, twice removed don’t count; also, your niece’s preschool doesn’t count).
    If these apply to their request they let me know. Christmas opens after June 25th, Spring vacation of next year is available six months before (generally September). Because some people wanted every Christmas week off I instituted a Holiday Rotation. Vacation requests filed for the week including Thanksgiving, the weeks including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and weeks that include our local school systems’ spring break are granted on a rotating basis.
    For example, you cannot take Thanksgiving week this year if you took this week last year, unless there are no requests 2 weeks prior. If you took these dates in last year you are eligible to request these dates the next year. The intention is to provide equitable access to holiday time off. No employee are granted more than 1 of the holiday weeks in a single year, unless there are no other interested employees and we are able to grant the request based on operational needs. Holidays are independent of one another from year to year. You can ask for both Thanksgiving one year and Spring Break the next year.

  29. Huynh*

    How many days advances noted if you need one day PTO? 3 days? 7 days business. My work place require 7 days business for one day vacation. Is this apply to anyone of you here? please advise this problem I do have right now. Thank you.

Comments are closed.