It is not appreciated to ask for time off at your new job if you have just come back from few personal days or have just got your big project and you are in the middle of it. When asking for time off it is good to ask courteously and kindly so that you do not appear to your boss as if you are demanding or holding irrational expectations.
It can be tricky to ask for time off at a new job but you will need to be tactful. If your appeal for time off is well organized and thought out, you can moderate the negative impacts. Here are the ways in which you can ask your new boss tactfully for time off.
Tips for Asking for Time Off From Work:
1. Follow your company policy
You should make sure you have gone through the company handbook for your new company’s policy to request time off. Check whether you have to prepare a written appeal to the human resource department of your new company or talk to your direct manager about time off. You must maintain a formal language and keep your appeal concise.
2. Anyways put it in writing
When it comes to time offs, putting your appeal in writing or mailing it to your boss will benefit you and help your boss to keep track of what you asked for and when. This will document your requests and will be formal.
3. Look where you stand
As a new worker learn where you stand with your accomplishments. If your performance is less than expected then it will perhaps not work out for you to ask for time off. You provide your boss with evidence that you are less interested in work and look for further time offs. If you have a good stand with your efficiency shown from the start itself then things might work out fine.
4. Provide adequate notice
A week’s notice before the actual time off would be appropriate for your boss to work around things to compensate for your absence. It is always good to give your boss a heads up so that he or she doesn’t have to struggle with finding someone to take your place to cover your absence in the last moment creating unnecessary hassle to your boss.
5. The right time
The right time to ask for time off will be after three months of your joining in the company. This period is usually acceptable occasion to ask for time off after your obligatory trial of these months.
6. Research before planning time off
Get to know about what is happening in your organization, whether a new project is coming up or some critical meeting is going to be held. Know whether your company is going to be busy, if not sure ask to a relevant person or a fellow colleague to know about it. For instance, your colleagues are likely to feel abandoned and demoralized if you take time off when a significant meeting is approaching and you hold a vital role for it.
7. Make your case undeniable
Perhaps if you have found out about a big project, as a new employee you can propose to volunteer for the project and help in it efficiently. Try to accomplish every work that you have taken into your hands, so that your boss is impressed by you and your case becomes irrefutable when you ask for a time off.
8. Proper approach
It is never good to blurt out unexpectedly about taking time off to your boss. Perhaps you can ask when your weekly appraisal has amazed your boss displaying all that you have achieved for the company. Always make sure you request your boss time off and not just declare to them that you are going to take it.
9. Give a reason
You need to provide a reason to your boss for your time off, only if it is not very personal. The possibility of your boss granting you time off increases when you give a legitimate excuse. You prevent your boss from the thought that you may be trying to get rid of your work responsibilities. If you do not wish to share your reason, you can just state that you are taking a personal day.
10. Learn to negotiate
The one who wins is the person with sufficient information. Thus be the person who knows all details. If you know that your boss expected you for a meeting and you need time off around the same time as the meeting, then let the boss know that you are well acquainted about the policies and have found the solution to your absence. Be spontaneous in negotiating before your boss denies your request.
11. Be flexible
It is always good to have a contingency plan. Show that you are capable of being flexible with your dates. This will make your boss to work things around with you so that you get your time off in a manner that works for you and the company both. Provide your boss with some options of dates and timings for your possible time off. You can even suggest that you will require a particular amount of time and so you can return back to work sooner than stated before.
12. Agree to be available
You can offer to stay in touch for certain assignments or sensitive affairs while you are away from the office. As you are new in the job, it is best to negotiate for your time off in this manner. You perhaps can check in regularly to provide immediate attention, if something calls for it.
13. Prepare for concerns
You might not want to give details about your reason for time off, however you need to answer your boss’s counter questions. When you decide upon a reason, find out the possible concerns the boss will come up with and subsequently prepare answers for those. It is beneficial to do so, so that you are not caught up being suspected for being entitled, when you present your reason.
14. Wrap all that is on your plate
It is your new job and you do not want people to think that you leave work half way and enjoy time off. Complete all tasks and assignments allotted to you and update your boss on what you have completed so that he or she knows you are not leaving hanging things around. You need to remember that you have to be in the company for the long run so organize things well.
15. Follow boss’s policy
Company policy is not enough to be followed. You have to see whether your immediate boss has a policy. Understand what his or her needs are. Perhaps they will be fine with just the notification beforehand, while some may need a reminder on their calendar. Just ensure that their needs are fulfilled by you.
16. Sending a reminder
When you get verbal approval, you need to document it on your calendar. Send your boss a reminder two or three days prior to the actual time off. This helps in ensuring that your time off is still acknowledged and that you are intensely working to set everything prior to leaving.
17. Convey your gratitude
You need to show your gratitude to your boss formally in person or in writing. To prevent your boss from having a perception about you that you may be at liberty or spoilt, it is important to say thankyou. With your new job, it is essential that you remain in the good books of your boss.
18. Ask, if you want it
If you are trying to reach your boss yet and still crawling back, it is time to do it or never get it. Perhaps your boss is a superior to you and has a lot on his plate; however they are as human as you and understand it can be very nerve wracking to ask for time off. Perhaps once you ask, you will discover how easily it all went through and you got what you wished for.
19. No adverse impacts on your prospects
It is surely tough to ask time off at a new job, and so you might assume that if you pop the question you will be taken as someone incompetent and will lose the job. However, the boss has perceived many things in you which got him impressed and he hired you, so the worst that could come out of appealing for a time off is you will get a no. Most of the times, bosses take such requests into consideration and work around things for benefit of you and the company.
Finally :
When you plan on taking time off make sure you take the initiative to cover your responsibilities. Do not depend on your boss that they will handle everything for you especially in your new job. Execute the above steps well because it will be the reflection of you, if your work is a mess while you are in time off that is what will be remembered of you.
