31 Examples of Leave

John Spacey, July 15, 2022

Leave is authorized time off work. This can be an entitlement under the law or a contract. Alternatively, leave may be authorized by the policies and processes of a firm. Authorization for leave is often tied to an approval process. In some cases, leave is generated by business disruptions such as a disaster or political instability that shutdowns a business or location. The following are common examples of leave.

Administrative Leave	Adverse Weather Leave (e.g. a snow day)
Bereavement Leave	Business Disruptions (e.g. an office is inaccessible due to protests)
Casual Leave	Disability Leave
Disaster Recovery Shutdowns	Education / Study Leave
Emergency Leave	Family Leave
Flex Leave	Garden / Gardening Leave
Government Shutdowns	Jury Duty
Leave of Absence	Maternity Leave / Parental Leave
Medical Leave	Military Leave
Miscellaneous Leave	Political / Voting Leave
Public Holidays	Religious Holiday / Observance Leave
Sabbaticals	Sick Days
Time Off As An Award / Gift	Time Off in Lieu (TOIL)
Unlimited Paid Time Off	Unpaid Leave
Vacation	Volunteering Leave
Worker Injury / Workers Compensation Leave

Administrative leave is a catch-all term for non-standard leave such as leave during an investigation into misconduct.

Casual leave implies that an employee has a fixed set of days to cover things like vacation and personal / family emergencies.

Flex leave refers to flexible policies such as the ability to take half-days off for an extended period of time.

A gardening leave is when an employee has resigned or been let go but is kept on the payroll for a period of time to prevent them from working for a competitor.

Unlimited paid time off typically denotes a firm that measures employees by performance alone such that they are free to work hours as they see fit. In some cases, such firms are demanding such that the employee may have little time off when considering the expected levels of performance.

Leave can be paid, unpaid or partially paid.