Sending a leave request email is a modern, formal way of asking for a few days off work for a specific reason. Employees receive a certain number of sick and vacation leaves each year depending on the policies of the company. Before sending your leave application email, familiarize yourself with your company’s leave policies. This ensures that you make the request correctly.
Leave Request Emails
Why should you send a leave request email
A leave request email is an official electronic document which informs your superiors and employers that you plan to take a break from work for a specific period of time. You must have a legitimate reason for taking leave if you want your employers to approve your request.
Whether you plan to write a personal or sick leave email, it’s important to have the request in writing. Here are the main reasons why you would send this email:
For the purpose of documentation
If you don’t want to get into any trouble, you must have your leave application email an all the corresponding replies to it documented. Doing this preserves your rights and the rights of your company in case any conflict or disagreement arises. In such a case, you can show the emails as proof that you got the approval before you went on leave.
For your company’s approval procedures
Most companies have their own approval procedures for leaves. Check whether you must send a printed copy or a leave request email would suffice. That way, you won’t break any company rules.
Leave Application Emails
Reasons for writing a leave request email
There are different reasons why employees take leave. When you try to check samples of these letters, you may see sick day email samples, personal day email samples, and more. The reason you indicate in your email could be:
- Annual leave: This is the most common reason employers see on leave request emails. Most employees receive a certain number of days each year which they can take separately or all at the same time.
- Vacation or holiday leave: For most companies, this is the same as the annual leave. But for those who hold high positions, they may have a separate vacation or holiday leaves.
- Sick leave: Send a sick leave email if you can’t come to work because of an illness or injury. Depending on the policies of your company, you may have to provide additional documentation for this type of leave.
- Unpaid leave: Although you may still get an approval for this type of leave, you won’t get paid for it. Most people use this type of leave if they’ve already used up all of their annual leaves.
- Emergency leave: This is also known as a short notice leave and you can use it in case of emergencies.
- Leave of absence: For this type of leave, you would step away from your duties and responsibilities but you would still be an employee of the company. Getting approved for this type of leave depends on your reason.
- Education leave: This is a special kind of leave wherein the company allows its employees to take time off work for educational purposes like to attend seminars, courses, and the like.
- Maternity leave: Women receive this type of leave before and after they deliver their baby. Most of the time, they also receive compensation while on leave.
- Compensatory leave: Employees who work excess days or hours may receive this type of leave.
- Compassionate leave: This type of leave goes to employees who have experienced an unfortunate event in their life like personal crisis or death.
Vacation Request Emails
Tips for creating your leave request email
A lot of employees may feel some level of apprehension when requesting for leave. But this shouldn’t be the case because employees earn those leaves, especially if they’ve been with the company for a significant period of time already.
As long as you compose a professional leave request email and you have a legitimate reason, your employer won’t have a reason to deny your request. To help you create a great leave application email, here are some tips:
Use a polite and pleasant tone
If you want to make a good impression, this is the first step. Composing your email this way makes it a good read which, in turn, increases the chance of your request getting approved.
Provide your reason
No personal or sick day email sample would be complete without a reason. You can’t request for leave just because you want one. Also, make sure you have a legitimate reason if you want a good result.
Provide clear details
A lot of employers are very detail-oriented. So, you may want to include clear details like the date or time of your leave. Also, include the exact date when you’ll come back to work. Indicate too whether or not they can contact you while you’re on leave.
If you’re taking a long leave, it’s also a good idea to provide details about the current tasks or projects you’re leaving behind. If you’ve assigned someone to work on these or take care of any issues while you’re away, include these details in your email for the benefit of your employer.
Submit your request ahead of time
Finally, never send your leave request email just a day or two before taking leave. Give your employer enough time to approve the leave and plan things for when you’re out of the office. This also increases the chances of your request getting approved.
Time Off Request Emails
Considerations before sending your leave request email
If you have already planned your leave, then you should send a leave request email right after you’ve finalized all of your plans. Also, there are some considerations you must take before sending your request. These include:
Company requirements
If you plan to leave during a very busy time for your company when they need you, expect your request to get denied. It’s important for you to think about the effect your leave creates in the work environment. Although it’s your right to take leave once in a while, you must also think about the appropriate time to take your leave.
Even if you push your leave and demand that your employers approve of it, you might not enjoy yourself because you’re thinking of your company or they keep trying to reach you for concerns.
Your replacement or the person in charge
This is especially important if you plan to take a long leave. You may assign a replacement or a person in charge of your tasks. Either way, you must instruct this person well and inform your employer that you’ve oriented the person on what to do while you’re away.
The notice period
As aforementioned, it’s important to send your request for leave as early as possible. That way, your employer expects that you won’t come into work and he can plan for it.
Public holidays
Check whether the days you plan to take your leave coincides with any public holidays. In such cases, you don’t even have to make a request at all, especially if your company closes during public holidays.
Mistakes to avoid when writing a leave request email
When it comes to writing personal leave emails, sick leave emails, and even other kinds of formal emails at work, there are some mistakes you must avoid. Keep in mind that when you send an email to someone else in the office, it reflects your own professionalism. Here are some mistakes you must avoid when composing your email:
Not using a greeting or a closing
When composing an email, always start it with a greeting. Without this, your email seems demanding and terse. Also, end your email with a proper closing statement to show your politeness and professionalism.
Being too casual or too formal
Leave request emails and other types of office emails must have a good balance between formality and friendliness. It’s not appropriate to send the same kind of email you’d send to one of your closest friends to your boss. Make sure you maintain the level of respect in your email.
Also, being too formal may not sit well with some employees. Using such language might make it seem like you’re upset or you’re demanding something from the recipient. You must find a good balance between these extremes when composing your email.
Using the phrase “To Whom It May Concern”
This is a huge no-no, especially when you’re sending a leave application email. For this type of email, you should already know who to send it to. Therefore, use the name of that person in the salutation instead of this generic phrase.
Not changing the subject line
One of the most important aspects of emails is the subject line. When you send the first email, provide an appropriate subject. But if you’ve started with a new thread or discussion from this email, make sure to change the subject line too.
Clicking “reply all” when you only need to reply to one person
Doing this can be a potentially embarrassing situation, especially if your employer asked you to elaborate your “personal reason” and you didn’t want everybody to find out what that is. So before you click “send,” make sure the email only contains the email address of one recipient in the “To:” field.