PeopleMuster

Unpaid leave request

Unpaid leave is a negotiation rather than an entitlement. Your manager is weighing two things: whether the work survives your absence, and whether saying yes creates a precedent.

Write this when your paid balance is spent and you still need the time, or when the reason falls outside every leave type your employer offers.

Subject: Request for unpaid leave — [first day] to [last day]

Hello [manager's name],

I would like to request unpaid leave from [first day] to [last day], [number] working days in total.

Why: [reason in one or two lines].

My paid balance is [remaining balance], which is not enough to cover it, so I am asking for the rest unpaid.

How the work is covered:

- [responsibility] moves to [colleague] for the period
- [responsibility] pauses, and nothing downstream depends on it before [date]

I understand this is not guaranteed. If a shorter period is easier to approve, [shorter option] would still help.

[your name]

What to put in each blank

[reason in one or two lines]
Be concrete. Studying, caring for a relative and a long trip home all read very differently from a blank.
[remaining balance]
State what you have left. It shows you checked instead of asking for extra by default.
[shorter option]
Offer a fallback. A request with a second option gets a yes far more often.

Before you send it

  • Unpaid time can affect benefits, service length and anything calculated per month worked. Ask HR what changes before you commit.
  • Ask early. The answer depends on the workload in that period, and that is known further ahead than you think.
  • Get the approval in writing, including the exact dates. Unpaid arrangements are the ones people later remember differently.

Unpaid is a leave type with a zero allowance, so the days are tracked without drawing on a balance

Questions people ask about this letter

Does an employer have to grant unpaid leave?

Generally it is discretionary and set by your employer's own policy. Treat it as a request you have to make a case for.

What happens to my benefits while I am on unpaid leave?

That depends on your employer and the benefit. Ask HR to confirm in writing which ones continue and which pause.

Should I offer to take some of it as paid leave?

If you have a balance left, yes. Mixing the two often makes the whole request easier to approve.

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