Apply for leave — full day, half day, or a few hours off
How to take time off — submit a leave request for a full day, half day, or a few hours, what each field means, and what happens after.
Need to take time off — a full day, a half day, or just a few hours off? Click HRMS in the sidebar → on the hub, the "For me" section has a Leave card → click it (or visit /me/leave directly). On the leave page, click + Apply for leave in the top right. A modal opens with every field you need; the workspace's HR team sees the request in their queue immediately. Approvals route through whatever workflow your workspace policy defines — typically Manager → HR for paid leave, HR-only for sick leave, auto-approved for religious holidays.
Before you apply — read your balances
The leave page opens on the Balances panel. Each card shows:
- The short code (SL, CL, EL, RH, COMP_OFF, etc.) and the full type name.
- Available — what you can apply against right now.
- Granted · used · pending — the full breakdown.
A type showing ∞ no quota means you can apply without a balance cap; the request still goes through the approval workflow.
The apply modal — field by field
- Leave type. Dropdown of every type configured in your workspace, each labelled with its current available balance. The current balance is also shown as a sub-line under the dropdown — "FY2026: 12 granted · 0 used · 0 pending · 12.0 available" — so you can see what you're spending before you confirm.
- Start date / End date. Both default to today. Choose any working day in the past or future. You'll get a clear error if you pick a holiday or a non-working day (the system uses your shift to know).
- Half-day on start / Half-day on end. The default is "Full day". Change to Half AM or Half PM if you only need half of that day. For a single-day half-leave use the start field; the end field is for multi-day requests where only the last day is half. The system computes the total in days correctly for you and shows it on the Total: X day(s) line.
- Reason (required). One or two sentences explaining why you need the leave. Some types — Sick Leave, College Exam Leave — gain context from this field that the HR reviewer relies on.
- Attachment URL (optional). For sick leave, paste a link to a doctor's certificate. For exam leave, the exam routine. The system doesn't host the file — paste any URL the reviewer can open (Google Drive, Dropbox, Notion). Some leave types require an attachment; you'll see the validation error if you skip one that's mandatory.
Submitting
Click Submit request. Three things happen immediately:
- The modal closes and you return to
/me/leave. - Your balance card updates to show the request as X pending in orange — the days aren't yet deducted, but they're reserved against your available count.
- A Pending review (1) section appears with your request card. The card shows the type, day count, date, reason, and a "Cancel" button.
On the HR side, a new line appears in /hr/leave tagged "awaiting manager (stage 1 / 2)" or "awaiting HR" depending on the workflow your leave type triggers. Some types skip approval entirely (RH Optional Religious Holiday auto-approves on submit in most starter packs).
Common mistakes
- Submitting for a holiday. Holidays are excluded from the leave math — you don't need to apply. You'll get a clear "this date is a workspace holiday" error.
- Overlapping a pending request. The validator catches date overlap with any existing pending or approved request on the same person and asks you to wait for resolution first.
- Exceeding your quota. Some types support an "overflow LWP" mode — you can request more than your available SL balance and the excess automatically converts to Leave Without Pay. Other types simply reject the request.