taking that leave

Taking a leave at work to watch a first day showing of a movie about hobbits and wizards, or about a superhero that can climb walls or bench press a thousand-pound war tank is not an uncommon event here at the office. Before seat reservations were introduced to the city, we painstakingly went to cinemas 2 hours before the first showtime to fall in line at the ticket booth so we can get the best seats in the house. There would be as few as 5 or as many as 15 of us who would take a few hours off from work just to do this stunt.

Nowadays, thanks to high-end cinemas like Ayala, we can have seats reserved a few weeks before the show date so you don't have to fall on a long line just to buy those tickets.

Anyway, it's not really the point of this entry. It just caught my mind and it's nice to reminisce those old times.

The topic really is about filing for a leave of absence. Me and my officemates would do it more than once a month specially when there are a lot of anticipated movies lining in the cinema. Then the HR suddenly ruled out that it will no longer accept 'personal matters' as a reason for the absence. I ended up getting creative.

The easiest way to get out of the office at any time is to file a sick leave. I made it a point to make my reasons "discernable" so my boss won't have to pester me with questions about my state of health. Here are some reasons that I have proven effective.

mentally stressed or mentally exhausted. Well, they can't blame me. I'm working on an R&D environment and it's easy to get burned out with this kind of work.

nagging headache. It's not just an ordinary headache that can be cured with an aspirin or two. It needs more rest and by that I mean sleeping-on-my-bed kind of rest. So a 4-hour leave is definitely justified.

muscle spasm. I know that if I put 'muscle pains' instead, I would be questioned to death why I have to go home for this. So finding some nice terms that some people are not so familiar with can keep you off the hook.

intestinal blockage. Constipation has been one of the most exploited reasons for filing a sick leave. Having intestinal blockage makes the ordeal, be it true or not, sound more serious.

chronic indigestion. Another most exploited reason is diarrhea or LBM. Adding some medical terms to the issue would make matters more pressing.

pyrexia. This is just a synonym for fever. But they don't know it, do they? And if they do, just tell them that it might be a symptom for a serious infection. And you have to take the day off just to be sure.

This is getting long. I'll add more about my emergency leaves and vacation leaves on my next post.