Leave of Absence Request Letter
A leave of absence request asks to stop working for a defined period and return to the same job. The letter is straightforward; what decides the outcome is which category your leave falls into, because that determines whether your employer is deciding or merely processing.
Protected leave is granted by statute. Discretionary leave is granted by your employer because it would rather keep you than replace you, which means the request has to make that calculation easy.
Write it early. Almost every leave policy in the US distinguishes foreseeable from unforeseeable leave, and the notice you give is one of the few parts of this entirely within your control.
Protected leave and discretionary leave
The Family and Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees to up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for a serious health condition, the birth or placement of a child, or to care for a spouse, child or parent with a serious health condition. Military caregiver leave extends to 26 weeks.
Eligibility is narrower than most people assume: you must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months, for at least 1,250 hours in the preceding 12 months, at a site with 50 or more employees within 75 miles. Fail any of those and FMLA does not apply, whatever the reason for the leave.
Everything outside that — a sabbatical, extended bereavement, study leave, an unpaid stretch to deal with a family situation that does not meet the statutory definition — is discretionary. Several states run their own paid family and medical leave programmes with broader eligibility than the federal floor, so check your state before concluding you have no entitlement.
General information, not legal advice. Confirm your eligibility against your employer’s policy and your state’s programme; the US Department of Labor publishes the current FMLA rules.
What the letter has to establish
What the letter should not contain is a medical history. Certification is handled separately, through a form your provider completes and returns to HR, and volunteering clinical detail in a letter that circulates internally serves no purpose.
- The dates — first day away and intended return date, both as actual dates.
- The category, where you know it. Naming FMLA changes who handles the request and what forms follow.
- A coverage proposal. This is the part that converts a request into a plan.
- Your availability while away, if any, stated precisely rather than implied.
- A single point of contact for the handover.
Example leave of absence request
Dear Priya,
I am writing to request a leave of absence from Monday, October 6 through Friday, December 12, returning to work on Monday, December 15. I believe this qualifies under FMLA and I have asked my provider to send the certification form directly to HR this week.
To keep the team covered, I propose that Marcus takes over the vendor reconciliation and the monthly close, both of which he has run before. I will document the quarterly reporting sequence and hand it to Anneke, and I will have everything transferred before my last day.
I will not be reachable during the leave and would prefer that anything urgent goes to Marcus. I am happy to meet before I go to walk through anything outstanding.
Thank you for considering this. Please let me know what else you need from me.
Best regards, Tomas Ellery.
Every name, employer and date in this example is invented. Replace all of it with your own.
What happens to your pay and benefits
FMLA leave is unpaid unless your employer or state programme provides otherwise, though most policies require or allow you to use accrued paid leave concurrently, which is why a 12-week absence often begins as paid and becomes unpaid partway through.
Group health coverage continues during FMLA leave on the same terms as if you had kept working, which means your employer keeps paying its share and you keep paying yours. Arrange how your share will be collected while no paycheque exists to deduct it from — that conversation is easy in advance and unpleasant three months later when arrears have accumulated.
Discretionary leave carries none of that protection by default. Ask directly, in writing, what happens to health cover, retirement contributions, vesting, accrual and seniority, and get the answer in writing before you accept the terms.
Making a discretionary request likely to succeed
When there is no statute compelling agreement, you are asking a manager to absorb a cost, and the request succeeds or fails on how large that cost looks.
Give more notice than feels necessary — a quarter ahead where you can. Propose a period that avoids your team’s peak, and say that you chose it for that reason. Name who covers what, having spoken to them first, so the plan arrives already agreed rather than as work for your manager to do.
Offer a return date rather than an open end. An indefinite absence is the hardest version of this request to approve, because it cannot be planned around, and a fixed date you later extend is far easier to grant than an unbounded one.
Coming back
Under FMLA you are entitled on return to the same position, or an equivalent one with equivalent pay, benefits and conditions. Equivalent does not mean identical, and disputes about what counts are common, so keep the written record of what you left.
Send a short note to your manager a fortnight before you return confirming the date and asking what has changed. Teams reorganise, priorities move, and arriving already briefed is worth more than the note costs.
Expect the first week back to be slower than you plan for. People who schedule a full workload on day one almost always regret it, and a deliberately light first few days is the difference between a return and a relapse into whatever the leave was for.
Frequently asked questions
FMLA requires 30 days for foreseeable leave, and as soon as practicable when it is not. For discretionary leave there is no rule, but the more notice you give the more likely approval is — a quarter ahead is a reasonable target where the timing is yours to choose.
FMLA leave is unpaid at the federal level, though most policies require accrued paid leave to run concurrently, and several states operate paid family and medical leave programmes. Discretionary leave is unpaid unless your employer says otherwise.
Not if you are FMLA-eligible and the reason qualifies. Discretionary leave can be refused for any lawful reason, which is why the request should read as a coverage plan rather than an announcement.
During FMLA leave, yes — on the same terms as if you were working, with your share still due. During discretionary leave it depends entirely on policy, so ask and get the answer in writing before the leave starts.