Here’s a fresh list of 20 different types of time off your company can efficiently coordinate using Time Off Manager 365

1. Paid Holiday (Annual Leave)
   Let’s begin with the most familiar and fundamental use of a leave planner—managing paid holiday entitlement. Every employee is entitled to a set number of vacation days each year, and keeping track of those days can become a logistical headache if you’re relying on outdated systems like spreadsheets or manual request forms.
   With Time Off Manager 365, managing annual leave becomes a seamless process. Employees can view their leave balances, submit requests, and check team availability—all in one place. This not only removes the need for back-and-forth emails but also ensures transparency and fairness across the board.
   One major advantage of digitising your company’s holiday calendar is the real-time visibility it provides. HR teams and managers can instantly see who’s off and when, making it easier to avoid staffing conflicts, ensure adequate coverage, and plan. This level of clarity contributes directly to smoother workflows, particularly in small and mid-sized teams where every absence can have a ripple effect.
   Beyond logistics, research has found that efficient leave management correlates with increased job satisfaction and reduced burnout (Jin et al., Occupational Health Psychology Journal, 2019). When employees know their time off is being handled fairly and efficiently, it builds trust in company policies and reinforces a healthy work-life balance.
   In short, if your organisation is still juggling leave requests via email or updating shared spreadsheets, it’s time to consider an upgrade. Modern leave planning tools like Time Off Manager 365 not only simplify administration—they also support a more engaged, rested, and productive workforce.
2. Time Off in Lieu (TOIL)
   Time Off in Lieu, often called TOIL, is a flexible benefit many companies offer to reward employees who work beyond their standard hours. Instead of receiving overtime pay, employees can accumulate additional leave days, which they can use later as paid time off. This approach not only supports a healthier work-life balance but also encourages flexibility during peak workloads or special projects.
   A good annual leave planner doesn’t just track standard vacation days—it should also account for TOIL. The best tools let you log extra hours worked and automatically calculate the corresponding time off earned. This ensures full visibility into each employee’s total available leave, helping managers plan workloads more efficiently and avoid burnout.
3. Sick Leave and Absences
   On average, employees take around four days off annually due to illness—but in many organizations, sick leave records are tucked away in private HR files, making them invisible to the wider team. This lack of transparency can create confusion and disrupt workflow when someone is unexpectedly out of office.
   A well-designed leave management system allows you to track sick days just like annual leave—without breaching anyone’s privacy. There’s no need to disclose sensitive medical information but simply marking someone as “sick” or “unavailable” on the shared calendar gives the team a clear view of who’s present and who’s not. This small step makes a big difference: meetings can be rescheduled, deadlines adjusted, and responsibilities temporarily reassigned to avoid bottlenecks.
   By including sickness records in your leave planner, you create a more agile and responsive work environment that can adapt quickly when someone is unwell—while also helping HR teams identify patterns and support employee wellbeing more proactively.
4. Medical Appointments
   Routine healthcare visits—such as doctor, dentist, or physiotherapy appointments—are a normal part of life. Yet in many workplaces, these short absences often go undocumented in the official leave calendar. Employees might step out for an hour or two, reschedule meetings at the last minute, or hand off tasks temporarily, all without any clear record in the system. This lack of visibility can lead to confusion or uneven workloads across the team.
   To manage these types of absences more effectively, it’s important to adopt a leave management system that offers flexibility—not just in days, but in hours. A smart, cloud-based leave planner that allows hourly leave tracking makes it much easier to record short absences like medical appointments without blocking out the entire workday. Team members and managers can see when someone is unavailable for a short window and plan accordingly without overcomplicating the schedule.
   Incorporating medical appointments into your leave planner promotes better transparency, improves collaboration, and prevents small scheduling gaps from turning into productivity roadblocks. It also shows employees that their time is respected—whether they’re taking an hour off for a check-up or handling personal health responsibilities during the day.
5. Managing Bank Holidays
   Bank holidays can have very different meanings depending on your business sector. For office-based teams, they often signal a full day off with the entire company shutting down. But for retail, hospitality, or customer support teams, these days can be some of the busiest on the calendar—making it crucial to plan staff leave carefully.
   This is where an intelligent leave management system becomes essential. Instead of manually sending reminders or updating calendars, a good leave planner allows you to customize how bank holidays are handled based on your organization’s needs. You can automatically mark public holidays as non-working days across everyone’s calendar, preventing any confusion or overlapping leave requests.
   If your business remains open during bank holidays, the software can help limit how many team members are allowed to book that day off. This ensures you always have enough coverage to maintain operations. You can also configure whether bank holidays count toward an employee’s leave entitlement or are treated as additional paid days off giving you full control over your holiday policy.
   By managing bank holidays through an online leave planner, you eliminate guesswork, maintain consistency, and make sure that both employee entitlements and business needs are balanced. It’s a simple step that leads to better planning, happier staff, and smoother operations during high-demand periods.
6. Company Shutdown Days
   While public holidays are widely recognized and scheduled, many companies also have internal shutdown days that aren’t as predictable. These can include annual conferences, company-wide training sessions, team-building events, system maintenance days, or strategic planning retreats. On such occasions, employees are expected to be present or available, even though normal day-to-day tasks may be paused.
   However, if these dates aren’t clearly communicated or logged in your leave planning system, it’s easy for team members to accidentally book time off or schedule important meetings on the same day. This can lead to missed events, reduced participation, and avoidable confusion that affects overall productivity and engagement.
   A smart leave management tool solves this problem by allowing you to pre-schedule company shutdown days well in advance. These dates can be automatically blocked out across everyone’s calendar, preventing holiday requests during that period and clearly communicating that attendance is expected. Some systems even send automated alerts or reminders, so no one overlooks an important event.
   By including company shutdowns in your online leave tracker, you create alignment across departments, reduce scheduling conflicts, and ensure that key events are given the priority they deserve. It also helps managers plan workloads more effectively, knowing when entire teams or departments will be temporarily unavailable for routine work.
7. Maternity, Paternity, Adoption & Shared Parental Leave
   Welcoming a new child—whether through birth or adoption—is a major life event, and employees need time and space to adjust to their new responsibilities. As a result, companies must be prepared to manage long-term absences such as maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental leave with care and clarity.
   Online annual leave planners offer a practical solution for HR teams and managers when it comes to organizing these extended periods of leave. Rather than relying on spreadsheets or scattered records, a digital leave tracker lets you accurately log the start and expected return dates for each employee. This ensures that their leave is officially documented, visible to relevant stakeholders, and planned well in advance.
   What’s more, these systems can help you stay compliant with labour laws and internal policies by offering custom leave types, notifications, and tracking tools. You can even map out phased returns to work, reduced hours, or temporary cover arrangements to support both the returning employee and the wider team. For shared parental leave, where two parents may alternate time off, a smart leave tracker helps avoid scheduling overlaps and miscommunication.
   By using an online leave planner to manage parental leave, businesses create a supportive environment where employees feel valued and understood—while also maintaining operational continuity and transparency across teams. It’s a thoughtful balance between people-first policies and smooth HR processes.
8. Compassionate & Bereavement Leave
   Life doesn’t always follow a schedule, and at times, employees may face the emotional burden of losing a loved one or dealing with a family crisis. During these deeply personal moments, the last thing they need is work-related interruptions or confusion about time off. This is where compassionate or bereavement leave plays a crucial role—not only as a policy but as a sign of genuine care from the organization.
   Including compassionate leave in your company’s leave management system ensures these sensitive absences are handled with discretion, dignity, and efficiency. Rather than requiring employees to explain their situation multiple times or go through a tedious approval process, an online leave planner allows HR teams to quickly log the leave, keep managers informed, and protect the employee’s time and privacy.
   It also benefits the wider team. By visibly marking compassionate leave in the calendar (without revealing private details), colleagues are aware that someone is away for personal reasons. This encourages a more empathetic workplace culture and allows teams to make necessary adjustments to workloads, deadlines, and meeting schedules until the employee returns.
   In addition, having clear visibility into compassionate leave can help managers prepare for the individual’s return to work. Whether it’s offering a flexible schedule, temporary workload adjustments, or simply a supportive check-in, planning makes the transition easier for everyone involved.
   Ultimately, recognizing compassionate leave in your planner is not just about tracking absences—it’s about showing humanity. It signals that your organization respects the emotional well-being of its people and is committed to supporting them through life’s toughest moments.
9. Carer’s Leave
   Caring for a loved one while holding down a job is no easy feat. Across the UK, millions of individuals take on the responsibility of providing unpaid care for elderly parents, disabled family members, or others in need—often alongside the demands of full-time employment. For many, this balancing act takes a toll on their well-being, focus, and long-term productivity.
   Recognizing the growing need to support working carers, the UK government has introduced new protections under the Carer’s Leave Act 2023, which officially comes into effect this year. This legislation gives employees the legal right to take up to five days of unpaid leave annually to manage their caring responsibilities. Whether it’s attending medical appointments, coordinating care arrangements, or simply taking time to support a loved one, this leave is designed to help ease the pressure without forcing carers to dip into their regular holiday entitlement.
   As an employer, this shift in policy presents both a legal obligation and an opportunity to foster a more inclusive and compassionate work environment. By configuring your leave management system to track carer’s leave as a separate category, you can stay compliant while also making it easier for employees to request time off discreetly and respectfully.
   A modern online leave planner will allow HR teams to clearly distinguish carer’s leave from annual or sick leave, automate approval workflows, and maintain accurate records—all while ensuring privacy for those going through challenging circumstances.
   Supporting carers in your workplace isn’t just a policy update—it’s a meaningful way to show that your business understands and values the complexities of real life. Making space for this kind of leave helps your people feel seen, supported, and empowered to care for others without sacrificing their careers.
10. Jury Service
    Unlike most types of employee leave, jury service is mandatory and often comes with very little notice. When a team member is called up to serve, employers are legally obligated to allow them time off—regardless of project timelines or team availability.
    Although you can’t refuse the request, you can prepare for it. Logging jury duty into your leave management system ensures that everyone is aware of the employee’s temporary absence. By blocking out these dates in your online leave planner, you give managers the visibility they need to adjust schedules, shift responsibilities, or delay non-critical work.
    It’s also helpful for preventing overlapping leave requests. For example, if someone in a tightly-knit team is away for jury service, the system can restrict key colleagues from taking leave at the same time—avoiding a situation where an entire department is understaffed.
    Jury duty may be out of your control, but how you respond to it as a business matters. A digital leave planner helps you manage the disruption efficiently, keep operations running smoothly, and show support for employees fulfilling their civic duty.
11. Unpaid Leave
    While certain types of leave like carer’s leave are recognized and regulated, there are many other situations where employees may need to take time off without pay. Unpaid leave serves as a flexible option that allows staff to step away from work when paid leave is either exhausted or unavailable, without severing their employment.
    For instance, consider a new hire who joins your organization mid-year. They might have pre-planned vacations before their start date, leaving them with insufficient paid leave to cover their time off. In such cases, allowing unpaid leave as a goodwill gesture can help accommodate their needs and foster a positive relationship from the outset. Similarly, employees may request unpaid leave for personal reasons such as extended travel, education, or family emergencies.
    From an administrative perspective, keeping track of unpaid leave within your online leave management system is crucial. Accurately recording these absences ensures payroll teams can correctly adjust salaries, preventing any discrepancies or confusion. Furthermore, having unpaid leave clearly logged alongside paid leave types provides managers and HR with a full picture of staff availability, aiding in effective resource planning and workload distribution.
    By integrating unpaid leave into your leave tracker, you not only streamline administrative tasks but also support a workplace culture that values flexibility and understanding. This approach helps employees manage life’s unpredictable demands without jeopardizing their job security or financial transparency.
12. Sabbaticals
    Keeping experienced and skilled employees on board often costs less and yields better results than constantly hiring new talent. To recognize and reward long-term commitment, many organizations offer sabbaticals—extended breaks ranging from several months up to a year. These sabbaticals give employees the chance to pursue personal passions, travel, further their education, or spend quality time with family.
    If your company provides sabbaticals as part of its benefits package, it’s important to track these extended absences properly. By setting up sabbaticals as a distinct leave category in your leave management system, you can easily monitor who has taken this option, how long they’ll be away, and plan accordingly to cover their responsibilities during their time off. This visibility helps maintain smooth operations while supporting employee well-being and loyalty.
13. Volunteering Days
    Giving back to the community is a meaningful way for companies to live out their values, especially for businesses with strong commitments to corporate social responsibility or B Corp certification. One way to encourage this spirit of generosity is by offering employees dedicated volunteering days.
    Many organizations allow staff to take one or two paid days each year to volunteer with charities or causes they care about. By creating a distinct leave category for volunteering in your leave management system, you make these contributions visible across the company. This transparency not only recognizes employees’ efforts but can also inspire others to take advantage of the benefit, fostering a culture of community engagement and social impact.
    Tracking volunteering days separately helps HR teams monitor participation rates and supports reporting on your company’s social responsibility initiatives. It’s a win-win: employees feel supported in giving back, and your organization strengthens its positive influence beyond the workplace.
14. Duvet Days
    Originating in the U.S., duvet days have become a popular and increasingly accepted concept worldwide. Simply put, a duvet day is an impromptu day off taken by an employee when they need a mental or physical break—whether that’s after a hectic weekend, a stressful period at work, or just a day when they don’t feel up to coming in.
    Many organizations introduce duvet days as a flexible wellbeing benefit, often setting a yearly cap to maintain balance between employee needs and business demands. By incorporating duvet days into your digital leave management system as a separate leave type, you gain clear oversight of how many of these spontaneous breaks each team member has used.
    Tracking duvet days helps managers support their employees’ wellbeing while keeping an eye on overall attendance trends. It also encourages staff to listen to their health and take restorative time off when needed, ultimately boosting morale and reducing burnout.
15. Gardening Leave
    Handling employee notice periods often requires careful coordination, but it becomes even more delicate when a staff member resigns to join a competitor. In such cases, placing the individual on gardening leave is a common practice to protect company interests during their notice period.
    By recording gardening leave as a specific category in your leave management system, you can clearly indicate when an employee is not actively working but still officially employed. This helps avoid assigning tasks they won’t be able to fulfil and prevents confusion about their availability. It also removes the need for uncomfortable conversations regarding their status, as everyone has clear visibility on their leave duration and expected return date.
    Including gardening leave in your leave planner streamlines the offboarding process, maintains professional boundaries, and safeguards your business during sensitive transitions.
16. Unauthorised Absences
    Up until now, we’ve discussed various types of leave that employees take with official approval—whether paid or unpaid. However, there are occasions when staff members miss work without prior permission or notification. These instances, known as unauthorised absences, present a different challenge altogether.
    It’s essential to track these unapproved absences just as diligently as authorised leave. Logging unauthorised time off in your leave management system helps spotlight attendance issues early on and provides a transparent record for managers and HR teams. This documentation is crucial when addressing repeated or unexplained absences, supporting fair and consistent follow-up actions.
    By monitoring unauthorised absences alongside regular leave, your organization gains a clearer understanding of workforce reliability and can take informed steps to maintain productivity and accountability.
17. Study Leave
    Employees often seek time off to pursue further education or professional development courses. Study leave supports staff who want to enhance their skills and qualifications without interrupting their work permanently. By adding study leave as a distinct category in your leave management system, you can easily track when employees are attending classes or exams. This not only helps in planning workloads but also demonstrates your commitment to continuous learning and employee growth.
18. Public Service Leave
    Some employees volunteer or participate in community services such as jury duty, military reservist training, or local government roles. Public service leave allows them the necessary time away from their job to fulfil these civic duties. Managing this type of leave separately ensures compliance with legal requirements while giving your team the flexibility to contribute to society. Recording it properly in your leave planner keeps everyone informed and helps maintain business continuity.
19. Remote Workdays
    With flexible working arrangements becoming more common, some companies track remote workdays separately from traditional leave. Allowing employees to work from home on certain days can improve work-life balance and reduce commute-related stress. Tracking these remote days within your system provides insight into attendance patterns and helps coordinate in-office and off-site schedules effectively, ensuring smooth team collaboration regardless of location.
20. Mental Health Days
    Increasingly recognized as an important aspect of employee wellbeing, mental health days allow staff to take time off specifically to focus on their psychological and emotional health. Including mental health days as a separate leave type in your planner encourages openness and reduces stigma around mental wellness. It also gives managers a clear overview to support their teams proactively, promoting a healthier, more resilient workforce.