44+ Sample Unpaid Leaves

Sometimes, people tend to overexert their efforts and overwork themselves resulting in stress and sickness. Since we can only go on leave for a few days, unpaid time-off or leave without pay becomes necessary. Absence from work can result in cuts in your payslip, but sometimes, most of us have no choice but to take it since the paid times-off are already fully-consumed and no further extension can be made. Going on unpaid leave is not something as simple as notifying your employer verbally. And since we don’t want to receive a memo or find, by surprise, that dear employer has already found a replacement for you when you get back, you have to file a Request for Unpaid Leave either through email or through paper. If you have no time to draft out your request for unpaid leaves or are unable to do so, worry no more! We have, here, some unpaid leave templates ready for emailing or printing.

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What are the Different Types of Unpaid Leaves?

Unpaid leave is a time off from work without any pay when all your paid leaves have been consumed. Sometimes, you need to hand in an “Unpaid Leave Letter” first before you can go on one. There are several reasons many of us have to go on unpaid leave. It’s something that we’d like to avoid as much as possible. But circumstances would leave us with no other choice. Here are some reasons that people go on unpaid leave:

Parental Leave: Maternity or paternity leave is when a mother who just gave birth or a father whose wife just gave birth has to take some weeks or days off to take care of the newborn baby. According to the International Labour Organization, the US is only one of the three countries that do not offer mandatory paid maternity leaves. Some employers may offer paid maternity leave if they choose to, but it’s not compulsory. Only ten days after giving birth, moms are required to go back to work. So if you want to extend your parental leave, you may have to request for unpaid leave.Sick Leave: Getting sick is the last thing you want to happen when you’re working. Currently, according to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), it’s not required by the law for employers to provide paid sick leaves. Unpaid leaves can also be granted under specific conditions such as number months worked in the company, number of employees in said company, etc. But if you do need to take the day off due to illness, it is essential to let your employer know. The easiest way to do so is to send a sick leave email. Health is wealth, so make sure to take good care of it.Funeral Leave: Most of us have difficulty separating our personal life from work life. Isn’t it just difficult to concentrate when you are having some sort of emotional struggle? Some people are masters at hiding their emotions, but most of us can’t avoid bringing our problems to the office. And what’s more, if you are grieving? Unfortunately, the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA currently doesn’t require bereavement leave to be paid. In other words, if you want to go on vacation to grieve, it won’t be paid. Though your employer may not be able to pay you for your leave, your employer may understand your situation and will approve your request for time-off.Voting Leave: Every other two years, the US holds its elections, whether it’s for the House of Representatives or the US Senate. During this time, many citizens want to exercise their rights by taking their time off and casting their votes. The elections are probably one of the most-watched events aside from the Super Bowl. Voting leave in the US varies from state to state. In some states, voting leave is paid for a specific number of hours only, while in others, you can take the whole day off. In some states, you can render an unpaid leave for a few hours while in others, you can only take unpaid leave if you meet specific conditions (e.g., paid voting leave is only available in Ohio for salaried employees). There are also states where the voting process is unique. In Washington and Oregon, citizens can cast their votes by mail.Jury Duty: Jury duty means serving time to stand as a juror in a trial. When you become a juror, you have to comply and take unpaid leave as it’s mandatory. FLSA currently does not require that the employer pays an employee on jury duty leave; however, it’s only a matter of agreement between the two. The downside is most trials may take several months before it gets resolved. But the good thing is federal law prohibits employers from terminating employees on jury duty. If, however, the company will suffer a significant loss in the absence of the summoned employee, they may write a letter to the court to postpone the civic service.Personal Leave: There are times or individual cases when you need to take time off or leave work early for family emergencies. Since these are emergencies, they are not plotted in your company’s vacation tracker. Unexpected situations like this call for personal leave. FLSA also does not require personal leave to be paid, but your company can choose to issue this under specific circumstances such as urgency and remaining leave credits.

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Let’s Talk About Sick Leaves

Unpaid leaves happen because unexpected things happen, and you no longer have available paid leave credits. While some leaves happen beyond our control, there is one thing that we perhaps have control over: sick leaves. While we might not have much control over chronic diseases, we have control over sicknesses like fever, cough, colds, or even some respiratory infections. Getting sick is the last thing that you want to happen to you. Not only is it detrimental to your health, but it’s a hassle to have to produce sick leave documents like a medical certificate. Not to mention coming back to a mountain of workload that has piled up over your desk while you were gone. So while it’s not yet too late, start taking care of your health. It’s not only for the benefit of your employer but for yours as well.

What is the Healthiest Country in 2019?

In 2019, Bloomberg conducted a study on the world’s healthiest countries. Spain easily topped the list with a health grade of 92.75 followed closely by Italy at 91.59 and Iceland at 91.44. The United States only placed 35th with a health grade of 73.02. The health grade was based on two factors: health score and health risk. Health scores were calculated based on mortality rate through diseases and injuries, life expectancy, and the probability of surviving after birth through old age. Health risks were based on behavioral (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, lack of exercise) and environmental (e.g., pollution and sanitation) factors. Sources say access to healthcare facilities could factor in a person’s mortality rate. Spain’s eating habits also played a crucial role in its health grade. Most of the Spanish diet consists of veggies, nuts, and olive oil. This means that what you eat will play a key role in staying healthy.

How Do You Avoid Consuming Your Unpaid Leave?

Staying healthy may be easier said than done. These days, it’s hard to be healthy when you can quickly treat yourself to a gallon of ice cream or a slice of cake. The temptation is everywhere! But again, health is wealth. A healthy lifestyle might be hard to achieve, but it’s what would help you avoid consuming your sick leaves unnecessarily–and getting sick. Hey. We’re thinking about you, too!

Step 1. No More Midnight Snacks

Sometimes we eat more than what’s necessary. When we wake up in the middle of the night, the first thing we do is to step in the kitchen and start rummaging the fridge for food. Practice avoiding midnight snacks by sleeping right. Try to sleep at night and wake up when the sun rises. It doesn’t only prevent you from going to the kitchen. It also helps your body repair itself during nighttime while you are asleep. Drinking warm water before bed can also help remove sleep interruption.

Step 2. Decide What to Eat

Set up your meal plan and stick to that plan. Knowing what type of food you’ll be eating and when to eat will train your body to wait for your next meal. Stop eating sweets or desserts in between. Not only will it ruin your meal plan, but it will also ruin your appetite. Include healthy food in your grocery list to make sure you only eat healthy food. You can use our grocery list template so you can keep track of the food you buy and, at the same time, track your possible expenses.

Step 3. Avoid Stress

Most people eat a lot when they are under stress. So how do you practice eating less? By eliminating stress. It might be easier said than done, but one way you can relieve stress is by diverting your cravings into other methods of destressing. You can go swimming, playing basketball, going to the arcade, or taking a roller coaster ride. Whatever knocks your socks off is a fun way of destressing aside from finding comfort in food.

Step 4. Manage Your Cheat Day

Cheat day is when you use a special occasion as an excuse to indulge yourself in unhealthy food. Technically, it’s not advisable to eat unhealthy food. However, no one is perfect and can completely manage to resist temptations. It would take a lot of self-discipline and patience to avoid temptations entirely. That aside, it’s only human to want what you can’t have more. So rather than trying to resist it, it would be better to incorporate it into your diet. One technique that people do to manage cheat day would be to exercise or burn the same amount of calories that they have taken. If you hate exercise that much, you can train yourself to control what you eat. Or you can choose to eat sweets and suffer the consequences (of exercise)! Or you can also try craving for healthier options like matcha tea or carrot cakes. They may not be as delicious as other options out there, but it all takes a matter of getting used to.

Step 5. More Greens

Don’t we all just hate vegetables? Broccoli, carrots. Those are only a few of the food that we hate eating when we were young. However, there’s no denying the health benefit that we get out of eating green leafy food. Without having to further expound on it, several studies have already shown how healthy they are. You don’t necessarily have to switch to veganism to be healthy. Sometimes, eating medium amounts of veggies can go a long way.

Step 6. Exercise! Exercise! Exercise!

Proper diet paired with exercise is the best way to being healthy. If you find it too tiring to go to a gym, you can still exercise at home. There are exercises that you can do without the help of gym equipment like squats, push-ups, pull-ups, or scrunches. You can also try doing yoga. Referring to a BMI Chart may also help you keep track of how healthy you should be based on your age.

The reason why we’re stressing sick leaves more than anything else is that this is a factor that is manageable and controllable. Personal emergencies can happen anytime beyond your control. Maternity is something that you can prepare for ahead of time. Meanwhile, depending on how you treat your body, you can get sick more than usual in a single year. This is not only detrimental to your health, but also to your finances. Like what Juan Somavia, the former Director of the International Labour Organization, had said, “Occupational safety and health is vital to the dignity of work.”