Field note
Leave Policy Questions Managers Keep Asking
Leave is where informal culture collides with headcount planning. Managers want fairness; staff want flexibility; finance wants predictability.
Write the approval path in one paragraph: who decides, how far in advance requests should arrive, and what happens when coverage is thin. Separate medical leave documentation from annual leave so people stop mixing the two.
Carryover rules deserve a single sentence with a hard date. Soft language such as “usually allowed” creates the very arguments you hoped to avoid.
During handbook rewrites we replace long narrative chapters with short decision trees managers can print and keep near their desks.