On Monday morning an employee mentions in the kitchen that they would like Friday off. A colleague writes in a chat that they stayed until nine on Wednesday. The manager nods to both and forgets within an hour. At the end of the month payroll asks which of these were approved, and nobody can say.
In a small company this is rarely a policy problem. It is a memory problem. Requests come through whichever channel was open at the time, and nothing connects them to a decision. This article describes a lightweight routine for time-off and overtime requests that takes a few minutes per request and removes most of the confusion.
Why informal requests go wrong
- The request is incomplete. "Can I take some days in August?" leaves the manager to ask which days, and the answer arrives a week later.
- Nobody is clearly the approver. The employee asks the person they like best, and two managers may give different answers.
- Silence is ambiguous. The employee assumes yes, the manager assumed they would be reminded.
- Nothing is written down. Disputes about overtime or leave balance cannot be settled, and unequal treatment goes unnoticed.
Labour rules differ by country and by contract, and some give employees firm rights to leave or to compensation for extra hours. Check your local requirements or ask your payroll provider; this article is about the process, not the legal entitlement.
Step 1: Agree what a request contains
A request, whether for leave or for overtime, should state four things:
- Who and what: the person, the type (leave, sick-leave follow-up, overtime, time in lieu).
- When: exact dates or hours. For overtime, either planned hours or, if it already happened, the hours worked.
- Why now: only if it matters for the decision, for example a customer deadline or a family event.
- What happens to the work: who covers it, or what will be moved.
The fourth item is the one people skip, and it is the one the approver needs most. A short form with these four fields is enough. A shared form or a single email address is better than a chat message, because it can be found again.
Step 2: Name one approver and one deputy
For each person, write down who approves their requests. In a small company this is usually the direct manager, with the owner as deputy. Put the list on one page and share it. Two rules keep it simple:
- Overtime is approved before it is worked, except in a real emergency, where the approver confirms the next working day.
- Leave that affects a customer commitment is also checked against the plan. If you have a coverage routine for holidays and absences, the approver uses it before saying yes.
The deputy matters more than it seems. A request that waits for a manager on holiday is the most common reason for a late answer.
Step 3: Promise a reply time
Agree on a maximum reply time, and make it short. Two working days is realistic for most teams. For leave requested more than a month ahead, a week is acceptable; for same-week requests, a day.
Add one rule: silence is not an answer. If the approver has not replied by the deadline, the request goes to the deputy automatically, and the employee is told that it did. This one sentence prevents most of the quiet frustration that builds up around leave in small teams.
An answer can be yes, no or "yes, with a change". A no should come with a short reason, such as "two people are already away that week". Employees accept a clear no much more easily than a long wait.
Step 4: Record the decision in one place
Every decision, approved or declined, goes into one shared log. A spreadsheet is enough. Use these columns:
| Date of request | Person | Type | Dates / hours | Approver | Decision | Date of decision | Note |
|---|
Keep it simple and keep it current. The same log serves three purposes: payroll can see which overtime was approved, employees can see their remaining leave, and you can show that people were treated consistently. If your team has a shift and swap rule, link the two so a swap and a leave request do not collide.
Limit who can see the log. Leave reasons and health information are personal data, and the note column should rarely contain more than "approved" or "declined, cover needed".
Step 5: Compensate overtime in a clear way
Decide in advance how extra hours are handled: paid, taken as time off, or a mix. Write the rule on the same page as the approver list. If time off is the choice, set a window, for example within three months, and put the balance in the log. Unclear compensation is the quickest way for overtime to become a source of resentment.
Step 6: Review once a quarter
Every three months, spend fifteen minutes with the log and ask:
- Who worked the most approved overtime, and is that sustainable?
- Which requests were declined, and was the reason always the same?
- How many answers were late?
If the same person always carries the extra hours, the problem is workload, not the request process. If many answers are late, shorten the chain or choose a better deputy. The log makes these patterns visible, which is its main advantage over memory.
What to avoid
- Approving in the corridor. If it is not in the log, it did not happen.
- Different rules for different people. Even small exceptions are remembered.
- Asking for long justifications. The request needs the four facts, not an essay.
- Treating overtime as free. Unrecorded extra hours become a hidden cost and a hidden risk.
Where AI can help, and where it should not
An AI assistant can turn a free-text message such as "I need Friday off, Tom can cover the calls" into the four fields, remind the approver when the deadline is close or summarise the quarterly log. It should not decide on requests or see more personal data than the approver does. Use only tools your company has approved, and keep the decision with a named person. For a wider view of when to let software act and when to ask a person, see approval levels for AI agents.
What to do this week
- Write down who approves requests for each person, and who is the deputy.
- Create the one-page form with the four fields and a shared log with the columns above.
- Announce the reply time and the rule that silence is not an answer.
- Move any open requests from chat and email into the log.
- Put a fifteen-minute review into the calendar for three months from now.
A request that takes three minutes to make and two days to answer costs almost nothing. A request that is lost can cost trust, a payroll correction or a good employee.