COVID-19 Outbreak Information Updates (Reboot) [over 150.000,000 US cases (est.), 6,422,520 US hospitilizations, 1,148,691 US deaths.]

guess i should reword that. they "do" have the say so to approve. but in my 17 years into my career. i've never once been turned down and have never heard of anyone at any of the 4 places i've worked being turned down.

i'm also hourly, i'm not stupid enough to take off when we're busy and miss out on OT pay just to take off lol
Yeah, we're salaried federal employees, so that might be part of it. Fwiw, when I had my own business, I think I took time off once in 14 years. I'm actually kinda glad they make us use our leave. We have a certain amount of "use it or lose it" leave every year. This year I have 80+ hours of that and I haven't used any yet. Lol.