Leave Management at Super-Saiyan Level

Substitute leave alone was complicated enough. In reality, managers and HR also dealt with special leave, annual paid leave, half-day leave, and later childcare leave, maternity leave, and scheduled days off in some departments.

Each type had different rules for eligibility, use, carryover, and expiration. Some operations varied by department. Managing all of that every month through notes and memory was practically a Super-Saiyan assignment.

At first I admired HR for catching what managers missed. Later we discovered cases where leave that should not have been available was taken, passed the manager’s check, and passed HR’s check as well.

Nobody was uniquely at fault. The premise itself was wrong: the operation expected attention alone to protect a complex set of rights and constraints.

That was the point at which I became certain that leave management belonged inside the system.