Employees are taking more time away from work than ever before. In fact, according to AbsenceSoft data, leave requests are on the rise for the third year in a row. Their leaves of absence fall into many different buckets of time off, so it’s essential that HR and leave managers are comfortable recognizing, categorizing, and carrying out leave requests.
In this article, we’ll break down the most common forms of leaves of absence, and we’ll examine how to manage employees’ time off efficiently and compliantly.
What is a Leave of Absence?
When you hear the term “leave of absence,” it’s tempting to think it refers to any time an employee is out of the office. The term’s true definition is slightly more nuanced.
A leave of absence is when an employee is away from work for reasons that fall outside of the traditional time-off buckets like vacation, paid time off, and sick days.
The Difference Between Leave and PTO
An employee who takes two weeks off to go on a cruise isn’t taking a leave of absence. But an employee who takes two weeks off to recover from hip replacement surgery is.
PTO, vacation, and sick days are standard benefits employees use for planned time away or minor illness. A leave of absence is typically longer, legally protected, and triggered by a qualifying event, like a serious health condition, caregiving responsibility, or the birth of a child.
It’s important to understand these distinctions. To build a strong leave program, HR must begin with the knowledge of what leave is and when it’s appropriate for employees to take it.
With this foundation, HR can implement a leave program that satisfies employees’ desire for leave benefits. Organizations can even use leave as a recruitment tool, as 86% of employees are more likely to apply to a job that clearly lists paid leave benefits, according to AbsenceSoft research.
The Top Types of Leaves of Absence
“Leave of absence” is an umbrella term that encompasses multiple types of leave. It includes everything from medical leave and maternity leave to military leave and jury duty leave. Though employees take leave for many different reasons, their leave typically falls into one of the following categories.
Paid Leave of Absence
During a paid leave of absence, employees are off duty but receive some or all of their normal compensation. Paid parental leave or caregiver leave are common examples of this type of leave.
Unpaid Leave of Absence
Employees are away from work but receive no compensation during an unpaid leave of absence. Leave provided under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is unpaid, job-protected leave.
Voluntary Leave of Absence
A voluntary leave of absence occurs when employees take time off from work by choice, in accordance with an employer’s policy. Voluntary leaves of absence go beyond or replace other banks of time off, like PTO or FMLA leave.
Involuntary Leave of Absence
Employees are typically placed on this mandatory leave by employers, sometimes as a result of a situation that may require disciplinary action.
A Leave of Absence Can Be Just a Few Minutes Long
Because there are so many different types of leaves, the length of leaves of absence varies greatly. Consider one of the most common forms of leaves of absence: FMLA leave.
The FMLA designates up to 12 weeks of leave, but this standard can shift. Employees aren’t obligated to take the full 12 weeks at one time. Workers could take a couple of weeks to care for a family member and then take another chunk of leave later in the year to deal with their own health condition.
Some employees may qualify for extra leave beyond the standard 12 weeks as a disability accommodation, as granted by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).
Federal, state, and local leave policies all provide different lengths of leave. Use AbsenceSoft’s Leave Law Lookup to see which leave laws your state maintains.
Common Uses for Intermittent Leave
Employees can also take intermittent leave, chiefly through the FMLA. According to AbsenceSoft’s 2026 State of Leave and Accommodations report, intermittent leave is the second-most requested accommodation. It’s also one of HR’s top management challenges.
Intermittent leave occurs when employees take less than an hour of FMLA leave to deal with ongoing health conditions. An employee with chronic migraines, for instance, may take an hour or two of leave a few times a month to deal with symptoms. Intermittent leave is a common accommodation for mental health conditions. Employees may use intermittent leave to go to therapy, attend medical appointments, or manage symptoms.
Determining Employees’ Eligibility for a Leave of Absence
Just as the length of a leave of absence varies, so does employee eligibility. Let’s consider some of the most common types of leave and the standards of eligibility for each.
FMLA Eligibility
To qualify for the FMLA, employees must work for a covered employer. Before taking leave, they must have: worked for that employer for a total of 12 months; worked at least 1,250 hours; 50 coworkers working within 75 miles of their jobsite. The FMLA also provides military leave for family members of servicemen and women.
ADA Eligibility
The ADA provides leave as an accommodation in certain situations. Typically, both laws cover employees with qualifying disabilities under the ADA. The ADA obligates employers to provide leave when it is a reasonable accommodation to these conditions. For instance, an employee with diabetes and low kidney function may need leave a couple of times a week to get hemodialysis, according to the Job Accommodation Network.
PWFA Eligibility
The PWFA provides reasonable accommodations for workers with pregnancy-related conditions. Leave could be a reasonable accommodation under the PWFA, but the law is explicit that leave should be a last resort. Employers should try to find accommodations that keep employees at work before offering unpaid leave.
State Leave Law Eligibility
State leave laws lay out specific eligibility requirements that vary from one another. That said, there are certain trends: State laws mandating paid family and sick leave are increasing, and they are available to parents, caregivers, and people with serious medical conditions.
The state leave law landscape has expanded significantly in recent years. At least 20 states now maintain their own paid family and medical leave programs. For multi-state employers, this is a challenging aspect of compliance to manage. With AbsenceSoft’s Leave Law Lookup, you can determine whether the states your company operates in maintain paid leave statutes or other, issue-specific leave laws.
Company Leave Policy Eligibility
The policies in your employee handbooks will set up specific requirements defining eligibility. As with eligibility under state laws, it’s important that leave is administered consistently among similarly situated employees.
With any leave of absence, eligibility can be difficult to determine, especially in large, complex organizations, like hospital systems, school districts, and retailers. In these settings, there are multiple groups of employees who work different types of jobs, in different shifts, at different locations.
In the higher education and K-12 school settings, for instance, the academic calendar makes simple hour accrual calculations challenging. Some employees like leadership, guidance counselors, and janitors work throughout the school year, while traditional teachers work according to the academic calendar.
In these instances, the right leave technology can help HR teams calculate eligibility automatically. The AbsenceSoft Compliance Engine, for instance, can instantly determine someone’s eligibility against federal statutes, more than 200 state laws, and custom company policies.
Approach Leave Decisions with Caution and Care
It’s extremely important to approach leave of absence decisions with the utmost care. Denying leave incorrectly or discriminatorily risks legal action. So when you think it’s appropriate to deny someone leave, it’s always important to double check and gather multiple opinions.
When it’s determined that denying leave is the only course of action, it’s important to work with the employee as much as possible. It may be feasible to provide an unpaid, voluntary leave of absence to employees who don’t qualify for FMLA leave, for instance.
When leave is approved, remember that the work isn’t over. Managing employees on leave means tracking their time taken, following up on any re-certification or fitness for duty requirements, and strategizing their return to work.
While implementing leaves of absence according to legal requirements and company policy is non-negotiable, keep in mind that leave experiences color the overall employee experience. According to a recent AbsenceSoft report, employees feel like a valued member of their organization when their leaves go smoothly. But when a leave of absence goes poorly — when employees feel uninformed, confused, or frustrated by their leave experience — it damages motivation, loyalty, and retention.
Your Options for Managing Leaves of Absence
When it comes to managing leaves of absence, employers have three choices: outsourcing, co-sourcing, and insourcing. Each method provides its own advantages.
Employers that outsource leave management typically hire external teams to handle their employees’ leave of absence requests. Similarly, employers that co-source leave management hire an outside company and provide a person or two within their organization to field leave requests and serve as points of contact.
Outsourcing and co-sourcing can save HR teams significant time. It spares them from the administrative labor that accompanies leave management and allows them more time to work on strategic tasks. But these methods sometimes give way to issues with compliance, costs, and the employee experience, making the next option more ideal for many companies.
Many HR teams administer leave themselves. According to AbsenceSoft’s 2026 report, 79% of employers still manage FMLA leave in-house. This approach, known as insourcing, can be littered with errors, headaches, and legal risks.
A growing number of teams are equipping themselves with tools that make leave administration more strategic and less risky. Nearly a quarter of respondents (22%) have adopted dedicated leave management platforms. That’s nearly double the amount of technology-enabled leave teams from the year prior. With advances in technology, even large, complex organizations can successfully insource leave management.
Organizations that leverage modern technology spend far less time on leave management. Purpose-built tools provide a way to centralize case management, automate eligibility calculations and packet creation, accurately track leave time, and much more.
Eliminate Leave of Absence Confusion with AbsenceSoft
As requests for leave continue to pour in, it’s essential that leave managers and HR leaders understand the various types of leaves of absence and how to process them correctly and compassionately. Platforms like AbsenceSoft can help you build a leave management process that’s efficient, comprehensive, and compliant. Schedule a demo today.
FAQs
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PTO, vacation, and sick days are standard benefits employees use for planned time away or minor illness. A leave of absence is typically longer, legally protected, and triggered by a qualifying event, like a serious health condition, caregiving responsibility, or the birth of a child. Not all leaves are paid, and many are governed by federal or state law rather than just company policy.
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It depends on the type of leave. Under the FMLA, employers covered by the law must grant leave to eligible employees for qualifying reasons. For ADA or PWFA accommodations, employers should engage in an interactive process. Denying leave incorrectly can expose an organization to significant legal risk. The AbsenceSoft Compliance Engine combines automation and human expertise to make sure your organization makes leave decisions quickly and accurately.
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Intermittent leave allows an employee to take FMLA leave in separate, non-consecutive blocks of time. Employees can take as little as one hour of leave at a time, and sometimes even less than that. Intermittent leave is commonly used for chronic conditions like migraines, asthma, or mental health disorders that require ongoing but unpredictable time away. Intermittent leave is one of the most administratively complex types of leave to manage and is consistently cited as a top challenge by HR teams in AbsenceSoft research.
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In most cases, no. If the leave is protected under the FMLA, ADA, or a state law, employees generally have the right to return to their same or equivalent position. However, terminations during leave do occur and can expose employers to costly litigation if handled improperly.
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There is no single federal paid leave law in the U.S. Instead, leave is governed by a patchwork of federal laws — including the FMLA, ADA, and PWFA — alongside more than 200 active state and local leave laws. Requirements vary significantly by state, employer size, and employee eligibility. Multi-state employers in particular need robust leave management systems like AbsenceSoft to track which laws apply to each employee.