Estimated reading time: 3 mins
A total surprise for me is that my post ‘How to Ask your Boss if you Can Leave Work Early – Like a Pro‘ has become my my popular, with over 5million views since publishing in 2013. Since then, I have received thousands of emails and messages requesting that I help the sender craft an email to their boss in order to gain permission to leave early.
It made sense that I should publish a model email to help more people with their request to their boss. So I’ve done just that.
My model email is below, but before you go cut&paste it for yourself, take note of this guidance first:
- This is a model email that works for me. It’s worded how I prefer to express myself. You might have a different style of communication, and I always recommend that you adapt any model communications to your own style.
- The model is brief, deliberately. By all means ‘top and tail’ what I’ve written below, but I urge you not to add ‘waffle’, or you will distract your boss from the main point of the email.
- If it’s not obvious to you, I’ve included some placeholders in the model content. These are for you to replace with your own words. For example, replace [Boss Name] with the name of your boss; [when] should be replaced with when you wish to leave early; [whatever] is to be replaced by what is causing you to need to leave early. And so on. I’ve provided an example at the end of this post to show you what I mean.
- When you’re sending the email, if you can, add a ‘read receipt’. That way you will know if your boss has read your email request. If it’s culturally acceptable in your workplace, if you can, add an ‘urgent’ flag. BUT, I would advice you against tagging your email as ‘important’ – because your request may be important to you, but it is unlikely to be important to your boss.
- After sending your email request, don’t pester your boss for an immediate reply. BUT, do follow up at a later time if your boss hasn’t replied. If your boss hasn’t read the email (or if you haven’t received a ‘read receipt’) then I suggest you follow-up your request in person or by phone/direct message.
- Of course, you could use a direct message through MS Teams (or whatever your corporate standard is) to achieve this, but my word of caution is that you’ll need to be sure that your boss is a regular and competent user of the technology.
OK, so onto the model email. Here goes:
Subject: Request to leave work early [when] Hi [Boss Name] I would like your permission to leave early [when] because I have an urgent situation with [whatever]. This is really important to me because [reason why]. Please understand that I ask you because I have no other option. To compensate [employer/company name] for this, I could [work longer next day or do an extra shift, etc] - perhaps you have an idea of your own. Thanks in advance [Your Name]
As an example, here is one I have used:
Subject: Request to leave work early tomorrow Hi Colin I would like your permission to leave early tomorrow evening at 3pm because I have an urgent situation with my son's school. This is really important to me because his SAT scores are at risk. Please understand that I ask you because I have no other option. To compensate ACME Inc for this, I could make the time up the next day - perhaps you have an idea of your own. Thanks in advance Simon
How did this work for you?
If you use this model email, please share your experience using a comment below. Thanks!
