Australian workers are racing to book annual leave on November 19 for a video game crime spree: ‘Do I risk it?’

There are several times throughout the year when corporate workers race to put in their annual leave requests, including the Easter long weekend, school holidays, Christmas and New Year’s.

But Australians have been warned to avoid planning holidays around November 19 after a surge in employees requesting annual leave for the same period. 

The date has been confirmed as the official launch of Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) – meaning gamers are expected to take time off to play the highly anticipated new video game. 

It’s been a long 13-year wait for GTA fans around the world, including those in Australia, with the last major instalment released in September 2013. 

For one employee working in admin at a commercial real estate company, it was already too late to request time off after his boss realised why so many workers wanted the same date off. 

‘My team has a few gamers and we’ve been super hyped about GTA 6. Some of us grew up playing GTA in our childhood,’ he said in a Reddit thread. 

‘In our last team meeting the team leader warned, “Just so you know any leave around November 19th may require further explanation for approval. We’ve seen a large number of leave applied for this date and we’re understaffed. HR knows why this is happening. It’s that GTA game”.’

The employee said he was planning on taking November 19 to 27 off work. 

‘But a lot of people from other teams have applied for annual leave on these days and it’s flagged as unusual,’ he explained.

‘Do I take the risk? I can’t fake being sick. But I don’t want to miss out on something I waited for so long.’

His dilemma was met with more than 640 comments – with many weighing in.

‘It’s annual leave. You don’t need to justify it. It’s literally your own time to do with what you will,’ one suggested.

‘You should have just been prepared and been the first to apply and get it approved. If you are short-staffed then maybe take the following week and try to avoid spoilers. I wouldn’t risk sick leave because it’ll be pretty obvious,’ another shared.

‘If you do take a sick day for it you know you’ll be crucified right? Personally, I’m also very hyped for GTA 6 but taking time off right on launch might not be the play, there will be so many people trying to play at launch that servers will probably go down and there’ll be delays,’ one explained.

‘My previous manager was a gamer so she knew when big games were coming out and braced for an influx of leave requests. She’d ask for more info if you applied for leave around those times so she could prioritise requests with plans that couldn’t be changed (e.g. weddings, travelling, etc),’ another added.

Meanwhile, many GTA fans shared their excitement after their annual leave got approved so they could stay home and play the new video game.

‘I’m taking Thursday and Friday off because nobody in my team plays games. I felt a little embarrassed as a 40-year-old asking my similarly aged boss for time off to play a video game, and she didn’t care one bit and was happy to approve,’ the man said.

‘I guess if I worked in an industry with more people interested in gaming I might see how it would be a problem if half the company wanted to take the same day off though.’

And it’s not just corporate workers getting warnings about taking annual leave around the release of GTA 6.

‘My husband’s work actually sent an email out about it. He works at a hospital,’ one woman said.

Meanwhile, many fans pointed out the game won’t be released until 4pm AEDT on November 19 so it would be better to request November 20 instead.

‘Just take Friday off, because the game won’t be available until 4pm on Thursday anyway. Play it when you get home Thursday and into the long weekend,’ one said.

‘All those taking Thursday off in Australia are wasting their time because that game won’t be ready until the afternoon.’

While another said: ‘The second week is the play. Everyone off during launch week will encounter bugs, even if the game releases flawlessly, by the time they are all back on deck and gushing over this or that feature, you’ll be home experiencing it yourself. Take a week from the 27th.’

One agreed, saying: ‘As a gamer you know damn well the launch will be buggy as hell and full of flaws. Wait a month.’