Sandwich leave rule: how it works, with examples
Updated · 4 min read · By the Timerfly team
The short answer
The sandwich leave rule counts a weekly off or holiday as leave when it falls between two days of leave. Take Friday and Monday off and the weekend in between counts too: 4 days of leave, not 2. It’s a company policy, not a law, so it applies only if your policy says so.
How it works
Without the rule, leave counts only on working days. With it, any weekly off or holiday “sandwiched” between leave days becomes leave as well. Companies use it to discourage stretching a weekend or a festival into a long break with very little leave.
Examples
| Leave taken | Days in between | Without the rule | With the rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday and Monday | Saturday, Sunday off | 2 days | 4 days |
| Day before and day after a public holiday | The holiday | 2 days | 3 days |
| Friday only | None (leave on one side) | 1 day | 1 day |
| Monday to Friday | None | 5 days | 5 days |
| Thursday, Friday and Monday | Saturday, Sunday off | 3 days | 5 days |
To check your own dates, weekly offs and holidays, use the sandwich leave calculator.
Writing the rule
If you use it, write it plainly in the leave policy so nobody is surprised at month end:
- Which leave types: casual and paid leave, unpaid leave, absence without approval, or all of them. Sick leave with a certificate is often left out.
- Which days get sandwiched: weekly offs, public holidays or both.
- Exceptions: leave approved in advance, emergencies, or long leave such as maternity leave.
- Where it shows: how the extra days appear on the leave record and in payroll.
Some companies narrow the rule to unapproved absence only, because it can feel unfair to staff who took two genuine days off. Whatever you choose, apply it to everyone the same way.
Keeping the count straight
Sandwich leave is easy to get wrong by hand, because it depends on the weekly offs and holidays of each person’s own schedule. Whatever system you use, it needs three things in one place: each person’s working days, the company’s holidays, and the leave they took.
Timerfly keeps those together on Pro. The Activity calendar shows each person’s weekly offs, company holidays and approved leave, so you can see which days fell between leave, and the monthly attendance Excel gives each person’s totals for payroll. Timerfly doesn’t add sandwiched days by itself, so your rule stays your decision.