Time off requests climb as the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 release nears, and employers need a plan
Next week, a video game that fans have waited more than a decade for goes on sale, and some employers could find themselves short-staffed on release day. Grand Theft Auto VI, widely known as GTA 6, launches Nov. 19, and requests for paid time off (PTO) that day are already higher than usual.
Nicole Csiszar, senior director of HR services at BambooHR in California, said the company's data shows requests for the day up 13%, with even more employees planning to call in sick.
"What's funny about it though is it's not new," Csiszar said. "Employers always get surprised. We have Super Bowl every year on Sunday every year, and people always take off or call in sick."
A familiar pattern with a new trigger
Employers have watched this play out before. UKG's annual Super Bowl Absenteeism Survey projected that 26.2 million U.S. employees planned to miss work the Monday after the most recent game, and about half of them planned to take a pre-approved day off. HR software provider Paycom's data, which HRD America covered, showed a similar pattern, as sick-day requests rose after the Super Bowl.
This time, a poll of IGN's gaming readers found that 42% had already requested Nov. 19 off and 9% planned to call in sick. José García Montalvo, an economics professor at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, has projected that the day could cost the U.S. about $1 billion in productivity, according to the International Business Times. The outlet described the figure as an academic projection rather than an official forecast. UKG research on this summer's FIFA World Cup, which HRD America covered, estimated that the 39-day tournament could cost $11.7 billion in lost U.S. productivity.
Gretchen Alarcon, senior vice president and general manager of human capital management and payroll at UKG, looks at the day from the employer's side.
"I'm less worried about the economic impact of people taking Nov. 19 off than I am about companies being surprised by it," Alarcon said. "When employees tell you weeks in advance what they need, that's a gift to the business, but only if the CHRO has built the culture and capability to act on it."
Deciding who gets the day
Most private industry workers can request paid vacation leave, with about 80% having access to it in March 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, when several of them want the same day, Csiszar said, the starting point is the business itself.
"I think just like with any time off, you have it around the holidays," she said. "What's the business need? What's going to be the impact of who you let off? And then, depending on how you handle other time off, just make sure you're fair and consistent."
A written policy gives managers something to point to if an employee questions the decision, Csiszar said.
"I always think it's a good idea to have a good policy, ensure that leaders in the organization follow that policy," she said.
Alarcon said technology can help with consistency.
"Fairness is hard to deliver consistently across thousands of employees, and that's where technology can help," she said. "It can apply the same rules and guardrails, surface options and give managers a much broader view of the workforce than any one person could have."
"But I don't think you should automate humanity out of the decision," Alarcon added. "Technology should help scale fairness while people still own the judgment and explanation of the rules."
When the sick calls come in
Approved time off gives managers advance notice. Sick calls tend to arrive the same morning. That makes them trickier, Csiszar said, because managers shouldn't be asking employees why they called in.
"They might have played so hard that their thumbs are literally in pain," she said. "Whatever the case may be, it's not for us to judge. I wouldn't encourage anyone to probe into it unless there is a pattern of someone's behavior of calling in sick where it wasn't really sick."
Many managers are skeptical of such calls. A 2023 BambooHR report covered by HRD America found that 77% of managers have suspected someone they manage of faking sick leave, and the company suggested explicit policies on what managers can and can't ask. Those policies also have to account for state law, and the Congressional Research Service counts 18 states, including the District of Columbia, that require private employers to provide paid sick leave in 2026.
Alarcon said the focus should be on coverage.
"A callout may be unavoidable, but that doesn't mean chaos must follow," she said. "Frontline leaders need visibility into availability, skills, demand, and overtime, along with clear policies and options for adjusting coverage. Managers shouldn't be the contingency plan. They should be equipped by one."
Alarcon said employers should look at where an absence does the most damage to operations.
"In healthcare, retail, hospitality, or manufacturing, the work doesn't disappear because someone isn't there," Alarcon said. "Patients still need care, customers still need service, and production still needs to run."
Csiszar said employers that understand their workforce's culture, and what excites it, should plan for events like this ahead of time.
"Holidays, seasonal peaks and other major sporting events all create the same staffing problems," Alarcon said. "CHROs should ask whether their organizations are built for the reality of how people live and work today."
