‘Just to sit at home and...’: Journalist’s leave application goes viral, leaves Twitter in splits

Have you ever heard of someone asking for leaves, just to binge watch their favourite series? In an unusual incident, an Alt News journalist requested a day off from work so that he could binge-watch his favourite web series. His leave application is currently trending on Twitter and has left a lot of people speechless.

On Thursday, Alt News journalist Abhishek Kumar posted a screenshot of his leave application on the microblogging platform. Kumar requested a day off on December 23 so that he could binge-watch the most recent season of Pitchers. He wrote an email to Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, the editors-in-chief of Alt News, to allow him to do so.

Pitchers, a hugely popular TVF web series, just its second season on Friday, December 23.

Kumar stated in his application that he could not wait until the weekend to watch the show, the second season of which had just begun after a seven-year hiatus.

“This is a formal application for a day leave on December 23rd to just sit at home and watch Pitchers – Season 2. The reason for this much-needed leave is that I can’t binge watch one of my favourite web series on weekdays all night long disrupting my sleep cycle and can’t wait until the weekend to watch it,” he wrote in the application.

His post garnered huge responses on Twitter.

Kumar claimed that sharing the screenshot was an effort to normalise taking time off for rest and relaxation. “It is not necessary that you take leave only when you are sick or for some work that cannot be done without you,” he said.

Meanwhile, Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair responded to his application on Twitter. “Noted,” he said.

Other Twitter users added laughing emojis to the comments section. The honest leave application amused some people, but others insisted that employees shouldn't have to give a reason when requesting earned leaves.