.svg)
.svg)
Grand Theft Auto VI finally has a release date that's stuck: 19 November 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. It's one of the biggest entertainment launches in years, and if you run rosters for a living, you already know what that means. A normally quiet Thursday is about to see a noticeable jump in leave requests. Some of them will be honest. Most won't need to be, because now there's a better way to handle it rather than waiting for the request to land and scrambling to cover the gaps.
Microkeeper's Leave Blockouts feature lets you set the rules for high-demand dates in advance, so staff know where they stand before they hit submit, not after a manager knocks them back.
What is a Leave Blockout?
A Leave Blockout is a rule you set up once, against a specific date (or a recurring date range), that controls what happens when someone tries to request leave that falls inside it. You'll find it under HR > Leave Review > Blockouts, and yo can start from a pre-built template or build one from scratch. Each blockout gets a title, an optional custom message explaining the reason to staff, and a severity level that decides how firmly it applies.
How the severity levels work
This is the part that makes blockouts useful for something like a game launch rather than just a hard lockdown. There are three levels. "Warn only" shows staff a heads-up when they try to book leave on that date, but still lets the request through, the right setting when you just want visibility.
"Block staff" stops the employee from submitting at all, though a manager can still override it if there's a genuine reason.
"Block staff and managers" locks it down completely, with only Settings-level users able to make an exception.
For GTA VI launch week, "Warn only" is the setting we'd actually recommend.
Nobody wants to be the employer who banned a video game. But giving your team a gentle "heads up, we're expecting this date to be tight" before they submit is a fair way to manage a predictable spike without looking heavy-handed about it. If a date matters to your business, stocktake, a major trading day, a site shutdown, that's when "Block staff" or "Block staff and managers" earns its place.
You can also scope a blockout to everyone or to specific groups and individuals, and filter it to apply to al leave types, all except personal leave, or specific types only. If more than one blockout applies to the same request, the highest severity wins.
The other dates worth setting this up for
GTA VI is the year's example everyone will relate to, but the same feature covers every predictable pinch point on the calendar. Christmas and New Year trading is the obvious one for retail and hospitality, and because Blockout can be set as a recurring yearly date range, you only need to built it once. Stocktake and EOFY periods matter for almost every industry. Black Friday and Boxing Day sales put the same pressure on retail rosters. School holidays affect childcare, education and retail alike. And with Melbourne Cup Day landing on 3 November this year, just over two weeks before GTA VI's launch, spring is shaping up to be a genuine run of dates worth planning for.
Does this affect payroll or leave that's already been approved?
No. Blockout only controls new requests as they're submitted. They don't touch payroll calculations, and they can't retroactively change or cancel leave that's already been approved. It's a way to shape what happens next, not unwind what's already agreed.
Where to find it
Settings users can create, edit or deactivate a blockout from HR > Leave Review > Blockouts, starting from a template if you'd rather not build one from scratch. Staff with Leave Access can see active blockouts, so there's no surprise on either side.
If you haven't set one up before, book a free consultation with our team and we'll walk you through it, or if you're already a client, our support team is real people, not a chatbot, and they're on hand by phone or ticket if you want a hand getting the first one set up before 19 November.
.png)
.png)
