Germany's 'GTA 6 leave' is a €119 course, and it won't get you launch day off in the UK

No, Germany isn't giving workers days off to play GTA 6: the 'leave' going viral is a paid €119 course on open-world games, running 18–20 November, that can be booked under Germany's educational leave scheme, and it was dreamed up by an ad agency. We've read the course page and the campaign write-up, and the places are gone. We've also checked UK holiday rules and US federal law to answer the question that actually matters if you're not German: can you get Thursday 19 November off?

Where does Germany's 'GTA 6 leave' come from?

From a paid course and an advertising agency. Bildungsurlaub (literally 'educational leave') is real: according to the campaign itself, in most German states it gives employees five to ten days of paid leave a year for recognised training, while the worker usually pays the course fee. What doesn't exist is a right to time off for a video game.

Here's what there is: German platform Dein Bildungsurlaub, which sells courses that qualify for that leave, has put together one on open-world games for launch week. And the idea didn't come from a classroom. The campaign page on Ads of the World, the ad showcase run by the Clio Awards group, credits Serviceplan Berlin, with Mediaplus on media, and pitches it straight: while gamers everywhere joke about booking holiday or calling in sick for launch, 'Germany has found a more legitimate cheat code'.

Serviceplan Berlin's Jeannette Bohné doesn't hide it either: 'Hacking the system of educational leave to give gamers a release they'll never forget almost feels illegal.' According to the same page, the campaign ran through electronics retailers, streamers and LinkedIn, and Max Schöngen, managing partner at Mediaplus Group, admits the insider-secret feel is deliberate: 'If the idea feels like an insider tip, that is intentional.'

What is the course, and do you actually play GTA 6?

You play, but not on your own terms. We checked the course page on 7 November:

The syllabus covers storytelling, communities, motivation and gamification: students complete in-game tasks in guided groups and then turn them into lessons for the workplace. One module, for example, looks at why easter eggs hook players and what brands can borrow from that. So on 19 November, launch day, there is gaming, but with a trainer on the other end of the call and nine-to-five-thirty hours.

And it doesn't work everywhere in Germany. The page lists the twelve states where it counts as educational leave, from Berlin and Hamburg to North Rhine-Westphalia. In Baden-Württemberg online courses don't qualify, and Bavaria isn't on the list at all. Each state also has its own notice period for telling your employer, so anyone who didn't apply weeks ago is already too late. Not that it matters: there are no places left.

Is there anything like this in the UK or the US?

No. The UK has no statutory 'educational leave' of the German kind, and there's no special paid leave you could stretch to cover a game launch. What you have is your annual leave, and that comes with its own rulebook.

In the US it's even simpler: federal law doesn't guarantee paid vacation at all. The Department of Labor puts it plainly: the Fair Labor Standards Act 'does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations'. Whether you get paid time off, and when you can take it, comes down to your employer's policy or your contract.

Can I just book a day's holiday for 19 November?

In the UK you can ask, but your employer can say no. Under the default rules set out on GOV.UK, you give notice of at least twice the leave you want plus one day, so three days' notice for a single day off. Your employer can refuse, but has to tell you at least as long in advance as the leave requested, plus a day. If your contract says something different, the contract wins. And while employers can refuse a particular date, they can't stop you taking your leave altogether.

Do the maths: with launch on Thursday 19 November, there's still time to put in a request, but whether you get that Thursday off depends on your manager's goodwill and on how many of your colleagues have had the same idea.

So what are your options for launch day?

Few, and familiar. Book the day off as early as you can, in writing, and be ready to negotiate. If that fails, make the most of the pre-load on 10 November: with the game already downloaded, all you'll have to do after work is switch on the console.

In the end, the German 'leave' is a smart ad campaign with a real course behind it: 100 places, €119, three days of class and a controller in your hand. For the rest of us, 19 November is still a Thursday.