Holidays and Leave

Ever since I started managing people/projects, I have stopped looking at the Office Holiday List.
The reason is simple. Others do it for me. Don't jump to the conclusion that I delegate even this task.
All I do, is ask my team for their leave plans for the next couple of months. And I have observed that this is one request from a boss that no sub-ordinate, especially the younger ones, has ever delayed in responding.
So the requests start pouring in. All I need to do is to look for common dates and do a bit of a calculation:
1. If there is a leave request for a Monday, it means that the Tuesday is holiday. Similar rule for Thursday as well. This usually results in a converted long weekend.
2. An extension of above rule: 2 consecutive days being asked usually means Wednesday is a holiday. This is again a converted longer weekend.
3. If there is a leave request for tue/thu then the corresponding mon/fri is a holiday. This usually results in an extended weekend.

But another lesson I've learnt over the years is that there is always a person who never marks any leave requests in advance, however much you beg him/her. But you can rest assured that this person will surely fall sick on one or more of the days that fall under the above categories.

The other unwritten leave rule is that whenever you travel, you invariably have to leave early to catch a train and even more definitely, the train that brings you back to the city of work, runs late. And for those who travel by planes, they either don't get tickets or miss their flight or the flight is NEVER on time. Or a combination of all three!!!
The above rule has a minor variation. Some people come to office quoting a bad journey and so leave early on the day of return. Or they just simply take some time off and go to the designated resting areas and have a siesta.

I hope someday I get one young person in my team who at least knows what the meaning of the word professional is....