If you tell your boss &quot;I am going to take tomorrow off&quot;, and they say, &quot;Actually, you&#x27;re scheduled for an interview, can you please come in?  But take Thursday or Friday off by all means&quot;, you&#x27;re going to still go to work, right?  Informing, in practice, is identical to requesting, and this is really just a language thing that makes it clear that you (a) should inform somebody you&#x27;ll be gone and (b) you can take any day off except maybe 5% of days have critical meetings or whatever.<p>It seems reasonable to think this is codified this way because the alternative language of informing doesn&#x27;t imply suggestion (b), but sure, it could also be due to the founders being control freaks.