What have you got booked off? What do you mean you haven't sorted it out yet?! It's November!

I have opened my bargaining position at all of Christmas week, which would net me nine consecutive days off for three days of annual leave. Bargain.

The big boss might want me to work through, because it's sort of my turn. My counter-argument is that I'm too useless to be left here unsupervised. This is a fairly high risk strategy.