‘Gotta prioritise things’: Bosses brace for a wave of GTA VI sickies

November 12, 2026 — 5:30amAustralian employers are bracing for a wave of no-shows when Grand Theft Auto VI launches next Thursday, and some bosses are even giving their staff the day off.The game is the first new instalment in 13 years of one of the best-selling entertainment franchises in history. Sony and Microsoft both said this week it had become the most pre-ordered game ever in their digital stores.After several delays, GTA VI is now slated for release on November 19.Even its publisher expects people to stay at home. Strauss Zelnick, chief executive of Rockstar Games owner Take-Two Interactive, told a conference in Las Vegas he thought “a lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19”.Australians will be among the first in the world to play as the game unlocks at midnight in each country, starting in New Zealand. The launch night runs straight into a working Thursday.PR consultant Eitan Soloducho estimates that launch day could cost the Australian economy at least $70 million, a figure that assumes one in 100 of Australia’s roughly 14 million workers pulls a sickie to play the game.“A lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19,” says Take-Two Interactive Software’s Strauss Zelnick.BloombergDeputy, the Sydney-founded company whose rostering app is used by cafes, retailers and hospitality venues, has studied its data from recent blockbuster launches. It compared the share of rostered shifts that went unworked on launch day with those of the same weekday over the previous three weeks.When Overwatch 2 went on wide release on a Thursday in August 2023, 12.7 per cent of shifts went unworked, up from a usual 6.55 per cent. That’s a jump of almost 94 per cent.In every launch Deputy studied, absenteeism also rose the day before the release, as players cleared their schedules to download the game before it went live at midnight.“The real trap for businesses is the day-before download spike,” said Deputy’s chief technology officer, Ciaran Hale. “With GTA VI’s level of anticipation, it’s likely to cause a major, multi-day scheduling crunch across the frontline workforce.”However, that spike may be smaller this time. Sony and Microsoft opened preloading of GTA VI more than a week early and urged players to download the game as soon as possible.Payroll data suggests many workers are planning ahead rather than calling in sick. Leave booked for November 19 is up 29 per cent on the same Thursday last year across more than 870,000 Australian workers tracked by Employment Hero. Men aged 18 to 44 account for three-quarters of the rise.Brendan Delacoe, 31, drives a truck picking up and delivering furniture for an op shop in Melbourne. As soon as pre-orders opened, he told his manager he would need launch day and the day after off, giving himself a four-day weekend.“I just messaged it straight up, like, GTA’s dropping, so there’s no hiding it,” he said.Delacoe has already used up his annual leave, so the two days will probably be unpaid. “You know, gotta prioritise things,” he said. He said the op shop would be able to cover his shifts.Mark Wooden, a professor emeritus at the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, said a hit to productivity was “certain”. He expects it to be bigger than at any previous launch, though probably too small to show up in national statistics.The big difference this time around is people working from home. When Grand Theft Auto V came out in 2013, few workers could log on from the couch. Now, many office staff can claim to be working while they play, and their employer is effectively paying for the gaming time.Wooden reckons workers most likely to put the game first will be those whose hours have no direct link to what they produce, such as admin and IT support, public servants and university lecturers.Josh Gilbert, an eToro analyst, said the money spent by Australians on the game would otherwise go to the pub or the cinema.“Australians have waited 13 years for a new Grand Theft Auto, so no managers should be too shocked if quite a few sickies get pulled next week,” he said, though the people who queued at midnight in 2013 now have “mortgages, kids and a boss to answer to”.Some employers have stopped fighting it. Casey Jones, head of healthcare marketing agency Medical Marketing Group, has given everyone the day off. Staff who are not interested can swap it for another day.“The team works exceptionally hard all year, so it’s the least I can do,” he said. “Plus, to be honest, I’m pretty keen to play myself.”Jones would have been 11 when Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out in 2002.“With the pressure people are under in the economy right now, a little time off for some joy is exactly what people need,” Jones said. “Not sure every business is going to be on board for this though.”The Fair Work Ombudsman has published advice on taking time off for the game’s launch. Paid sick leave is for workers genuinely unfit for work, and employers can ask for evidence. Unpaid leave requires the employer’s agreement.Rostering app Deputy is urging businesses to treat November 18 to 20 as a high-risk window, and to over-roster just in case.“Give staff a legitimate way to trade out of launch-window shifts weeks ahead, so they swap instead of no-showing,” Deputy suggests.The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.From our partners