Take A leave?

I must take a leave of absence from my job.

I will take a leave of absence from church attendance as long as political endorsements are being made from visiting preachers.

I often take a leave of my senses on grammar threads and use antiquated language.

Leave is a military term meaning vacation. In civilian matters it means to stop doing something for a while.

If someone does something crazy we say he has taken leave of his senses. So then we make a joke: if a poll taker goes on vacation, he has taken leave of his census.

We put in for leave, sick or annual (vacation), at my civilian job. The browser client my employer uses refers to it as "Absence Request."