Day-off from work

[Guest]

The sales manager in a big firm, after an exhausting but successful campaign, advises his staff of 20 employees that they can take the next day off to relax, but the leave day would be charged to only one of them, and he explained them to which of the employees he would charge the leave day.
Obviously all the employees were desperate for some rest, provided that it would not be them to be charged with the day off, but the manager would want the contrary, i.e. to ensure that as many employees as possible will come to work.
Can you guess what was the manager's announcement as to which employee would be charged with the day off?

[jason]

Maybe he said: "of those who will not show up, the one with the smaller a/a will be charged with the leave day".

Would this work?