It's like investigating what your (main) interviewer likes to wear, then wear the same suit to the interview...

Adding a comment to show there is another side to the coin: I'm (fairly) introverted, a software developer, and feel I need the "space" to concentrate - get in the "flow" - without distractions to get my work done (either coworkers chatting with each other or asking me either work-related or social). I have left employment before where the open-plan chicken coop was a big contributing factor in the decision. Headphones are a sub-optimal solution for me.

@EdPlunkett at risk of being off topic here: many of TMMM's notions regarding architecting, project planning, documentation, office space, etc. is regarded parochial in the brave new Agile, informal, collaborative, open plan workplace - and some become more relevant than ever... (Whether I agree with such evaluation or not, is besides the point - what matters is if reading the book can be "sold" to management given their own special set of prejudices.)

Your (simulated) employment contract should define conditions for compassionate leave (term in my country): who is considered close enough to qualify (friends or more remote relations are handled via annual or unpaid leave). If not sufficiently addressed, the employment laws in your country should specify default expectations. If neither of these help, that sucks and you are probably down to asking to be excused. But even if you do expect automatic leave, it may still be better to frame it as a request (and handle per law/contract if denied).

Perhaps add to your question how the review is to be done, e.g.: editing an MS Word document (one could enable the Track Changes functionality, or use it to compare your version against his prior version, so all your changes can always be made apparent); annotating a printout with a red pencil like an old-fashioned newspaper editor; making a list of suggested changes on a separate sheet of paper; etc.

I'm all for not sharing gory details... but am also afraid that not sharing enough may lead people to just brush it of - see e.g. various comments about just wearing padded underwear.

@EdHeal: the piles are just an example. Other (actual) examples: orthodontic appliance breaks and needs fixing within about 2 days to prevent loss of progress, tooth breaks, some spinal straining during sleep that begs for a chiropractor/physiotherapist visit... Getting older seems to be a battle.

Is the physical (original) paper certificate required, or can one send in a fax or e-mail a scanned copy?

@Wildcard, AnthonyGrist, Benjamin : and to add to the confusion, I have a bookmark (in Firefox though) that instead of a plain URL, consists of Javascript code to generate a URL (in my case depending on the current date; the resulting web page has new content for each day). Now it could be argued that that program code in that bookmark is my own IP/original creation (even if it is fairly trivial and was constructed with the help of a number of code examples found on the web).