We’re sacking off our unlimited holiday at UNKNOWN. It’s a bit of an experiment really, but here’s why… 1. No one took more than 21 days in the year. 2. That happened to be consistent across our top performers, so it set a sort of weird ‘guilty standard’. 3. There’s just a general anxiety of ‘yeah but like, actually how much can I take?’ 4. Unlimited didn’t exactly mean unlimited. Like.. we weren’t saying you could take every single chuffing day off. So why are we even saying it then? 5. Research (not mine) shows that humans work best when they’re given clarity. And tokens to spend instead of something undefined. So… we’re reverting back to a set amount of days. But… Everyone in the business will have the same number. And that number will be… Thirty two. 32. FirtyFlipplinTwo. Life is meant to be lived. Things and friends are meant to be seen. No matter how junior or senior you are in life. Feels right. Might not be. 🤪
Do you have rollover limit that the team can take into the next year Ollie Scott? 1 of the things I've noticed is how hard it can be to encourage people to take all of their days off and actually detach from work. Do you have any ingenious ways to encourage the team to actually take a holiday?! We have an off-the-grid bonus that we give if someone doesn't come online for 7 days. That's definitely helpful but I still see a lot of leave mounting up!
I’ve heard this more and more often but kudos for trying it. I think fully remote without thinking it through is the new unlimited holiday. Out of curiosity, is that 32 days plus bank holidays as that’s seriously good?
We have 31 at Accept and Proceed because every second Friday is our Friday Fortnight - our day to explore, recharge or decompress. And we have happier humans for it.
"We weren’t saying you could take every single chuffing day off." Lolin' Love this. Get in. 🙌🏼 Do you have a min that people have to take?
Open briefs sucks. Tight briefs, with a lot of room to move, rule. 👍
I think you are absolutely right on this one Ollie. In my view the shift to unlimited switched holiday from a contractual right to something which always had to be requested. I also agree with same days for everyone. Bold move on 32!
Just out of curiosity, but have you considered setting a minimum number of days that you need to take off? My previous employer "forced" us to take at least 25 days off per year and taking more was highly encouraged. Ppl do indeed like clarity, but given enough time, effort, experimenting and encouragement, even an unlimited vacation policy can become very clear I would argue. It's not necessarily about how much you can take, but rather how much do you need. You can help them understand how much they would need. Maybe even make a personal plan together? Something like 2 weeks of summer holiday + 2 weeks of winter holiday + a week during spring + 1 or 2 days off every third week of the month. That's already between 37 and 49 days! What kind of effect will that one or two days per month extra have on productivity you think? See how it works out, experiment, evaluate and adjust it accordingly. Just some food for thought. Would love some feedback.
After having a job with unlimited time off where everyone was expected to work on their vacation, and now I have a job with four weeks of PTO (not including sick time + closing the office in the last week of December), I MUCH prefer the four weeks. The biggest difference is no one is made to feel guilty about taking time off.
Founder & CEO at UNKNOWN | Founder at Good Brains for Good Brands
1yCrikey. I wasn’t expecting this. Just to be clear, this is additionally to Bank Holidays. And we try to close for 10 days (or however it falls) over Christmas.