You may be aware that recently Richard Branson announced that all salaried Virgin employees were now able to take as many holidays as they pleased, whenever they wanted. Sounds pretty cool indeed. Actually, a few companies like Netflix already do that, and as a result have seen a boost in productivity. They also get better, more motivated employees. How does it work? Branson explains:
It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off, the assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel a hundred per cent comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business – or, for that matter, their careers!
Nicely played, Richard. Way to wrap a threat and a fake carrot in the same sentence. If you have ever worked for a company that doesn’t close for Christmas or the whole month of August, then you must know people all fight for taking time off during those times. Of course, it leaves the office understaffed, of course other employees are expected to fill in for the ones who went on holidays. Does that fall into “feeling 100% comfortable the team is up to date and the absence won’t hurt the business”?
The same goes for people who accepted to work over Christmas, if it is a low time at work and they know they will be able to get home by 4pm anyway, and enjoy taking holidays when it gets busier. Other workers generally see it as a win win since they got Christmas off, they are happy to cover for the guy who did them the favour. Now those guys will have to stay when it gets busy, stay at Christmas, and take holidays when no one else has days off (spouse, family, friends).
For me, having no holiday allowance puts an invisible pressure on workers. If you do take the time off, as suggested in the post, a full month for example, then it is really hard to say that your company for sure won’t need you three weeks from now. So what do you do, as a devoted employee? For forego your long holiday.
Whereas when you have saved up your days, and after a year or two are able to take 4 weeks off, then it feels truly deserved.
Furthermore, I don’t know how it can possibly fit all Virgin employees. Take the clerks at the airport counter or the Megastore’s cash register. Sure they can take an hour off and drive their kids to the doctor if there aren’t too many clients (meaning you can’t plan the appointment and the kid has to be sick outside rush hours), but there is no way they can take a week off without having their manager on board, and they certainly can’t take much more than the usual 20-something days per year, otherwise who would charge customers and check travellers in?
The way I see it, it kind of works for managers and office workers. Like an accountant who only needs to report once a month could take three weeks off and then work like crazy when he goes back. Or a sales manager, once the quarter quotas are filled, could take a few weeks and come back to motivate the team at the end of the next quarter. But then again, if you go away, the other manager will stay, push his own sales, and you will eventually be shown the door.
While it all seems super cool on the surface, I imagine the boost in productivity like the one Netflix experienced will indeed happen because employees will start feeling bad taking days off. And, cherry on the Virgin cake, Mr Branson won’t have to pay unused holidays anymore! Such a smart cookie.
Yes it could back fire. The louder and more aggressive workers could get all the good holidays. I too know what it’s like to have to fight for time off. Will be interesting to see how it goes.
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I think this is a great idea. I work in finance which has a terrible, draconian culture of facetime. Most people work long hours because they feel the need to be seen at their desk. Working from home is possible but generaly not encouraged. As a result productivity levels are poor in my experiance.
BTW, I believe this policy at Virgin is only relevant to the parent copmpany which has a relatively small staff (around 150 i believe), for the time being at least.
Personally working over the Christnmas period is not an issue for me. It’s usually nice an quite in my industry meaning stress levels are low. I can come in a little later, leave little earlier and use the time to catch up on tasks that fall by the wayside during busy periods.
I think Mr.B is leading the way here in relying on his staff to be thoughtful (of each other) and mature enough not to be stupid and take advantage and dump on their colleagues. Everyone can identify a slacker at work and a policy like this will make them even easier to spot. That’s a good thing for everyone (apart for the slackers)!
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oh, that makes more sense if it is only for the parent company. I agree with you, being there for the sake of being there is ridiculous, but sadly required by many bosses.
We have a big tech company that moved in about 2 years ago and gives it’s employees 2 weeks for christmas, one week for the 4th of July as well. They just totally shut down because productivity is so low. They also don’t have limits on days off. They measure productivity worked and not hours worked. They find their employees work more when they set their own schedule. It is really interesting and a great concept, but they also only employee people who have advanced degrees so they already have some ethic built in. We get so worried about hours work, but who cares as long as the work gets done. We need to concentrate on productivity and not hours.
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True, it makes no sense to sit at the office just reading or being on FB. I like the idea of shutting down completely, it makes it easy to plan your holidays and also no fights over who gets Christmas or not.
I have actually read that systems like this work best for the company and NOT for the employee. In situations where employees get unlimited vacation time, statistics show that they actually take less than people who get a designated amount. This is because the employees usually feel guilty and they don’t want to lose their job.
I have a friend who gets “umlimited” vacation time and sick days. He hasn’t taken a vacation or a sick day in the three years that he’s been working there…. No one else does either.
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My point exactly, smart move from Branson.
The not being able to count on the time off would really mess with any kind of concrete plan making or appointments.
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Yes, it makes it virtually impossible for employees to take time off.
I guess some companies that have already adopted this policy actually had financial growth, so who knows! I get unlimited holidays too where I work…of course I don’t get paid for them. 🙂
lol. Of course they have growth because now people are scared to ask for a day off while their coworkers work!
I think, on average, people would take less vacation if it wasn’t tracked. Every vacation day would be looked at under a microscope by co-workers – “Oh, did you hear so-and-so took off ANOTHER Friday?”
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That is probably what Branson is going for, and you don’t even have to pay the days people don’t take.
It is beneficial tour for the unmarried person. The companies offer a tour to the employee to plan a solo trip. It is one of the exciting activity that i visited.