Think that unlimited holiday time sounds too good to be true? You might be right.
While UK employers are required to provide a 28 day minimum entitlement of paid annual leave to their employees, staff at Virgin Media and Netflix are able to take unlimited holiday time whenever they like. A substantial 71 percent of people who take a holiday feel ‘satisfied to very satisfied with their job’ compared to just 46 per cent of those who don’t. Looking at those figures, you could be forgiven for thinking that unlimited holiday time would only result in even more satisfied workers.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a strong advocate of annual staff leave and believe that businesses have a responsibility in ensuring that employees get the respite they need in order to be productive and healthy. But we have to ask whether an unlimited approach to staff holidays is really beneficial for the employees or the employer.
Richard Branson describes how the non-policy actually works: “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 percent 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!”
On the surface, Branson’s approach seems fair. However in reality, how many employees really feel one hundred percent comfortable that they could take time off? I’m not the first to bring up this question, as many critics have speculated that the unlimited holiday approach could actually cause employees to have less time off than they would have under a regular staff leave approach.
Figures show that 63 per cent of people won’t take all of their annual holiday in 2015, and that 52 per cent lost out on more than seven days of annual allowance by not taking their entitled holiday time in 2014. There are a few different reasons behind employees choosing not to take holiday time: many are concerned that it may reflect badly on them in the eyes of their employer and/or work colleagues, while others feel their workload is too heavy and think that their work will be even more stressful after taking time off.
It’s quite possible that an unlimited holiday approach could mean that employees are even more concerned about judgemental employers and work colleagues, and in turn about their job security. We don’t want to instill a culture of guilt that keeps employees chained to their desks all year round. Overwork causes stress, depression and decreased productivity.
If the UK and the USA aren’t careful about how they conduct their holiday policies, we risk creating a work culture all too similar to that of Japan. Recent news reports highlight Japan’s problem of “karoshi,” or death by overwork, which is symptomatic of Japan’s work culture. Up to two thirds of Japanese workers refuse to take annual leave because it would inconvenience work colleagues or because their workload is too strenuous.
UK employers should be looking for ways to increase productivity by providing a holiday policy that actively encourages employees to take time off and putting into place a framework that means their absence won’t negatively affect their work colleagues or the company. HR software that tracks staff leave, including sick days and other absences, can help companies to effectively manage and plan for holiday entitlements and keep employers up to date with when employees are due holiday time.
