Should your business have limitless holidays?

You may have never heard of the concept of offering worker’s limitless holidays. That’s because not many of us are offered them in our workplace. Limitless holidays are the idea that employers don’t keep track of how much time you have off, or need to even seek approval before jetting off. However, because of this freedom, workers need to ensure that their workload or their team doesn’t suffer while they’re out of the office.

The ultimate entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group Richard Branson was one of the first to offer their staff limitless holidays, and other employers are beginning to follow in his footsteps. Consider our pros and cons of limitless holidays before putting them in place in your workplace.

Pro: Limitless holidays are supposed to boost employee engagement and productivity as they are having time away from the office. By taking time off, workers will be more focused when they are in the office and will produce higher quality work. Employees get chance to reenergise themselves whilst on holiday and shake off any work-related stress.

Con: Although people want to have a say in their life, many are actually frightened of having so much responsibility and a say in what they want to do. A lot of workers are happy to live with routine and not have the pressures of trying to work exceptionally well in the office to make up for time spent out of it.

Pro: Having limitless holidays in your workplace would mean that staff feel like they have more freedom and will therefore enjoy work more as they are not working in a trapped environment. By giving staff more freedom, they will represent your brand better as they won’t have bad things to say about it.

Con: With employees being able to pretty much come and go as they please, there will never be any guaranteed cover for people who are having time off. That’s fine if that person doesn’t need cover, but if it is an environment where someone else will need to take on that person’s responsibilities as well as their own, it will not be fair on them and what happens when both are off at the same time?

Pro:  If you’re spending five or six days at work each week, it’s easy to feel like your life is all work and no play. One thing we all aspire to have is a good work-life balance and by having opportunities to leave the office more often, employees would be able to have a much better balance in their lives.

Con: Unfortunately, chances of workers taking advantage of limitless holidays are highly likely, especially if they don’t have to run it past anyone beforehand. Some workers will take time off all the time whereas others will feel bad for doing so. If you’re going to do it in your office, it’s worth thinking about what your workers are like and if any of them would just see it as an opportunity to jet off every week.

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