Unlimited Vacation — does it actually work? (Well, yes and here’s how)
Unlimited vacation. It’s the new work perk everyone is talking about. When you first see it, you think, oh the possibilities! I could finally visit Hawaii, Australia, Paris — and ooh la la, all in one year! In the US especially where we aren’t guaranteed paid vacation this could really change the game. But, there’s an argument that unlimited vacation means we take even less time off. This is a worry particularly in places like the Valley where innovative companies offer this perk mixed with an “always on” culture, meaning the reality is some staff take even fewer holidays leading to burn out.
I head up People and Culture across Clarity PR, a global PR & communications agency, and came from Dynamo PR that was acquired last year. We kicked off 2020 by pushing out unlimited vacation policy to our entire team globally, informed by Dynamo’s experience of making it work. Along with a flexible, trusting everyday culture, unlimited vacation is now part of our commitment to ensuring our team is happy, energized and has a good work-life balance.
In this piece I’ll talk through some of the arguments against unlimited holiday — which in some organizations are valid — before showcasing how it works for us.
But I thought unlimited vacation meant people took less time off?
Unlimited vacation is still pretty new (in practice, anyway) so reports preaching the “it doesn’t work” message are largely qualitative. The argument is that people take less time off because unlimited vacation generates anxiety and guilt around taking too much leave. Joe Wiggins from Glassdoor claimed that unlimited holiday is constrained by the demands of the workplace, saying, “[As a perk] it’s more common in companies with clear goals and metrics, and sometimes it can be hard to take time off in those environments.”
That’s fair enough. I’m sure most people have felt guilty taking a vacation at some point, resulting in them frantically checking emails when they’re meant to have turned off. As well, with goal hitting being a massive part of the PR job spec, this may lead to some thinking there is no way it could work in our industry. However, unlimited vacation is supported by our culture, we believe taking time off makes time on better — so we’ve also implemented a minimum vacation level and time off is actively encouraged by all MDs!
Why we offer unlimited vacation
Inspired by Netflix who also offer the benefit, Dynamo brought on the benefit in 2014, being the first PR company in the UK to do so, to give staff improved work-life balance. Limited paid holiday schemes much of the time means people “save up” their vacation time for emergencies or for one big holiday, meaning they go many months without a break. This can also create a black hole at the end of the year where staff rush to take their holiday, leaving a depleted team to shoulder all of the workload (it’s a myth that December is a quieter period for PR). This has a negative effect on individuals and the business, with staff suffering burnout because they haven’t had enough breaks and this having a direct impact on the productivity of the team as a whole.
Alongside a flexible, trusting culture where we encourage staff to work the hours they need and to work remotely as long as the work always gets done (which it does), we’ve found that unlimited vacations are a great way to fight stress. Staff that regularly take time out for themselves return to work feeling revitalized, meaning the work we produce is of higher quality than a stressed out, exhausted team could ever generate.
It’s benefits like this, alongside our culture as a whole, that has helped Clarity carve out a reputation for being mighty in the industry, frequently competing and winning against the world’s biggest PR agencies.
How it works for us
So, to dispel the “unlimited holiday means staff take less holiday” thing — we did report on how many holidays were actually taken, with the average over a five year period of 30 days paid leave per year (excluding 8 public or bank holidays), well over the average holiday taken in the UK.
Since the benefit was introduced in January, the team have already been busily planning their 2020 vacations, ensuring the team is never left short and that if need be cover is organised. If you’re curious, here’s what a few of us are doing with our unlimited vacation this year:
I’m planning to hopefully use the PTO to visit family and spend time with my niece — I haven’t usually been able to go to New York unless it’s work-related, so hopefully the new PTO policy will allow more leniency for me to do so by reminding me that it’s an unlimited vacation policy rather than a time-constricted one. Gina Gacad, Account Executive
For me, this is a big year of weddings, so I’ll be using a lot of my vacation time to travel for friends’ nuptials and also for my own! I’m getting married in Maui in August, so I’m really looking forward to having ample time with family and friends and not having to worry about hurrying back to work after such a big personal milestone. Abby Schiller, Senior Account Manager
Unlimited holiday is just one of the great benefits we offer at Clarity, and we’re hiring at all offices. Abby and Gina work in our rapidly growing San Francisco office, and we’re particularly interested in hiring senior account managers and account directors there. If you’d like to work on B2C and B2B with tech brands, and want a good work life balance then get in touch. We have positions available right now!
If you’d like to know more about the steps we took to implement and manage unlimited vacation let me know, we’ll be happy to share!
