🕒 time off for remote workers.
Right before going on Thanksgiving break, I started to think about time off policies, specifically for remote-first companies. Do policies differ between in-office teams vs. remote-first teams? How much time off is given at remote companies?
To give an example, as a Product Manager at a distributed company we receive unlimited PTO. We’re encouraged to take anywhere from 2-3 days per month on average. Sometimes I will not take any days off for 2-3 months and then take a week to balance it all. Unlimited is pretty flexible for me as it allows me to not worry about when or how to request time. It takes away a lot of overhead from the employee.
Today, I’ll be sharing a few policies that RemoteCo put together showcasing policies from a number of remote companies.
Btw, what’s your time off policy? Let me know in the comments of this post by viewing this letter in your browser.
Here are a few companies whose time off policies stood out to me:
25 days of mandatory vacation per year and all national holidays in their country of residence
unlimited PTO and working hours are flexible
minimum three-week vacation policy to prevent burnout
we don’t track time off but expect people to take roughly 4 weeks vacation
Takeaways:
Time off policies differs widely from company to company. No matter the company size we can see that some companies enforce flexible and unlimited time off policies in a “take it when you need it approach”.
Other companies state 25 days per year or 2-3 days per month.
Compared to in-office roles the policies are somewhat similar.
Time off policies can quickly change if upper management notices that employees are taking advantage.
Unlimited time-off policies, really encourage employees to take the time they need for their family, themselves, etc.
If you found this letter helpful, forward it to a friend who's interested in learning about remote work time off policies.
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