September 26, 2014

Unlimited annual leave… surely that’s a pipe dream? Well not if you work for Virgin it isn’t. You may have heard the news this week of Sir Richard Branson’s new policy (or lack of a policy!) allowing staff to take as much leave as they would like (work permitting of course!). Here is a link to a BBC article on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29356627 It’s an interesting concept and on its face you can perhaps appreciate the morale benefits with treating staff in this arguably grown up way. However, thinking it through, it’s easy to anticipate the issues that could arise – not least that it could actually lead to staff taking less leave if they feel they aren’t able to (given their workload) or are concerned that they may look less committed compared to the overly keen colleague sitting a few desks away who never ever takes a day off! I actually drafted a contract on this basis (which has been popular in the US for some time now) a year ago so it’s intriguing to see the practice getting a higher profile in the UK. I’ll be curious to see if this becomes more widespread in the coming months.