Wait a second–everybody just got back to school and work and returned from summer travels to tuck into desk time, and now upstart Richard Branson is implementing a policy at Virgin that employees can take as many vacation days as they’d like, at any time, as often as they’d like, without requiring management to sign off.
Hmmmm….
He has taken a page from the Netflix book, and it is, while counterintuitive to many managerial brains, a true key to success. As Netflix policy states, ”We should focus on what people get done, not on how many hours or days worked. Just as we don’t have a nine-to-five policy, we don’t need a vacation policy.”
Branson treasures contact and connection over the daily grind, and it makes for a more inspired and fulfilled workplace. How could it not, really? Bosses not breathing down your neck as long as you accomplish what is set before you…no being a slave to a time clock…being able to reverse or entirely remove peak hour commuting frustrations…think of how much more productive workplaces could be!
Clearly not every industry can be run this way…you kind of need doctors and firefighters and pilots and hospitality folks to be in certain expected places doing certain expected things at certain expected times (you might try to hold Congress to the same standard, but that won’t get you very far)…but if yours is a workplace where independent work is the way toward success, doesn’t this sound dreamy? Sure, a few folks may abuse such a system, but they are the ones you want to weed out anyway–the rest will thrive when they are respected enough to maximize their own most productive habits and scheduling.
A thriving, inspired, loyal team is truly the code every employer and manager hopes to crack.
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