How Richard Branson allowed his offices to go on vacation at any time and for any length of time.

On Tuesday, Branson posted a post on his blog “Why do we allow Virgin employees to take as many days off as they see fit . ”


Virgin.com Photos

A flexible schedule has changed how, where and when we do our work. Well, if work from 9 to 5 ceased to be mandatory - why keep to a strict schedule of annual leave?

In the past few years, Netflix has gone to the top in the streaming video market. One of the keys to understanding how they intend to maintain their leadership lies in a very well thought out and bold initiative to change the rules of the game - or, to be more precise - to cancel them in a question very close and important to most workers around the world: annual leave rights.
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I first learned about what was done in Netflix when my daughter Holly read an article in the Daily Telegraph and immediately sent me an excerpt from her with a very inspiring comment in the mail: “Dad, look. This is what I’ve talked about before and that, I’m sure, will be very much in the style of Virgin: do not control the leave of workers. ” Then she added: “I have a friend in the company that introduced the same thing - and they clearly reached the peak in all parameters: team spirit, creativity and productivity above the roof.” Needless to say, I was immediately intrigued and wanted to know the details. An article in the Telegraph reported on the new holiday policy adopted by Netflix, which, in principle, would be more accurate to describe as a rejection of any policy! It is like writing somewhere that someone was offered a percentage of 0% - if it is zero, can it even be called a percentage?

In general, to put it simply, this all-non-policy allows all paid staff to take a vacation for as long as they want. Neither employees need to ask for permission to leave, nor their managers to keep records of the working time of their absence in the office. It is assumed that the employees themselves decide when to take a couple of hours, a day, a week or a month (and a year is possible? - note of the lane) leave, if they are 100% sure that they and the team fit all projects on time and there is no absence It doesn't hurt the cause - or, for that matter, their careers!

The Netflix initiative was driven by an increasing wave of worker appeals interested in how their new, technologically-driven daily routine (working anytime from home or from wherever they receive work mail and messages) is consistent with the old-school vacation policy. That is, if Netflix can no longer keep accurate records of employee time at work, why support a different and outdated standard for controlling their time outside of it? The company agreed and in the Reference Manual on the Culture of Freedom and Responsibility ( cool name - approx. Lane), explained that “We should focus on what people achieve, and not on how many hours a day they work. Since we abandoned the policy of the nine-hour working day, we do not need a vacation policy either. ”

It is always interesting to notice how often the adjectives “simple” and “intelligent” describe the smartest of innovations - well, this is definitely one of the simplest and smartest ideas I've heard in a long time, and I'm happy to announce a similar (missing) policy for the parent companies in the UK and the USA, where the vacation policy could have been absolutely draconian. If this innovation goes as well as expected, we will call on all our branches to follow their example, which will be incredibly cool to follow.

Do you think all jobs should get rid of the rules of annual vacations? share your thoughts in the comments.
www.virgin.com/richard-branson/why-were-letting-virgin-staff-take-as-much-holiday-as-they-want

In a short video commentary on Branson's CNN, he added:

“Treat people as human beings, give them that freedom - and I don't think they will abuse it. And they will do their work. ”

As notes in the fields I will add only:

• The idea of ​​introducing a free vacation schedule does not belong to Branson, but was invented by Netflix and drawn from a newspaper article prompted by his daughter. However, the decision to introduce such a policy in the offices of Virgin is still his :)
• Innovation will affect only two head offices of the company - in New York and London
• The essence of the innovation is to choose when and how much any employee who copes with his duties (no delay on schedule) and is 100% sure that his absence will not harm the company can go on vacation. Those. if a cap is always burning on an employee, projects are packaged or he is simply irreplaceable - he will not be able to use Branson’s generous offer anyway :)

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