As much holiday as you want

[Gob]

Sir Richard Branson is to remove limits on the amount of holiday his Virgin Group employees can take each year in the hope that it will raise morale, creativity and productivity.

The Virgin entrepreneur believes that stripping away the company's holiday policy and allowing staff to take breaks whenever and as often as they wish will have long-term benefits for his business. The initiative will apply to 170 staff in the UK and US.

He was inspired after reading about a similar strategy introduced by the video streaming firm Netflix, which decided that if it did not have a nine to five policy, it did not need a holiday policy.

Virgin staff will be allowed to take time off without prior warning but are expected to arrange matters so they can stay up to date with their work.

Writing on his Virgin blog, Sir Richard said: "The 'policy that isn't' permits all salaried staff to take off whenever they want for as long as they want.

"There is no need to ask for prior approval and neither the employees themselves nor their managers are asked or expected to keep track of their days away from the office.

"It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off, the assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel a hundred per cent comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business - or, for that matter, their careers."

Advances in technology that allow remote working means the focus should be on how much people get done, rather than the time they spend doing it, said Sir Richard, 64.

He said the holiday policy - "one of the simplest and smartest initiatives I have heard of in a long time - had been introduced at Virgin's UK and US parent companies "where vacation policies can be particularly draconian" and would be extended to its subsidiaries if a success.

Telegraph, London

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-bu ... z3EHpq2RPT

[MajGenl.Meade]

Imagine that, Gob. You'd never work for him because you'd get less time off!