Microsoft Unlimited time off: Microsoft employees will be able to go on holiday whenever they want, without having to accumulate days before taking them. None of them will have to record their absence from the office because the company has chosen to offer more flexibility and leave the field free for its workers. The announcement came in an email to all employees by Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s Chief People Officer. “How, when, and where we do our jobs has dramatically changed. And as we have transformed, modernising our vacation policy to a more flexible model was a natural next step.”
The new course summarised by Hogan in the Discretionary Time Off plan will begin on 16 January but applies only to the company’s US employees, including new hires. Excluded for the time being are employees in all other countries and hourly workers hired by the company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who is held back by the different regulatory frameworks in vogue in their respective countries and federal laws on hours and wages. However, the number of people who will be able to take leave from work at their own will remains large because even though other American companies such as Netflix, LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft), Salesforce and to some extent Goldman Sachs have taken the same decision in recent months, none of them come close in numerical terms to Microsoft’s employees.
In addition to unlimited time off, the company provides a package with ten days of company holidays, sick and mental health leave, leave for bereavement or to serve as a juror in a court of law. Employees who end the quarter with an unused vacation balance will get a one-time payout in April, the amount of which was not specified. The decision to focus on employee discretion follows the smart working policy, which was initiated during the pandemic and continued in the following months. However, times of crisis have not spared Microsoft, which announced the cutting of a thousand workers last October.
Although ideal as an opportunity for employees, unlimited time off only brings some people together, apart from the possible internal setbacks due to the absence of one or more elements during busy periods (the economic conditions and possible authorisations by company managers are unclear), there are past experiences that show surprises regarding employee behaviour. A 2017 study found that, on average, those who work in companies offering unlimited paid holidays tend to take less time off than in companies with accrued holiday days.
Also, to avoid such a scenario, Microsoft specified that it intends to find valuable solutions to guarantee employees a minimum of holidays. Looking more deeply into the matter, Microsoft’s choice also depends on the desire to reduce the expense of accrued and unused holidays for employees who resign or are dismissed.
Assuming that companies promote new ways of working by trying to safeguard their own interests and those of their employees, Microsoft’s decision is further confirmation that the old approach is now outdated. It is no longer necessary to travel to the office daily to work or measure productivity by a fixed start and end time. If the goals to be achieved determine a worker’s effectiveness and everyone has different ways and times to complete a task, it seems anachronistic to maintain the eight to ten-hour working day five days a week. Researching and considering other formulas is more convenient for both employees and companies.
