Favoring Flexibility

What about positions where part- or flextime won’t cut it? Schilling says one of LarsonAllen’s receptionist positions is job-shared by two people who prefer part-time schedules. One works three days a week, and the other works two.

At many companies, the vacation policy that’s on the books isn’t the one that’s practiced. Employees are subtly (or not-so-subtly) discouraged from taking their allotted time off. And when they do leave, they do so with Blackberry and cell phone in hand, checking in multiple times per day. They often come back more stressed-out than before—especially if they think they’ll find a mess waiting for them. It’s counterproductive and manipulative, and workers are getting sick of it.

“I think the biggest determinant of that truly is management and management’s behavior,” Dross says. “People are told they can take vacation, but in practice when people submit their vacation request, they are rebuked or shamed or guilted into staying. It sends a conflicting message.”

How can this be fixed? By creating a de facto corporate culture of taking earned time off—complete with executives setting an excellent example. The policy manual might even say: “We believe in the restorative value of taking time off,” Dross suggests.

Employees also appreciate flexibility in their vacation time. Many companies have combined sick days with vacation days under the umbrella of “paid time off.” Employees tend to prefer it.

“Several years ago, we [went to that system], and we said ‘You take it when you want it or when you need it,’” Schilling says. “All of our exempt employees get four weeks per year. You’ve got this bulk of time that’s available for you to use as you see fit.”

On top of that, Schilling says her firm refuses to nickel-and-dime its salaried workers’ hours. “They only use paid time off if they don’t work any hours in the day,” she explains. “So if somebody works for two hours in the morning, then heads up north for the weekend, they don’t use any PTO for that day. The whole thought behind that is that you know how much work you have. You know what you need to get done. You may have already worked forty hours in the week. So in practice, that four weeks of PTO really ends up being a lot more when you think about the flexibility that people have with their schedules.”