The No Policy PTO Policy
Compare the way your top employees do their jobs today versus the way they might have done that same job in the 1990s. Today, there is simply much more blurring between professional and personal lives, evidenced by such behaviors as employees responding to emails and handling problems at night and on the weekends versus only handling those matters during normal work hours at the office. Given this shift in the way people actually work, we asked whether it really made sense to maintain a traditional paid time off (PTO) policy that only allows a certain number of days off each year and no more. We also asked whether we wanted rules, regulations and policies, as well as the administrative burdens that go with it, or whether we wanted to treat our employees like responsible, mature professionals who know what it takes to get the job done and act accordingly.
After some contemplation, evaluation and deliberation, we chose to do something pretty radical – we completely eliminated our traditional PTO policy in favor of no policy at all. What does that mean? Well, just what you would expect. Salaried employees can take time off whenever they want and there are no hard and fast rules about how much time they can take off.
This has been an extremely liberating move for both the firm leadership and the firm employees, and we have learned a few things along the way.
First, as business guru Daniel Pink advocates in his short piece The Flip Manifesto "ever more companies are realizing that autonomy isn't the opposite of accountability – it's the pathway to it." Although freedom and responsibility have long been considered fundamentally incompatible, they actually go together quite well for those employees who are invested in their jobs and are driven to make an impact.
Second, when you design systems (such as traditional PTO policies) that assume bad faith from the participants, sometimes such systems foster the very behavior you are trying to deter. As Daniel Pink explains: "People will push and push the limits of the formal rules, search for every available loophole, and look for ways to game the system when the defenders aren't watching." In contrast, a freedom-intensive approach that assumes good faith from the participants can actually foster that behavior. Good employees are good stewards of their own time and follow through on their responsibilities, and yes, even when they have unlimited time off.
Third, freedom-intensive systems must be protected, and swift action is required whenever the system is abused. In that regard, another piece of wisdom from Daniel Pink is spot on: "if you think people in your organization are predisposed to rip you off, maybe the solution isn't to build a tighter, more punitive set of rules. Maybe the answer is to hire new people."
Fourth, we implemented a few requirements to prevent chaos and to ensure efficient workflow and communication:
— Within a flex-time system, each employee established "standard office hours";
— The firm also established "core hours," during which time meetings and telephone conferences and other collaborative work can be scheduled – employee "standard office hours" encompass the "core hours;" and
— Employees correspond with a centralized "whereabouts" email address to communicate when they will be out of the office, and that information is entered on a centralized "whereabouts" calendar that anyone can review to determine an employee's location.
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About the Firm:
Klemchuk LLP is a litigation, intellectual property, transactional, and international business law firm dedicated to protecting innovation. The firm provides tailored legal solutions to industries including software, technology, retail, real estate, consumer goods, ecommerce, telecommunications, restaurant, energy, media, and professional services. The firm focuses on serving mid-market companies seeking long-term, value-added relationships with a law firm. Learn more about experiencing law practiced differently and our local counsel practice.
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