Virgin territory for holiday policies?

Virgin territory for holiday policies?


At first glance, the recent revelation that Richard Branson intends to offer his personal staff unlimited holiday looks like fantastic news for the employees concerned.

However, a cursory dig beneath the surface shows that Branson’s business acumen has not deserted him after all. He himself has said that the assumption is that staff will only take holiday “when they feel 100% 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!”. How many employees, regardless of their employer’s approach, would ever describe themselves as being in such a state of nirvana when they are about to embark on a period of annual leave?

It is of course, important to treat employees like adults; that is recognised under law by virtue of the term of mutual trust and confidence implied into every contract of employment. However, it is fitting that in an employment relationship clear rules are set down so that both employer and employee know where they stand, and this is particularly important in relation to something as fundamental as the right to take holiday. Having a fixed holiday allowance provides this clarity. All that Branson’s new policy does is to place the burden of deciding what and when is appropriate in terms of holiday on the shoulders of his staff, rather than such a decision having already been made beforehand by the company. The practical ramification of this may be that his staff are unlikely to take a holiday without a niggling doubt, however small, that they should be at their desks instead. By associating the decision to take holiday with potential career damage, Branson makes it clear just how high the stakes are for his staff. This places a burden on them that they simply would not have to deal with under a more traditional holiday policy, and may lead to a more stressed workforce taking less holiday than it does currently.

Not surprisingly, Branson’s new policy has had a rather more negative effect in the media than he would have liked – time will tell how it will affect his staff.