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29 March 2024

Firms that will give you 'unlimited paid leave'

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

We are a hard working lot in the UAE.

We seem to have more working days than many other countries across the globe and the increased traffic problems only add to the ever building fatigue levels.

According to recent data from Mercer’s Worldwide Benefit and Employment Guidelines, those working in the UAE get nine public holidays - the least in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

For those who cherish the dream of very long paid holidays, these are companies that you should watch out for.

Recently, the boss of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, offered his personal staff as many holidays as they want.

On his website, he said that his staff of 170 could "take off whenever they want for as long as they want".

And the icing on the cake is that there is no need to ask for approval, nor say when they planned to return.

Virgin does have its offices in Dubai but UAE employees are not entitled to this benefit.

The policy has been introduced in the UK and the US, but if all goes well there, the company’s subsidiaries are likely to follow suit and this could impact those in the UAE and the region as well.

Another company that follows this is Netflix Inc, a streaming video and DVD-by-mail service.

The company has amassed 15 million subscribers and when it comes to vacation policy, it really doesn’t have one.

At Netflix, salaried employees are eligible to take as much time off as they'd like and nobody tracks vacation days.

Most of us, at least once in a while, have spent our time in office by playing Farmville.

The maker of this game, Zygna, keeps its employees happy just as it entertains you. The company too has an unlimited holiday policy in place and has been doing considerably well considering it just started operations in 2007.

Even though in a small number but there are some other companies in the league too. Groupon, Glassdoor and Ask.com are to name a few.

The simple logic behind this philosophy is that tired employees do not work well and self-control is much better than something that is imposed and pushed down with somebody monitoring all the time, creating a classroom culture.

[Image via Shutterstock]