Richard Branson is letting his staff take off whenever they want for as long as they want
The Most Awesome Boss award goes to Richard Branson, who announced on the Virgin blog that his staff can now take off as much time as they want, whenever they want.
There's no catch, the billionaire entrepreneur wrote. Managers don't have to grant permission, and there's no tracking of the days off. Branson's daughter Holly told him that Netflix has been using this model to much success, and it sounded like a "very Virgin thing to do." After hearing that such a policy increased morale, creativity, and productivity, Branson was sold.
"We should focus on what people get done, not on how many hours or days worked," he said. "Just as we don't have a nine-to-five policy, we don't need a vacation policy." For now, it will just affect Branson's personal staff of 170, NPR reports, but if it goes well it will spread throughout the company. There are some questions that need to be answered — what if every single Virgin America pilot decided to call off one day? — but Branson said he isn't worried about people taking advantage of the system. "If they find it fascinating, interesting, and they're treated like human beings, they'll get their work done," he wrote.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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