Taking Time off

Gary Bury
Gary Bury
Last updated 

Holiday Allowance

We have a flexible attitude toward taking time off work. What this means is we don't have a formal 'cap' on paid holiday entitlement, but we're not going to say it's 'unlimited', because clearly taking 365 days off wouldn't work. We all have to be sensible, reasonable, and maintain an open dialogue.

So what's reasonable?

People have different needs and requirements, indeed they change year to year. We want you to feel able to take the time and opportunities afforded to you outside work.

We encourage you to spread your time off throughout the year, take at least 1 week each quarter, either as separate days or in a single block. We also encourage you to take a 2 week holiday at some stage, a longer break gives you time to properly switch off from work and recharge.

You get all public holidays in your region off.

We run skeleton operations over Christmas and new year, so you won’t need to book that time off. You might be asked to check in a few times to make sure everything is running smoothly and answer any urgent customer services questions. Agreeing this skeleton cover is an open discussion with the full team each year.

In essence this means you take at least 5 weeks off per annum, plus bank holidays and Christmas. But don't feel restricted if there's something you want to do that needs more time off, you can take more, that's fine.

New starters - yes you can take holiday when you’ve only just started, you don’t need to ‘accrue’ that time.

Longer holidays. We're open to people taking longer holidays, up to a month off if you'd like. But these are the exception rather than the rule, something to discuss with Matt and Gary. We'd want to know well in advance, at least three months so we can coordinate the work-load accordingly.


Sabbaticals

Once you've got 2+ years service under your belt you are eligible to apply under our sabbatical leave policy for e.g. an extended period of travelling, to care for someone, do some research, study or learn a new skill.

You can take up to 3 months off, on full pay, once in every 5 year period.

As a small company we need to plan for these kind of longer absences so give us plenty of notice, at least 6 months.

You can't take on alternative employment during a sabbatical. If you want to do any paid work you'll need to make this part of your application.


Sickness

If you're under the weather, take the time you need to feel better within reason.

We recognise too, that your mental health is just as important as your physical health. If you're feeling overwhelmed or mentally fatigued then take a day or two off. If a day or two won't cut it, we'll work with you to find a way to reduce the burden of your work at Timetastic on your overall mental health.

We really do want your work at Timetastic to be the best, and we appreciate that that's not possible if your health is not 100%.


Long-term sickness

We'll continue to pay you at full pay for 4 weeks. If you are off work for more than 4 weeks this is classified as long-term sick, and, unless we agree otherwise we will continue to pay you 70% of your pay until you return to work, up to a maximum of 12 weeks.

If after this period of time, you still cannot work, talk to Gary or Matt, and we will discuss what comes next on a case-by-case basis.


Parental Leave

Unpaid Parental leave of up to 18 weeks per child is provided for in UK https://www.acas.org.uk/parental-leave

Timetastic will allow up to 24 weeks and will be fully paid.

The only restrictions are that leave should be in blocks not greater than 1 week, and no more than 4 weeks per annum.

If you want to take parental leave then as per a regular holiday absence, make a request through Timetastic.