Two-week vacation? One Twin Cities business wants to make it a mandate
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Workers at Irish Titan, a St. Louis Park digital agency, have new orders from their boss: Take two consecutive weeks of vacation.
Why it matters: It's the latest example of a company going outside the box to keep and attract its workers in an era of stiff competition for labor.
How it works: It's pretty simple — any employee who has been at Irish Titan for more than a year has to take two consecutive weeks of paid time off in 2023, CEO Darin Lynch tells Axios.
State of play: The company already offers unlimited PTO, but Lynch found that the employees might feel guilty about taking time, or just forget to do it.
- So, for the past few years, managers have been training their staff of about 45 in preparation for this.
- That meant making sure that the company wasn't dependent upon just one employee for a specific task.
What they're saying: University of Minnesota sociology professor Phyllis Moen, who studies workplace time off policies, said the two-week mandate is a great idea because it removes the pressure employees may feel when requesting vacation.
- "Unlimited PTO often sounds good, but if the norm is this ideal worker that works all the time and is always committed, then you really can't take the time off," Moen said.
Plus, Lynch said, there are studies showing that longer vacations are better for workers to recover from work stress.
The big picture: The pandemic has brought a new era of innovation for companies to change the way their employees work, Moen said. That includes things like four-day workweeks and increased flexibility.
- "We're seeing a reorganization of work that hasn't really happened since the industrial revolution," she said.
The bottom line: For Irish Titan, it's all about avoiding burnout, Lynch said. That's why the company also offers a one-month sabbatical for employees who have worked at the company for five years.