We consider vacation time extremely important to your overall happiness and well being. Each employee accrues 20 vacation days each year (25 after you’ve worked here 3 years) to use as they please. That means you don’t need to justify taking a day off, but take the time you need when you need it. Your accrued vacation hours carry over, and you can store up to a maximum of 6 weeks (30 business days).
We use a google calendar called "Vacation" (you can search in gcal to view it) to track all employee time off for two reasons:
This public calendar allows everyone to see who is working and who is out for the day. As a company that respects work life balance we don't want to be pinging you in slack all day while you're home sick or catching some sun on the beach. Logistically it helps us schedule meetings when everyone is available or plan out other projects.
The calendar helps Liz and admin staff track your time off and reconcile anything in payroll.
Anytime you're absent from work, whether planned or unplanned, its your responsibility to communicate with your team and add the time off the the vacation calendar.
To keep things consistent in the calendar, here's a handy key on how to enter your time off- though its pretty intuitive.
- VAC: Yourname (planned vacations)
- SICK: Yourname (for when you're out sick or out caring for a sick family member)
- DOC: Yourname (doctor's or dentist appointments, usually this will only be for a portion of the day and not an all day event)
- FAMILY SICK: Yourname (for using one of your 5 days of family sick leave)
- CON: Yourname (one of your three conference days each year)
- PL: Yourname (parental leave)
- OUT: Yourname (can be a catch all for other events that do not fall into these other categories or if you prefer to keep the reason for your absence private, for instance medical leave or bereavement)
You can also add (am) or (pm) to the keys if you'll only be out 1/2 the work day. For instance if you plan to leave early on Friday for a long weekend you would put "VAC (pm): Yourname" in the calendar.
If you'd like to add additional info to your calendar entry, please add it in parenthese after your name. For instance: "VAC: Allyson (going to the beach!)"
Questions can be directed to Liz or Cherylyn.
** Note for HQ employees: WFH notifications should now go into the #nyc slack channel as well as on the Vacation calendar.
- Request time off when you know you'll be taking it. This means talking to your team lead before booking any travel. If you're taking more than 3 days off, please give at least one week notice- the earlier the better! That being said, we know the unexpected will occur and will do everything possible to accommodate last minute emergencies and time away. Every team lead's default answer is to approve time away promptly.
- You must talk to your team and get approval for the time away from your team lead first. Log into your profile in Extensis and submit the time off to get approval from your team lead. This is also so accounting can process/approve the time off in the payroll system and it is reflected in your paystub. Be a considerate team member and always coordinate to make sure everything is covered while you’re away.
- Once your team lead has approved your request in Extensis, add your time off directly to the vacation calendar so your coworkers who are not necessarily on your team know if you're out. Use "VAC: Name" for all the days you'll be on vacation.
Rather than have all your vacation days magically appear in Extensis on January 1 each year, you’ll accrue time off (6 hours and 40 minutes per paycheck).
Generally speaking Glitch is very flexible if you ever need to take more time off than you have accrued, but we’d ask that you not be more than 3 days negative (24 hours) under normal circumstances.
Glitch offers unlimited sick days for all employees. Put simply, we think you’ll do your best work when you’re well. This time off is to be used only for your own personal well-being. It’s not good for anyone to bring gross germs into HQ or your home office. Rest, go see a doctor, or whatever you need to do to get back to feeling 100%. This applies for your mental health as well. Do whatever you need to be well, that's the intention behind an unlimited sick leave policy. These days should be entered into the calendar using the SICK notation from above.
- Post that you will be out sick in the Slack Kiwihouse channel to let everyone know that you won't be in that day.
- Mark yourself out as SICK directly to the company Google calendar so your coworkers and team lead will know you are out. Use the "SICK: Name" notation from above.If you’re sick for 7 consecutive days (including weekends) you will go on short term disability insurance, which Glitch pays for every employee. If you're sick for 10 or more days in any given three month period (quarter) we will reach out to you to see if there is anything Glitch as your employer can do and to work out a plan for you to be able to take the time you need.
We do recognize that caretakers experience the added complication of a dependent family member becoming ill unexpectedly and needing to take time to care for them. We don’t think you should have to use vacation time to care for your family, so use up to 5 days when these unexpected circumstances occur. These are meant for full-day occurences. You can always use out of office hours for shorter durations and make up the time later in the day. For example, if you need to drive a family member to an appointment, there is no need to take a sick day, just mark yourself as OUT for a couple of hours. When using these days, add them to the company calendar with the FAMILY SICK notation from above.
Glitch also gives employees 13 paid days (two and a half weeks) to care for a family member with a serious health condition or make arrangements/attend the funeral of a family member. This is in addition to the Family Medical Leave Act, which guarantees employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave to address these circumstances. If you need to use this type of leave, please let your team lead know and speak with HR prior to using this leave time. You will need to track this time used in Extensis. A serious health condition is defined as an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential health care facility; or continuing treatment or continuing supervision by a health care provider. Please note that a birth or adoption is covered under the parental leave policy.
Qualifying family members include:
- Spouse
- Domestic partner (including same and different gender couples; legal registration not required)
- Child/stepchild and anyone for whom you have legal custody
- Parent/stepparent
- Parent-in-law
- Grandparent
- Grandchild
Everyone at Glitch is entitled to take parental leave when a new family member arrives, including adoptive and foster parents. If you’ve been at Glitch less than a year, your parental leave benefits will be prorated.
For all caregivers, including adoptive and foster parents, leave is up to 16 weeks off at 100% pay. If you’ve been at Glitch less than a year, you’ll receive 2 + (14 * Months of service / 12) weeks of leave. We recommend that all caregivers, including adoptive and foster parents, take at least 6 weeks off (at 100% pay) to bond with a new family member.
After you’ve taken whatever amount of leave, we’ll offer you the option to work half time (20 hours per week) at half pay for up to one year. You can take full advantage of this regardless of how long you’ve been at Glitch.
We also recognize that flex time is particularly important to new parents. It is important that flex time is taken with respect to your role. For example, business hours are 9am-5pm ET so business roles should take flex time with that in mind. In all cases, we expect people to work 40 hours a week and be reachable by their team during predictable hours.
New parents can expense up to $500 for take-out meals during the first four weeks that they are home with their new baby. This is a taxable benefit, so the reimbursement will appear on your paycheck after you submit the expense in Abacus. This benefit is prorated if you’ve been at Glitch less than one year.
We assist our employees by offering financial assistance in the adoption of a child. We'll reimburse you up to $5,000 to use towards legal expenses, adoption agencies or other adoption professional fees (that amount is prorated if you’ve been at Glitch less than a year). Parental leave and take-out benefit also apply.
While you are on parental leave, your vacation days still accrue. Vacation days will accrue during part time leave, but at a decelerated rate.
In addition to our parental leave policy, we allow unpaid leaves of absence in accordance to the FMLA and when we can find a temporary replacement for the employee. If you’d like to take unpaid leave please come and talk to us.
Official Company Holidays are:
- New Year's Day - January 1
- Memorial Day (Last Monday in May)
- July 4
- Labor Day (First Monday in September)
- Thanksgiving and the following day (Fourth Thursday and Friday in November)
- Christmas Day - December 25
When a holiday falls on Saturday, we take off Friday. When a holiday falls on Sunday, we take off Monday.
As extreme and disruptive weather becomes more common, Glitch has introduced climate leave to give our employees the security to know they’ll be able to do what’s needed to respond to increasingly frequent severe weather disruptions.
Climate leave consists of up to 5 consecutive work days taken at your discretion for extreme weather, and more time contingent on a declaration of a state of emergency or evacuation orders for your region.
As it’s an infrequent need, we’ll simply track this manually and ask everyone to be as conscientious in documenting this as they are with sick leave. Our hope is that the need remains exceedingly infrequent. But the key thing we want to emphasize is that taking the time you need to keep yourself and your loved ones safe during extreme weather will not compromise or threaten your standing any more than taking a sick day when you need it.
After you've been at Glitch for eight years, you're entitled to take a sabbatical! This is a time to focus on a project that you and your lead agree upon and will be on a case by case basis. Come talk to us when you are at this point and we can figure out what works.
Although there is no legal requirement for Glitch to grant comp time, we think it’s important that employees work a reasonable schedule, which we consider to be 40-45 hours a week. Occasionally it may be necessary to work additional hours, and in those cases we want employees to have the opportunity to take additional time off later.
Comp time must be approved in advance, before the time is spent, and is granted on an hour for hour basis at the discretion of your team lead/manager. We ask that you keep track of the additional hours you’re working for the Admin team and communicate this information to your team lead when you request comp time.
Lastly, we ask that you use the earned comp time within a reasonable period after its accrued. Comp time accrual cannot exceed 40 hours within a two month period of time. If that limit is of concern to you because you’re working more than an additional 40 hours every two months- let’s talk! Work life balance is important!