Time Off

Vacation Palm Tree

We want you to take the time you need to refresh and recharge. Many startups offer a simple “unlimited vacation” policy.  We view this  as lazy policymaking at best and at worst an attempt to subtly  discourage employees from taking vacation .

Instead, we set a minimum expected vacation. Our expectation is that everyone (including founders and early hires) will take a minimum of 2 weeks (10 days) vacation per year. If you have taken less than two weeks of vacation in a calendar year, expect your manager to talk to you about it.

We also embrace a more nuanced view of time off. At our last company retreat, we asked the team to talk about what they valued in their time off. Unsurprisingly, we want the freedom to mix work and free time in different ways. Here are some examples of what Bonusly employees do, which we encourage you to do as well:
  • Travel while still working about half time (a “workcation”).
  • Take breaks on nice days to go hiking/biking.
  • Take occasional 3-day weekends.
  • Go away on a longer (week+) vacation where you fully disconnect from work.

Can you truly take unlimited vacation? Of course not. You can't expect to take 6 months of paid vacation per year. But, there is also not a hard limit on the number of days off per year that you can take. Between longer vacations and random days off here and there, a typical employee will take off up to 25 days per year. Can you take more than that? Sure, but we'd recommend having a coversation with your manager about it ahead of time.

Bonusly observes all  US federal holidays , plus the day after Thanksgiving.


Parental Leave Baby

One important policy that many early-stage startups ignore is parental leave. We believe that having a great parental leave plan is critical to attracting and retaining top talent who are parents or want to become parents. Parental leave is for any kind of parent, mother or father, by birth, adoption, or surrogacy.

We offer 9 weeks paid parental leave, to be taken anytime during your child's first 6 months with you. This is less than we would like, so as we grow we'll increase the amount of paid leave.

Also, new parents (mothers or fathers) can bring their immobile infants to work with them. Your new little one is welcome to tag along to work until six months or crawling, whichever comes first.