Unlimited vacation – sounds too good to be true, right?
But at Careem we believe that rest and recuperation are crucial to our health and well-being, and Careem is a busy, exciting and challenging place to work – we know how much everyone gives in pursuit of our purpose. Therefore, we want to make sure that our people take breaks to refresh and recharge, so we’ve adopted an unlimited vacation policy.
In other words, Careem colleagues can take as many vacation days as they like each year.
We also trust those colleagues to take ownership and responsibility, which means we don’t need to mandate work/life balance. We want everyone to feel empowered to make decisions that are in their own best interests and the interests of Careem and we trust our colleagues to manage their tasks and projects.
This policy is built on a foundation of trust and we want our teams to feel like they can take leave when they like, for as long as they like. We’re not the first company to do this, but it’s still something that is relatively rare overall, although we strongly believe it’s something that will benefit all involved. And the introduction of unlimited vacation is in line with what employees are increasingly looking for in a career.
In a Gallup poll 53 percent of employees said that for them it was “very important” to have a job that gives them a greater work-life balance and personal well-being. Meanwhile, research from Glassdoor shows that nearly 80 percent of workers prefer additional benefits over income increases, and 84 percent of employees with high-benefit satisfaction also report high job satisfaction.
Unlimited leave is not the only thing we have at Careem. Everyone can take ownership of the way they work, with flexible hours and an option to work from home as well, plus we don’t have a set dress code because we don’t believe that men need to have a piece of cloth tied around their neck to be able to do their job, nor women having to dress like they’re in an episode of Mad Men. It’s 2018.
But ultimately, we should all take responsibility for our health and well-being. Tired, stressed and overworked people are less productive and less happy. And we hear that Paris is really nice this time of year…
See also: How Careem designs for inclusivity