The idea of offering employees unlimited holiday made headlines when Silicon Valley companies first came up with it. The concept was literally what it said on the tin–employees could take as much unpaid holiday as they wanted (usually on condition that they’d finished their work first). 

The aim was to build trust, make employees feel in control, and cut red tape for employers. As well as giving employees more freedom, it can benefit employers by removing the need to reference holiday accrual on P&L statements. 

What does the law say about unlimited holiday?

The UK has a statutory minimum of 28 days paid leave a year for full-time employees under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (unlike the US, where there’s no minimum). European case law (pre-Brexit) makes it clear that employers should not only allow but encourage employees to take this minimum.

This makes it very difficult to have a truly unlimited holiday policy–even if you don’t impose an upper limit, you’re practically obligated to impose a lower limit. Anecdotal evidence suggests that when given complete free rein, most employees will take much less than 28 days–and will struggle to disconnect from work during the leave they do take.

It may also be very difficult to grant requests for long holidays, especially if you have several people with overlapping requests.

 Alternative options So is there a better solution than offering unlimited holiday? Here are some options employers have been trying. 

• Policies that offer unlimited holiday, but the employee must take the statutory minimum
• Policies that link unlimited holiday to performance via KPIs and include the right to remove it for poor performance (but again, the employee must take the statutory minimum)
• Designated “no video call” days
• Time off in lieu
• Unlimited flexible working

The idea of unlimited holiday could be a great employee engagement tool, but in practice, you’ll need to craft your policy carefully, starting by ensuring every employee takes at least 28 days off.