A Policy Worth Celebrating
Pop quiz. Which of the following is categorized as a holiday?
A. Christmas
B. Juneteenth
C. My birthday
D. National Donut Day
E. National Coming Out Day
F. All of the above
G. None of the above
Correct answer? Depends who you ask. Well, that’s what we believe anyway. That’s also why we decided to launch our new “choose your own holidays” policy. As of July 1, 2021, our employees are free to choose their own paid holidays.
Typically, companies offer employees a set number of paid holidays (the average in the U.S. is 7.6 paid holidays). In most cases, these paid days off align with federal holidays, holidays printed in a planner or when the bank is closed. We won’t turn this into an elaborate history lesson but the creation of these holidays dates way back to the 1870s. The point to be made is: just because it’s always been, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be questioned today. So we started asking questions.
What really defines a holiday?
Who or what gets to determine this definition? Why?
Sooooo, does my birthday count?
Is it really up to an employer to determine what holidays are celebrated amongst employees?
What if everyone else celebrates that day and I don’t?
After much reflection, dialogue, and debate (between our donut lovers and healthy-eater-ers), we came to the conclusion that the answers to these questions aren’t as clear as many make them out to be. Despite the difficulty we had answering these questions, our team was able to answer one thing quite easily: What does Against stand for? What do we believe in?
Against is a company that believes in inclusivity. We encourage diverse thinking and celebrate individuality. With these values in mind, we unanimously agreed it was time to update our non-existent employee handbook. Although, if we did have an employee handbook, it would now read:
Choose Your Own Holidays Policy
Every year you can select 10 ditch-work-but-get-paid days to go celebrate what’s important to you, whatever it is and however it is you celebrate. Want to spend your birthday out-of-office? Works for us. National Donut Day is calling your name? We’re here for it.
Interested in learning more about working at Against? Check out our careers page here.
