Unpaid time off
We want to maximize flexibility for our team, so in addition to our paid time off policy—including company observed holidays—team members have the option to take unpaid time off. However, because we provide ample paid time off along with flexible remote work opportunities, we hope that needing to rely on unpaid time off is a rare occurrence.
Our unpaid time off policy is designed to be flexible enough to accommodate both short- and long-term situations. We utilize a two-bucket design to make the approval process more efficient for smaller and more infrequent requests, and to give team members more discretion over these requests, while still accommodating larger or more frequent requests.
How it works
Each team member has access to two unpaid time off buckets in our payroll system—one uses an accrual system with a more streamlined approval process and the other is subject to more careful review.
Each team member will accrue 2 weeks of unpaid time off each year in their “quick review” bucket. This accrued unpaid time off rolls over from year-to-year; however, you can only accumulate a maximum of 2 weeks of this unpaid time off at any given time. New employees will begin accruing this unpaid time off during their first full pay period.
For needs that exceed your “quick review” accrual balance, we also offer a “more review” bucket. Requests submitted through this bucket are reviewed on a case-by-case basis by your manager alongside the people ops team.
During unpaid time off, health benefits will continue; here’s how missed benefit deductions are caught up.
How to use
Unpaid time off can be used by notifying the person you report to as early as reasonably possible and gaining approval. Different reasons for requesting time off will naturally have different expectations for how early you’re able to send notification. You do not need to exhaust your PTO bucket before using UTO; however, you must exhaust your “quick review” bucket in order to use unpaid time off from your “more review” bucket.
Impact of using unpaid time off
Using unpaid time off delays your work anniversary (by the amount of unpaid time off that has been taken) for the purposes of determining annual raises, anniversary swag, and paid time off accruals. Similarly, the amount of PTO you accrue in a pay period is reduced in proportion to the amount of unpaid time off that was taken in that pay period.