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Time Off Policy

Our Time Off Tracker is available in Notion.

Internal Company Mantra: “We exercise maximum flexibility—balanced with extreme accountability.”

Taking time off is not selfish behavior. It is vital to maintain mental health. It can be helpful to take longer breaks to re-energize, as it is a core part of the creative process. If this is helpful to you, we strongly recommend taking at least tw*o consecutive weeks of time off per year.

We don't frown on people taking time off, but rather encourage people to take care of themselves and others by having some time away. If you notice that your co-worker is working long hours over a sustained period, you may want to remind them about the time off policy.

💡 Time off from work can be extremely helpful for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Archipelo encourages everyone to take time off when needed.

Personal Time Off​

You need to provide notice to company management when you want to take time off.

If you want to take less than 5 (five) days off, you need to provide 2 (two) weeks' notice for any absence that will affect meeting attendance or other obligations.

You must give appropriate notice to company Executives, Operations, and the team for any absence from work or meetings.

💡 Do everything in your power to avoid time off immediately prior to (or in conflict with) important company milestones—including board meetings or shipping dates.

Please coordinate with your team before taking time off, so that we can ensure business continuity. Giving your team members a heads-up early helps to prioritize work and meet goals and deadlines. We want to ensure that we have adequate coverage and avoid situations where all/most of the team is taking time off at the same time.

To make the team aware, please follow these steps:

  1. Send a notification email to @Dom Sagolla, @Stan Kapusta, and @Matthew Wise about when do you take time off: Time Off Request (NAME) // DATE
  2. Make sure to decline all scheduled meetings in your Google Calendar for the time you are off.
  3. Inform our team in the #status channel on Slack.
  4. Update your status in Slack before you are off. Slack vacation status
  5. Set "Vacation Responder" auto-reply message in Gmail. Gmail vacation responder If this example is boring for you, you can craft something personal or funny.

Vacation​

If you want to take more than 5 (five) days off, you need to provide 4 (four) weeks’ notice for any absence that will affect meeting attendance or other obligations.

The process is the same as for personal time off but requires you to give a longer notice, as well as to acquire approval from Operations team.

  1. Make sure your planned vacations do not overlap with your teammates. The company would like to avoid a situation when many people take a vacation at the same time. You can check scheduled time off at Time Off Tracker
  2. Send a notification email to @Dom Sagolla, @Stan Kapusta, and @Matthew Wise to request vacations: “Vacation Request (NAME) // DATE”
  3. Once approval is given, please follow the protocol below.
  4. Create an Out Of Office event in your Calendar to decline scheduled meetings and auto-decline new invitations. Calendar Out Of Office
  5. Inform our team in the #status channel on Slack.
  6. Update your status in Slack before you are off. Slack vacation status
  7. Set "Vacation Responder" auto-reply message in Gmail. Gmail vacation responder If this example is boring for you, you can craft something personal or funny.

💡 Operations will inform the team on the nearest Team sync about your planned vacations or Personal Time Off.

Sick Time Off​

If you need to take time off for illness, please send an email notification for any absence that will affect meeting attendance or other obligations.

If you or a loved one is ill, we want you to take care of yourself or your loved ones. To facilitate this, you should take sick time off when you need it. Sick time off is meant to be used when you are ill or to care for family members including your parents, children, spouse, or domestic partner.

Sick time off refers to the time a team member takes to address either their health, or the health of a close family member, and also for preventative reasons like a doctor’s appointment.

💡 You still need to report when you take sick time off, unless you are disabled because of illness.

  1. Send a notification email to @Dom Sagolla, @Stan Kapusta, and @Matthew Wise to request time off: “Sick Time Off (NAME) // DATE”
  2. Make sure to inform someone from Operations via email/Slack.
  3. Update your status in Slack. Slack vacation status
  4. Once back to health - make sure to inform the Executive team or Operations about an estimated day for you to be back to business.
  5. Once back to work - revert your status in Slack.

You are under no obligation to reveal details of your illness to Operations and the team. However, if you have shared the details with someone at Archipelo, that person under no circumstances can reveal any illness-related details to other team members to ensure we respect the privacy of the team member affected.

Emergency situations​

Emergencies, by definition, are unexpected. They can range from natural disasters, accidents, family deaths, hospitalization, and any other unexpected situation. During these times, we ask team members to use their best judgment as well as listen to and adhere to public safety officials when possible.

💡 If an unexpected emergency occurs, please contact Operations via Slack or email as soon as possible if you are going to be unavailable or unable to work.

  1. Make sure to inform someone from Operations via email/Slack.
  2. Update your status in Slack. Slack vacation status
  3. Once back to normal - make sure to inform the Executive team or Operations about an estimated day for you to be back to business.
  4. Once back to work - revert your status in Slack.

This will reassure your safety and reassign any critical work during your absence. If you didn't provide an emergency contact to Operations - please complete it. We will only contact that person if we are unable to reach you via Slack, email, or phone.

Public Holidays​

We encourage all team members to take time off for the holidays they observe. Our Team Calendar includes all public holidays in every country we are present. Those events are created manually by our Admin. Such events will invite specific team members who are entitled to be off during such a holiday.

💡 Be proactive and let our Admin know about the holidays you observe, which are not related to the country of your residence.

We are exercising maximum flexibility, so if you don't plan to be off and want to take a day in lieu - please decline the invitation and follow the protocol for Personal Time Off, creating OOO events with the note "day-in-lieu for [holiday]".

💡 During a Team Sync, Operations will notify the team a week before the upcoming public holidays.

Meeting Absence​

In case you can't make it to our key meetings, please make sure to give the appropriate notice to the team, and follow these steps:

  1. Decline your attendance in Google Calendar.
  2. Send an email to the Meeting Host, including Operations in copy (Dom & Stan). Please specify the reason for the meeting absence.
  3. In case you are the Meeting Host – please send the email to the person who will be responsible for running the meeting, including Operations in copy (Dom & Stan). Please specify the reason for the meeting absence.
  4. Inform our team in the #general channel on Slack.