Unlimited vacations in Polish companies. It's already happening

The standard length of vacation leave in Poland, as stipulated in the Labor Code, is 20 or 26 days, depending on length of service, but many Polish companies offer unlimited vacation as a benefit. 63% of Polish women and men would gladly take advantage of such an opportunity.

The employee is entitled to 20 or 26 days of vacation leave depending on the length of service. This is regulated by the Labor Code (Photo: Grand Warszawski/Shutterstock)

• Employees of many Polish companies can now take as much time off as they want. Their employers are lifting vacation limits.
• 63% of Poles would be happy to take advantage of such an opportunity, and among people from cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, this percentage increases to 74% - according to data from No Fluff Jobs.
• A quarter of respondents are not sure whether they would like to be able to use such a solution, and 12% are against it.

According to the Labor Code in Poland, employees, depending on their length of service, have 20 or 26 days of vacation leave to use. However, the law does not specify an upper limit for the number of days of vacation leave.

According to data from No Fluff Jobs, 63% of Poles would be happy to take advantage of such an opportunity, and among people from cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, this percentage increases to 74%. A quarter of respondents are not sure whether they would like to be able to use such a solution, and 12% are against it.

- Free time and maintaining an optimal work-life balance are certainly very important. Work is a significant activity for people, and holidays are for recharging batteries. Achieving a work-life balance provides peace of mind. I think that is why there is such a great interest in unlimited vacation days, especially if we compare it with the results on a European scale, where less than half of employees expressed their interest in such a solution (48%) - says Paulina Zasempa, people country lead Poland and CEE at SD Worx Poland.

There are companies in Poland that offer unlimited vacation time. An example is the IT company SYZYGY Warsaw. The company decided to introduce unlimited paid vacation days. On average, one employee gets about 35 days off per year.

- It wasn't like we sat down one day and said "we're implementing unlimited vacation", and we certainly didn't want to create a benefit for employees that would look good in offers. The idea was born on its own and resulted from our needs. We noticed that sometimes we tried to "save" days off to be able to accumulate them. For example, when we felt worse one day or needed to take care of something, we didn't want to use the vacation. We tried to save it for extended weekends or holidays - says Paulina Grabowska, people partner at SYZYGY Warsaw in an interview with PulsHR.pl.

- Together we wondered what we could do to make it more convenient for us and not have to worry about bureaucracy. That's where the idea came from to get rid of the 20/26-day limit and open up this pool - he adds.

Another example is the recruitment automation company Traffit.

- After the announcement of unlimited vacations, we started receiving many questions about whether this was really a good solution and whether employees would stop coming to work as a result. Meanwhile, the principle is simple: we trust the people we work with. Everyone knows what tasks they have to do and how much time they need to complete them. We value the results of work, not how much time was spent on it. We set days off within the team to coordinate our work - explains Traffit CEO Adrian Wolak.

- As a team, we take care of ourselves and feel responsible for ourselves and our colleagues. When we see that someone is overworked, their efficiency drops - it would be better for everyone if that person took a vacation and regenerated their strength. In addition, I know that good ideas often come during free time and we can all benefit from that - he adds.