PostHog Handbook Library / People

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# Time off

Auto TL;DR

## At a Glance

This long page covers these main areas. The list is generated from the article headings, so it updates with every handbook rebuild.

1. Permissionless time off
2. How to book time off in Time Off by Deel
3. How to cancel time off
4. Flexible working
5. When you should have time off
6. You are sick
7. Bereavements / Child loss
8. Jury duty / voting / childcare disasters, aka 'life stuff'

We offer our team unlimited time off, but with an expectation that you take _at least 25 days off a year_, including national holidays. This is to make sure that people can take time off flexibly while not feeling guilty about being on vacation.

The reason for this policy is that it's critical for PostHog that we hire people we can trust to be responsible with their time off - enough that they can recharge, but not so much that it means we don't get any work done. The People & Ops team will look into holiday usage occasionally to encourage people who haven't taken the minimum time off to do so. The 25 days is a minimum, not a guide.

As general guidance, we don't care about a few days here and there. If you are taking significantly more vacation time than most - for example, 40 days - we would be very surprised if you aren't causing a strain on the rest of your team as a result.

### Permissionless time off

We care about your results, not how long you work.

You do not need to get approval for time off from your manager. Instead, we expect everyone to coordinate with their team to make sure that we're still able to move forwards in your absence. You should avoid things like:

- Having an entire Small Team off - this means we can't provide support to customers
- Having the only X people who can do some totally critical task at PostHog off - if this is unavoidable, try to make sure one of you can at least check in if something goes horribly wrong

#### How to book time off in Time Off by Deel

Before you start, make sure that:

- You have authorized the Time Off by Deel app in Slack to connect to your Google Calendar
- You have subscribed to the team time off calendar

If you don't do this, your holiday won't show up in the team time off calendar.

To book a day off:

- Book it on the Time Off by Deel app in Slack. There are various types of time off you can select. It will be automatically approved and added to the team time off calendar (with the exception of longer term leave.) It will also be added to your manager's personal calendar.
- Do not book directly on deel.com as it does not sync with Slack, and the team will not know you are out. Yes, it is confusing that Deel have two separate systems here.
- There are four types of time off you can select
- PTO - this will be the majority of the time for vacation or any other time off that doesn't fit below
- Out Sick - this is when you're sick and will take time off unexpectedly
- Parental Leave
- Medical Leave - this is planned time off for you personally, on medical grounds - if it is a family member who requires support meaning you will be off, this is PTO.
- Block out your own personal GCal to show that you are out. This is because Time Off by Deel _only_ books in an all day event in your calendar to show that you are out. If you don't do this, automated meetings such as interviews or demos might still get booked into your cal.
- Set an out of office message on your email and have it point to someone else on the team, or hey@posthog.com. Time Off by Deel will automatically set your Slack status to out of office and will autorespond to Slack messages.

> Please manually book in public holidays you plan to take off as well. We have team members working in countries all over the world, so it is not practical for us to book these all in on your behalf. Some people also prefer to work on certain days even if they're considered a public holiday in the country they are living in or visiting. In the Time Off by Deel app, you can use the Bulk Add by Region feature to quickly identify and add the public holidays you want off.

The same rules as above apply regardless of the holiday length and type. Sick leave and any other types of time off should also be booked in the same way.

#### How to cancel time off

If you decide to cancel your holiday, drop a message in #team-people-and-ops and a member of the team will cancel the holiday for you, as only admins can delete holidays.

### Flexible working

We operate on a trust basis and we don't count hours or days worked. We trust everyone to manage their own time.

Whether you have an appointment with your doctor, school run with your kids, or you want to finish an hour early to meet friends or family - we don't mind and you don't need to tell us. Please just add it to your calendar and, if you are doing anything that could require you to be immediately available (ie support hero / or any customer-facing role), please make sure you have cover.

### When you should have time off

#### You are sick

If you are sick, you don't need to work and you will be paid - the upper limit for paid sick leave for your country will be specified in your contract. This is assuming you need a day or two off, then just take them.

Please let your manager know if you need to take off due to illness as soon as you are able to and add it to Time Off by Deel. You shouldn't pre-emptively book a bunch of days off sick, as you can't know how long you will actually be sick for and you may trigger the need for a doctor's note (see below). Just book the day or two off that you are sick then add more if you still feel unwell.

For extended periods of illness (5+ work days), or if you are going over the limit in your country/state, please speak to Fraser so we can work out a plan. In most countries, we will need a doctor's note from you.

If you have a medical condition you know will take you away from work regularly, please let Fraser know so we can work out accommodations with you and your manager.

#### Bereavements / Child loss

We do not define “closeness” and we won't ask about your relationship to the person or what they meant to you. Please just let us know up front how much time you would like to take.

Our bereavement policy also covers pregnancy and child loss for both parents, with no questions asked. Please take at least 2 weeks of paid leave.

If you need extended time for physical or mental health reasons, we will treat it as extended sick leave - just chat to Fraser.

#### Jury duty / voting / childcare disasters, aka 'life stuff'

There are lots of situations where life needs to come first. Please let it - just be communicative with your team and fit your work around it as you need. We trust you will do the right thing here.

If you are summonsed for jury duty, please let Fraser know right away - we can often get an exception granted if we have enough notice.

### Parental leave

Parental leave is exceptional as it needs to be significantly longer than a typical vacation. Anyone at PostHog, regardless of gender, is able to take parental leave, and regardless of whether you've become a parent through childbirth or adoption.

This table explains the amount of paid time off, depending on how long you've been at PostHog

| Time at posthog | maternity leave | paternity leave | | - | - | - | | under 6 months | 3 weeks | 2 - 3 weeks | | 6 - 12 months | 12 weeks | 2 - 3 weeks | | over 12 months | up to 24 weeks | 6 weeks |

> Parental leave at PostHog is designed to be more generous than your local jurisdiction's legal requirements. This means that in most cases you will receive the PostHog policy, if you live in a country with more generous parental leave, then you will receive that. This PostHog policy is not designed to be _in addition_ to your specific state/country policy. PostHog uses the "top up" method to administer paid leave. This means that if you receive any statutory leave, PostHog will top this up to your full pay.

We only pay the enhanced parental leave in one continuous block.

Parental leave isn't supposed to be combined with our unlimited PTO policy here - we aren't prescriptive and will trust your judgement. If you need a longer break after childbirth or a staggered return, log it in the Ops platform or speak to your manager. But please note that we usually won't allow you do a combination of parental leave plus a long holiday in addition to that to extend your time off.

Please log parental leave in the Ops platform as soon as you feel comfortable doing so, and in any case at least 4 months before it will begin. The People & Ops team will follow up on any logistical arrangements around salary etc. and any statutory paperwork that needs doing.

#### Maternity leave

The above is in reference to Paid Time Off (PTO). Maternity leave can be extended using unpaid time off, please work with your team to find a reasonable solution for both your family and your team, and log the total amount of time you expect to take off in the Ops platform as soon as possible.

> For quota-carrying Sales roles taking 12 weeks or longer, your OTE will be calculated by averaging your sales quota attainment for the prior two full quarters (capped at 100% OTE).

#### Paternity leave

We do not offer unpaid leave for Paternity leave.

### Birthday and anniversaries

We celebrate all the big and little milestones at PostHog, including birthdays and work anniversaries. We celebrate each team member as a reminder of how much we appreciate them. Kendal is currently responsible for organizing these.

#### Birthdays

We organize our birthday gifts through Micromerch. They are sent out usually a week prior to the big day! We try to switch up what goes into the birthday boxes every so often so you won't receive the same thing twice.

#### Anniversaries

All our anniversary gifts are created with Micromerch. On your first anniversary with PostHog, you will receive an exclusive cap and pin. On your second anniversary you'll be gifted custom tee and pin, and on your third anniversary, you'll receive a custom sweatshirt and pin... try to collect them all!

All anniversary gifts will be sent by Kendal, but if for whatever reason, you need to send one yourself, you can do this by creating an order in Shopify.

##### 4th year anniversary

On your 4th anniversary at PostHog as a big thank you for sticking with us, we give you a choice of 3 gifts:

1. Sage Barista Touch coffee machine or Aiden Precision coffee maker
2. Apple 27-inch 5K Retina Studio Display with standard glass and tilt-adjustable stand
3. Rimowa luggage set (large trunk, cabin bag, packing cube, toiletries bag)

On the run up to your anniversary, our Ops team will send you a link to the gift options questionnaire and order your 4 year anniversary gift once we receive your completed form. Thank you for making PostHog great!

##### 5th year anniversary

To mark five years at PostHog, you can get a brand new hedgehog profile illustration drawn to replace the one taken when you joined. Send an updated photo to our Graphics team and they'll get it over to our illustrator. Once it's ready, the new illustration will be sent to you.

Canonical URL: https://posthog.com/handbook/people/time-off

GitHub source: contents/handbook/people/time-off.md

Content hash: `db52ce22c185b3a3`