A golden position, and the benefits that go with it. After “very competitive” interviews, Louis* won a contract as a financial analyst a few months ago in a large Parisian company. “Their package was a dream,” recalls the young man. Because, to retain their employees and attract new candidates, employers offer, in addition to advantageous remuneration, an impressive list of “perks”. Louis thus benefits from fully reimbursed mutual insurance, transport tickets 100% support, an extremely flexible telecommuting policy and… unlimited paid leave. “In theory, as long as they meet their objectives, any employee can take as many vacations as they wish”, Coming straight from the United States, where giants like Netflix, Microsoft or Goldman Sachs have long offered this benefit to their employees, the trend has developed in certain French companies, seduced by this notion – pushed at the extreme – flexibility and empowerment of employees.
According a study carried out in 2018 by the Joblift platform, a large majority of job offers offering this advantage in France came from start-ups and were largely aimed at developers (53% of offers), salespeople (16%) or engineers (8%). “In these sectors, the market has become so competitive that more and more advantages of this type are offered to us… But the problem is that it is not always a success”, believes Louis. Already perplexed by the promise of an endless stock of paid leave, the Parisian says he is “disappointed” with the concrete implementation of the measure in this company which he has since left. “Under the guise of the company’s freedom and blind trust in its employees, there is clearly an unofficial counter of the number of leaves taken by one or the other, few really exceed their quota. And there is an inequality between the the most senior positions, who leave a lot, and the others, who don’t really dare to take advantage of it”, he says, before concluding: “For me, it’s more of a marketing tool, powder eyes to attract new talent.”
Charles Chantala, commercial director at Indeed France, admits that this measure can prove to be “double-edged” if it is not properly supported. “It only takes a few unscrupulous people to derail the machine. But it can work if a certain number of safeguards are put in place”, he nuances, while his company offers this advantage to its 13,000 employees. around the world since 2016.
“At the beginning, this measure caused a lot of reaction, whether externally or internally. But it finally made it possible to give our employees greater freedom, more autonomy, more responsibility”, he says. to be worth. Seven years after the introduction of unlimited paid leave, Indeed’s French employees would take on average “six days more than elsewhere”, posed when they see fit throughout the year. But the commercial director warns: “Unlimited leave, that doesn’t mean it’s the Wild West. There are still some rules to follow.” Starting with the essential – and unofficial – stage of the famous “discussion between colleagues”, in order to ensure that the work objectives will be achieved despite the successive absences of the team members. The employee is also obliged to request permission to be absent from his manager, who retains the right to refuse him his additional leave. “It happens very rarely, but it is possible”, specifies Charles Chantala. Above all, this displayed freedom does not imply the total detachment of human resources on the subject of paid leave. “We first make sure that the classic holidays and RTT are taken, then we monitor any differences between employees, the unspoken things that could arise… This must be done in a climate of mutual trust, otherwise , it can’t work.”
“People are stalking each other”
Observing the group dynamics imposed by the implementation of unlimited paid leave during an internship in a Parisian start-up, it is precisely on the weight of the “look of others” that Clara* winced. “On paper, it looked great. But, the truth is, people don’t have the same standards: for one, it shouldn’t exceed five weeks, for the other, it’s It’s seven weeks… Finally, people are coping with each other”, she testifies. In the open space, holidays become an eternal subject of debate, a source of guilt or frustration for some employees. “The whole issue of this principle is the question of the workload. What impact will our absence have on the collective? Who will be perceived as more efficient than the others, more enduring, more dedicated? If a link in the chain is blocked, each decision can then seem unfair, unpopular, even individualistic”, underlines the psychologist of the work Christophe Nguyen, president of the cabinet specialized in the psychosocial risks human Footprint. Not to mention the responsibility to be shouldered by managers. “It’s a real headache: you have to manage cooperation at team level, measure everyone’s workload, maintain objectives and avoid frustration… This pressure on their shoulders is not trivial”, recalls the psychologist. Charles Chantala, of Indeed, insists on the necessary training of managers before the implementation of such a measure.
For the occupational psychologist Sébastien Hof, there is “a lure linked to the very choice of the expression ‘unlimited leave'”. “Paid leave will obviously never be truly unlimited. If you blur the official rules, unwritten rules will be laid down, and not always for the best,” he notes. The specialist fears in particular a breach of equality between the most “charismatic” employees and the others. “Depending on the ability of employees to impose themselves in the work collective, there will be strong individual differences, which can ultimately create quite unhealthy pressure at work.” Employed for a year and a half in a small New York start-up, Alexis experienced this. After taking seven weeks off last year, the 30-year-old felt the gap between his vision of unlimited leave and… that of his colleagues. “Most just took a week at Thanksgiving and one between Christmas and New Years. I think the boss was overwhelmed when he saw the number of days I had taken…” This year, the employee s’ is therefore self-regulating. “So far, I’ve only taken a week. Even though I haven’t had a direct comment, I clearly feel less free.”
“Reversal of Responsibilities”
In this ultra-flexible system, the occupational psychologist Sébastien Hof also denounces an “inversion of responsibilities” between employer and employees which could prove harmful for certain employees. “You can take as much time off as you want, as long as the objective is met. For some, this will blur the line between vacation and work, creating unconscious stress, even in moments of rest.” Paul, who works in a Parisian company allowing unlimited paid leave, is lucid on the issue. “The other side of the coin is that you are entirely responsible for your work rate, and we can quickly warn you if we feel that you are not in the nails.” This year, several of his colleagues left for three weeks in the middle of the commercial season. “They paid a high price when they came back in terms of workload. It should not be abused,” he explains. He himself posed, without scruple, for five weeks next August. “I completely enjoy the advantage, but I accept the counterpart: before the holidays, I will work like crazy to achieve my goals.”
To avoid the possible perverse effects of this advantage, some companies, initially seduced, finally decided to backpedal. This is the case of the Rennes company Yes We Dev, or the London company Charlie HR, which regrets in a blog post that many employees did not ultimately “take enough leave”, that this measure opened the door to a certain form of “injustice” and generated anxiety in particular among certain employees. In Quebec, Marianne Lemay has also decided to reconsider her policy of unlimited paid leave. Founder of the company specializing in HR strategy Kolegz, she tells L’Express of a “double-edged sword” measure, which left too many employees “in the dark”. “Many wondered if they were abusing or if, on the contrary, they were not taking enough leave, when they should be asked… This created a feeling of frustration”, she says.
To cut short the unease around the question, the director decides: seven weeks of paid leave for all employees – five weeks more than the average in the country. “No one questions themselves anymore, and it’s much better that way,” concludes the Quebecer. At Indeed, Charles Chantala reminds him that this measure should not be taken lightly. “Obviously, the corporate culture has to match these kinds of benefits. If there is then a discrepancy in the facts, it will drive candidates away.”
*Names have been changed.