Leave Benefits

Axelerant team members own their leave planning for rest and rejuvenation in conjunction with manager and peer collaborations when relevant.

For audit and compliance purposes, all team members must use our leave management system by Timetastic as the single source of truth to accurately track and communicate time off.

Time away from work is beneficial for a healthy life balance. Taking time off is not a selfish behavior. Time away from Axelerant is part of good mental health.

Relaxation is a creative process core

You don't need to worry about taking time off to go to the gym, nap, grocery shop, do household chores, help someone, etc. When you have urgent tasks, but something comes up or takes longer than expected, inform your team so they can pick up your tasks.

Not taking time off often leads to burnout and becoming a single point of failure. Please demonstrate humility in your role, foster collaboration, train others, and document and explain your work.

Take leave while you have something you want to do – taking a mental health day, for example – rather than waiting until you need the time off.

Lead by example and return to Axelerant with renewed energy to do your best work! When you think someone else should take a break, encourage them to do so.

Specifics

• Leave balances are reset on the team member's work anniversary date.

• The monthly leaves pro-ration is 3.33.

• Up to ten (10) days of leave can be carried forward to the following year.

• Additional leave types

  • Maternity Leave

    • Pregnant individuals with at least 80 days of service at Axelerant are eligible for paid Maternity Leave.

  • Paternity Leave

    • Paternal individuals with at least 80 days of service at Axelerant can avail of paid Paternity Leave.

  • Leave Without Pay

    • Pay deduction will be based on the number of leave days in a month multiplied by the most recent daily salary rate.

  • Global Delivery Compensatory Time Off

    • When Global Delivery team members are requested to work over the weekend or another overtime period, they earn a Compensatory Day Off. The Compensatory Day Off is expected within one month of the worked weekend. 

  • Sabbatical

    • Full-time team members with three years of continuous service qualify for a sabbatical.

  • Kindness Leave

    • Axelerant’s total contribution for the Kindness leave pool will be 54 days with proration of 4.5 days per month.

    • Team members are encouraged to donate their leaves through Kindness Leave Contribution.

    • Team members can use Kindness Leave for unforeseen situations by submitting a Kindness Leave Application.

    • Upon people operations review & acknowledgement, team members can apply for Kindness Leave through the leave management system.

    • The Kindness leave balance as of November 30, 2024, is 68 days.

Kindness Leave Balance for December 2024

• No leave encashment is available. 

• Apply for Consolidated Leaves via the Leave Management System (LMS).

• For any other leave category, apply via People Desk.

• When your reporting or career manager determines that your time away negatively impacts your team or the business, your manager may ask you to return to work earlier to ensure the continued success of your team's work. 

• Continued absence from work without notice could lead to an Exceptional Situation.

Taking Leaves

Before booking the time off, coordinate with your manager and teammates. Especially during popular holiday periods, so that we can ensure business continuity. We want to ensure adequate coverage and avoid situations where much of the group is simultaneously away. Team members on the beach can contact their career managers for approval to leave.

We kindly ask that you verbally inform your manager about your planned leave well in advance, aiming for at least twice as many business days before your leave as the number of days you plan to take off. For example, if you're planning a day off, please notify your manager at least two business days in advance. For a week's leave or five days, the courtesy extends to notifying them at least two weeks, or ten business days, in advance. And if you're embarking on a month-long adventure, 20 days, please inform your manager at least two months ahead.

Once you have your manager's verbal or written go-ahead to take the leave, request it through the leave management system.

Some departments have specific guidance, like the Global Delivery's

Managing Time-offs | 💡 Planning Time Off.

We fully understand that life is unpredictable, and there might be times when urgent matters require immediate attention, making it impossible to inform your manager in advance. In such situations, it's perfectly okay. We ask that you drop a message in the #status channel to keep everyone informed and ensure that anyone affected by your sudden absence is aware. This helps us maintain a supportive and flexible working environment for everyone.

Inform

After planning, help others be prepared for your absence to enjoy the time away.

1. Add an out-of-office status in your Slack profile mentioning the leave dates.

2. Consider using Google Calendar's "out of office" setting to create an out-of-office event that automatically declines your new and existing meetings.

3. If your team or work group has a specific scheduling calendar, update it with your leave plans.

4. Decline any meetings you will not attend so the organizer can make appropriate arrangements.

   1. Cancel, move, or find coverage for any meetings you organize.

   2. You can temporarily "snooze" Donut coffee chat pairings by opening a direct message with Donut and typing help to indicate which weeks you won't be able to participate. Pairings will automatically resume when you're back.

5. Review your calendar to address any scheduled interviews if you are an interviewer. To ensure we provide a great candidate experience, you are responsible for finding a replacement interviewer if you cannot attend an interview. It would be best to communicate directly with your recruiter, as being out of the office does not always mean you will be unavailable to interview.

6. If you are an emergency on-call person, you must ensure someone will cover you while you're out of the office. Each team has busy times, so provide adequate coverage.

7. Designate a backup person to handle emergencies and brief them on your critical projects.

8. Transition and reassign work in progress to another team member when feasible.

9. Document and share your knowledge. Any critical person or subject matter expert on leave can significantly impact business.

• It can benefit your time away and team members when you document, share (weekly team call + async in Slack), and communicate your time away 2-3 weeks in advance.

• Capture work in a shared Google Doc, listing your essential projects and customer interactions with details and tips per entry. For example:

  1. "Name of covering team member" - helpful for your manager to quickly know who is covering which projects or customers for you.

  2. "Attendance in required meetings while on a break" - Teammates can free up time in their calendars.

  3. "High priority topics" - List topics and links to issues most relevant while you are on break.

  4. "Comments by covering team members"—It is beneficial to receive async updates when you return from your time away.

2. Share your planned time off as an FYI on your team's Slack channels, especially if you lead a team. You can schedule messages in Slack to remind your group of items that are due or pending projects. Examples:

   • Hey, team, I'm out today. Please take a look at my open tickets. Thanks!

   • Hello, team. I am out of the office for several days. Please double-check the pending tasks on our team's Google Doc for upcoming deadlines.

Related Topics