Shashank Nizam

There is no handover.

And then by the time it's the week after and someone else is off,

So we made a few changes in that first iteration.

That was very, very important.

And then we learned from it.

And since then, the policy has stayed the same.

It's been more than five years now we've been doing this.

I feel the purpose of this week off is to let your guard down, is to try something new, which is energy giving and not necessarily energy draining.

It is my responsibility to ensure our business survives.

Our business can only survive and thrive if the employees are themselves thriving.

And thriving needs to be holistic, which can only come if they are taking regular time off.

And I would rather have a

Happy employee working on a task that is slightly delayed than a completely exhausted employee delivering on time.

We did a statistical analysis after our first few week offs and we learned that productivity, creativity and employee happiness were all up significantly.

I used to have this guy.

He loved sitting in numbers and being in Excel.

And he comes back from his week off.

I don't know what he did or what he didn't do that week.

And here he is in client brainstorm sessions, giving the best ideas in the room.

And I'm just looking at him.