Thoughts on Unlimited Paid Time Off and Working from Home

3/22/2023

As a practitioner of agile methodologies for high velocity product development, managing a geographically distributed group of human resources, I am an open proponent of the idea of working from home as well as offering employees the freedom to choose to be the masters of their own time, in a manner that does not compromise on project-specific goals or employee-specific performance metrics. Offering employees unlimited vacation/PTO time and the option to work from home when unwell but able to work remotely is essential for promoting health and productivity. Studies show that adequate time off reduces stress, preventing burnout and mental health issues (De Bloom et al., 2013). Regular breaks allow employees to recharge, resulting in increased job satisfaction and performance (Eden, 2001). Additionally, remote work options for mildly ill employees can prevent the spread of contagious diseases in the workplace (Kumar & Chandra, 2020), while also maintaining productivity and promoting a healthy work-life balance (Bailey & Kurland, 2002).

References:
Bailey, D. E., & Kurland, N. B. (2002). A review of telework research: Findings, new directions, and lessons for the study of modern work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(4), 383-400. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.144
De Bloom, J., Kompier, M., Geurts, S., de Weerth, C., Taris, T., & Sonnentag, S. (2013). Do we recover from vacation? Meta-analysis of vacation effects on health and well-being. Journal of Occupational Health, 55(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1539/joh.12-0164-FS
Eden, D. (2001). Vacations and other respites: Studying stress on and off the job. In C. L. Cooper & I. T. Robertson (Eds.), International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Vol. 16, pp. 121-146). Wiley.
Kumar, S., & Chandra, R. (2020). Protecting businesses during pandemics: Telecommuting and absence policies. Human Resource Management International Digest, 28(4), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-03-2020-0066

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The "New" Menon Blog

Prof. Prahlad G Menon, PhD

Dr. Menon is an Associate Professor of Mathematics with appointments in Bioengineering at University of Pittsburgh and Biomedical Engineering at University of Texas at San Antonio. He was previously a tenure-track, early-career assistant professor with the department of biomedical engineering at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA) and until May 2015 on the faculty of the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) department in Carnegie Mellon University joint institute of engineering with Sun Yat-sen University (Pittsburgh, PA, USA and Guangzhou, China), where he currently maintains an adjunct professor appointment. He has served as adjunct faculty with the Dept of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University as well as the Heinz College of Information Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Menon's research group, The MeDCaVE, has its interests in the broad area of AI / data science applied to medical imaging analysis for biomarker discovery and more specifically in computational simulation of vascular flows and cardiovascular biomechanics, with application to diagnostics, surgical planning and interventional guidance.

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