Time off

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 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. For example, having an entire Small Team off at the same time means we can't be responsive to community issues.

How to book time off in PTO by Roots

Before you start, make sure that:

You have authorized the PTO by Roots 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 PTO by Roots 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.
Block out your own personal GCal to show that you are out. This is because PTO by Roots 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. PTO by Roots 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.

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

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. 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 PTO by Roots.

For extended periods of illness, please speak to James or Tim so we can work out a plan. In some countries, we may be required to request a doctor's note from you.

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. Take as much time as you need, just give us a quick update every now and then.

We extended our bereavement policy to also cover pregnancy and child loss for both parents, with no questions asked. Please take at least 2 weeks of paid leave. If you need additional time for physical or mental health reasons, we will treat it as extended sick leave.

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.

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.

If you have been at PostHog for over 1 year, you can take up to 12 weeks off on full pay. You can take a further 4 weeks unpaid leave if you need more time. After this, if you need to stagger your return to work, you can come back at 50% capacity on 50% pay afterwards. If you live in a country where a statutory parental leave benefit is available, you will be required to claim statutory parental leave pay (if you are eligible) and PostHog will supplement any gaps.

If you have been at PostHog for under 1 year, we will pay you according to your local jurisdiction's legal requirements.

Please communicate parental leave to James or Tim as soon as you feel comfortable doing so, and in any case at least 2 months before it will begin. They will let the People & Ops team know, who will follow up on any logistical arrangements around salary etc.

We are aware that there are local laws around time off for new parents in every country, and that these may vary. Wherever there is a discrepancy between local regulations and PostHog policy, local laws will override PostHog.

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. Coua is currently responsible for organizing these.

Birthdays

We have partnered with Batch to send all team members a personalized giftset for their birthday. All gifts are to arrive 1-3 business days prior to the actual day.

These are the steps for making an order:

Complete all necessary information on the “Birthday tab” with the customer order sheet and send to Bri Nightingale, CSM at bri@batchusa.com
Bri will send an invoice to be paid with steps on how to make the purchase payment
All set!

Birthday gifts will usually arrive on the day of or 1-3 days prior to the actual birthday. US shipping is free, while EU will have additional fees.

Anniversaries

On your first-year anniversary with PostHog, you will receive a giftcard from Giftogram which can be used on a wide selection of brands. On your second-year anniversary you'll be gifted a customized Lego minifig in a display case, and on your third-year anniversary, you'll receive a personalized gift from Batch.

1st year anniversary - $50 for US gift cards/$55 for EU gift cards to cover service fees):

Login into Giftogram by using your gmail credentials
Two ways to create a new Giftogram, on the tool bar above where it says “Create and Send'' or you can click on the right hand side on the blue button “Send a Giftogram''.
Walk through the following steps:

Select the appropriate campaign: US Campaign= US team members, GCode Campaign= EU+ALL team members, and CA Campaign= Canada team members
Select a card design of your choice (easiest to just use the anniversary theme)
Next screen, select “individual”, email as a delivery method, and add value (see above for amount) and continue to the next step
Enter the individual’s PostHog email address. You can add multiple email addresses if there is one then one anniversary. The amount will add itself on the right hand side as you add more individuals. Then, continue to the next step
Delivery message; select PostHog team as the sender and select the drop down “1st year anniversary” as the pre-populated message or you can create your own personal message
Last step, schedule the delivery date and you’re done!

2nd year anniversary - Customized Lego figurine:

Log into Fab-brick (login credentials are shared in People & Ops 1Password vault)
Select the third tab “MiniFig Creator” and design your mini fig to look like the individual you’re celebrating!
Make sure to include a display case and the three tier brick option
After you’ve completed your design, check out. There should already be a Brex card on file. Please make sure you add the individual’s correct mailing address.

3rd year anniversary- via Batch:

Complete all necessary information on the “Third Anniversary tab” with the customer order sheet and send to Bri Nightingale, CSM at bri@batchusa.com
Bri will send an invoice to be paid with steps on how to make the purchase payment

Gift(s) will usually arrive on the day of or 1-3 days prior to the actual anniversary date. Shipping fees: US shipping is free while EU will have additional fees for shipping.