Virgin Group Announces Unlimited Vacation Policy

Richard Branson is one of today's most heralded visionaries. His latest policy move at Virgin marks another tremendous step forward in how high-profile companies do business.

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="TyjivBDy52JbXMGDdyYgmj5GV512PS2f"]Employees at the Virgin Group have one more reason to give their all: unlimited vacation. CEO Richard Branson writes in a blog post that salaried staff can "take off whenever they want, for as long as they want."

No need for approval. No tallying up vacation days, either by the employee or by his manager. The decision to work or not work is solely up to the employee.

Branson says that he integrated the policy at Virgin at his daughter Holly's suggestion. Holly had been reading about Netflix's no-vacation-tracking policy, and thought it would be "a very Virgin thing to do to not track people's holidays."

The assumption, of course, is that the employee doesn't actually jet out of the office unless she's confident that her projects, tasks and coworkers are up to speed and won't be negatively affected by her absence.

Just 1% of U.S. companies offer unlimited vacation, according to Business Insider. Here's hoping Virgin helps push this trend past the tipping point.