Intempt's Employee Handbook

Paid time off

Holidays and national holidays

Our vacation policy simply stated is this: Take as much as you need!

At Intempt, we don't keep tabs on our staff. We find it boring and exhausting.

It is just SO childish the way we tend to police and manage staff at companies.

We're small enough (we love this!) that we tend to get a feel for every employee and their well-being.

In general, what we care about is that you do your best work, at a good pace, sustainably. We care about results, not hours spent working (although there's a correlation when people are of the same skill level). Some people call this

ROWE⁠

Sustainability is why we created the policy to make sure everyone DOES take time to relax every few months, disconnect, and recharge.

We encourage bottoms-up deadlines, we encourage people to set their own schedule, spend time with family, pursue hobbies, or just plain relax when it's most convenient to them.

Bottom line: It's never a good time to take a vacation, so take it when it's most convenient for you. And take what you need to recharge and feel pumped about coming back to work!

Our CEO Sid says:

"It would be great if you made sure support was covered while you're out, but worse comes to worst, that's something that I (as the CEO) can cover, I'm rarely totally on vacation.

We do notice that some employees don't take enough vacation and are just powering through. In that case, we will kick you out at some point to rest!"

So we kick off with the practical side of things and then dig into the idea behind it.

How time off works at Intempt

Time off is about the time you need, not about a quota.

We ask that you self-regulate yourself and the company doesn’t monitor/track your vacation. We do ask that you check with your team before taking an extended absence, so they’re not left in the lurch. Your vacation time is eligible after your

first 90 day⁠

s at the company; but if you have something pre-planned, you’re free to get this approved when you join.

In addition to annual PTO and holidays, employees are encouraged to take a 30-day paid sabbatical every four years. Just give a heads-up preferably three months in advance so we can coordinate the workload accordingly.

The only time we ask you not to schedule discretionary time-off is during a CODE. At Intempt, we assign a CODE when urgent work needs to be done. We have three levels of criticality. A CODE RED is an emergency, a CODE YELLOW is less immediate but still critical, and a CODE LAUNCH is called when we’re in the final stages of launching a new product. If we’re in the midst of one of these and you can delay your vacation or sabbatical until after the code has ended, please do!

You can request your time off by asking a CEO. This way we have a handy overview of who is out and when. This helps when planning around bigger projects and releases etc. The overview is visible Intempt wide, cross teams. We require you to have at least two weeks off a year. More is at management's discretion. Intempt is a very dynamic organization; sometimes our plans are changing unexpectedly, so to avoid confusion please follow this simple rule: if you want to take up to 10 working days off, check your plans with us in advance. Just check with the CEO and enjoy your free time to recharge.

Make sure to take enough moments of rest when you have periods of working hard. For example: worked a few nights to finish a project? Start at 12:00 the next Monday to have lunch with a friend and go to the gym (or have a New Girl/Boy marathon). It's about balance and flexibility.

You agree on your time off with your team(lead) in the following way- make sure you informed him a number of days in advance multiplied by 5, the number of days you are planning to take off.

You put your time off on the calendar.

A life event occurs: communicate what you need and check with your team(lead) when in doubt. 'Hey I just had a baby, won't be at work this week, see you next week. His name is Leo by the way!'.

Enjoy: don't worry about going to the gym or getting a haircut during classic 'work hours'. We trust you to make the best of your days for Intempt.

This only works when

Flexibility goes both ways. We expect you to be flexible for Intempt and your teammates.

You make sure to take enough time off: since you don't get paid at the end of the ride.

You communicate in a crystal clear manner: agreeing the dates with others and putting it in the agenda.

Backdrop

The law and additional ruling tell us what we can and can not do according to time off. We believe that is a very limited way of thinking about time off. We want you to think about what you actually need. Starting with two important pillars:

We work hard, we need time to reload and rest. Sometimes we work harder, so we need more. Some times we work less, so we need less.

We have something called 'life' happening which means we can't work because we have more important stuff to do.

We want you to take enough rest to reload and recharge so you can be at your prime when working. Taking enough rest is as important as giving it your all when working. The well known on and off switch.

The concept of work isn't always caught in time (40 hours) and place. Most of the people at Intempt don't keep track of time because time is such a limited variable to grasp the concept of work. There is a balance to strike here and just looking at hours or a holiday quota limits this discussion.

That is why we don't keep track of holidays.

Our people don't have a holiday quota, but a moral obligation to their loved ones and Intempt to work hard and take enough time to rest. Alright, that sounds heavy. How does that work?

'Time off' can be divided into two buckets:

Holidays and national holidays:

Most people are off on the big national holiday. But that's your own choice, it's not a right or an obligation, so feel free to improvise.

The day Company is closed is 1st of January.

If you would like to take a National Holiday, please kindly inform the CEO.

Life events & Vacation:

Life happens. Your cat dies, your car broke, you move to another city, you get married or have kids. Life events that all need your attention. We decided that we are not going to decide for you how much time you get for certain events. The question is: how much time do you actually need.

Bereavement Leave

When you lose a loved one, you can take paid time off from work for bereavement, making arrangements, settling family affairs, and attending the funeral or memorial service. Let your manager know your plans as soon as you can so they can arrange for your absence.

You can take ten days of bereavement leave for the death of a spouse or partner, child or child-in-law, parent or parent-in-law, or sibling or sibling-in-law. You can take three days of bereavement leave for the death of a grandparent, niece or nephew, cousin, or close friend. These allowances are not to say you must return to work after so many days; you can use any of your vacation time if you find you need more time off after bereavement leave.

If the loss in your family is especially traumatic and you know you’ll be away from work for a while, please talk to your manager to discuss that special case.

Most companies don't give you time off for funerals that are not for immediate relatives. We think we don't need the rule to tell us if that funeral is important for you. So take the time you need.

We want you to use this time off to reload but you decide when and how to consume this. You must also feel free to improvise. You work hard, maybe even a bit too hard, so you might need some extra time off to stay happy and healthy. Or maybe it’s the other way around - you’ve had an easy month and you’re looking to put in some hard work and get shit done. More power to you either way.

Work at Intempt

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If you want to work at Intempt you can check our

Jobs at Intempt⁠

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