Productivity in any organization entirely depends on the performance and dedication of the manpower involved in it. Employees working long hours are entitled to a few leaves including weekly, monthly, and some casual leaves on account of Public holidays. Some leaves are granted as paid leaves while some at the end of the month are deducted based on the total working days of the employees. Each company adopts a different leave policy. The Sandwich leave policy restricts an employee to take a leave in continuity where the paid leave is sandwiched between the other leaves applied for by the employee.

The Sandwich leave rule is adopted by companies based on the performance status of employees working in the USA and Europe. There the policy resulted well for the organizations in improving their operational efficiency and reducing work stress on overtime workers. In India, the Sandwich leave is adopted by only a few sectors including the sectors where human efficiency is prime efficacy needed including IT and BPO/ KPO et.

As an employee, it can be more frustrating when your paid leave is stretched with the casual leaves. While the policy is still under consideration for improvement by many leading organizations, we shall now share more clues in this article for you to manage your Sandwich leaves with your employer.

What exactly is a Sandwich leave?

Simply to say, a Sandwich leave is counted once an employee uses a paid leave as a medium to enjoy a mini vacation in a week. For instance, leave on Sunday is used for taking a small vacation period from Saturday to Monday. In this case, the employee paid leave of Sunday will be counted as a general leave to be deducted from the total number of annual leaves while consideration for pay.

The included off in between the voluntary leaves, can be one or more. All shall be considered as paid leaves for the employee.

What can be the advantages/disadvantages of having such a policy in management?

Advantages:

Companies which high rates of absenteeism and employee productivity issues are observed to receive benefits from this policy. It is a human tendency to think & plan for a vacation before it comes, which generally happens nearly every weekend where employees tend to make plans one day before and to extend their leaves to some more days with including the paid leaves. The Sandwich policy can be a tool for the management to bring back the focus of their employees on their performance goals.

The declining employee rate of skipping leaves due to the Sandwich leave rule helps companies to ensure that service delivery or customer satisfaction is not hampered. For employees, it can be a good motivation to be strict with their work goals and growth objectives in the company by attempting to lessen the number of leaves. 

Disadvantages:

If not implemented properly, the Sandwich leave policy can bring serious destruct between the employees and the employer. Especially where trade unions or employee societies are established, companies might face legal petitions for following such policies as a medium for employee exploitation. This can severely impact the overall productivity and performance of the company.

How to manage your Sandwich leaves as an employee?

Sandwich leaves come with a definition of leaves that are sandwiched between the casual leaves. So, considering the policy until not mentioned you can try jumping off to these solutions to have at least one paid leave from the management –

• Try to plan a leave with Friday + Saturday + Sunday together or Sunday +Monday+Tuesday together.
• Plan to serve at least half a day or half of the working hours on the day from when you want to opt for leave. Like completing half a day on Saturday to take a vacation on Sunday and Monday.
• Explore options like Working from home in consultation with your HR on any of the days – initial or last day of leave.

You can have your projects as targeted completed before considering the views of the HR management. You can plan and avoid deduction from your paid leaves by knowing more about your leave policy in the contract and by having a light conversation with your HR for leaves.

How to reconsider your Sandwich leave policy as an employer?

Implementing the Sandwich policy straightaway can hurt the sentiments and work performance of the employees. It can also result in mass-scale job turnover. There is no specific format of leaves or ruling provided for settling the Sandwich leaves, so the management of any company should consult the senior management before considering any such decision.

As an employer it is better:

1. That you negotiate such leaves through the initial employment contract with the employee.
2. Try to add more compensatory provisions or more revenue streams for the employees.
3. Try to access the morale level of the employee before and after the implementation of this policy compared with work performance before adding it to the clauses of the employee contract.
4. Try to be in proactive discussions with the employees to understand their needs and necessities if this policy cannot be ignored.

While the recently implemented labor codes protect a few sector employees against the Sandwich rule. For most of the establishments following the labor code, Section 26 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 provides that no Sandwich rule can prevail as workers working in establishments listed under the labor codes shall have to assure that no worker is allowed to work for more than 6 days in a Week.

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