India Inc chills on long weekend as employees dig into ‘sandwich’ leave

MUMBAI: When it comes to allowing employees to take leave, especially when clubbed with festivities, a section of India Inc is increasingly becoming more benevolent. Given that Diwali is falling on a Monday, some companies have declared Tuesday a holiday to give employees an extended weekend beginning Saturday. Many may resume work on Thursday, since Wednesday could be an optional off.
What is also acceptable to many organisations now is the concept of ‘sandwich’ leave, especially around public holidays — i.e. , taking an off on aFriday and a Monday for a long weekend. Although sandwich leave is usually taken around public holidays along with weekends, this year, HR officials said, it has been taken almost throughout the year, employees are no longer waiting for a public holiday to take it.
The trend is fuelled by the fact that Covid forced people to remain indoors for two years.

There is a growing trend of employees taking sandwich leave throughout the year, especially to travel on a holiday, according to Genius Consultants CMD Rajendra Prasad Yadav.
“The trend is not restricted to public holidays alone. Employees are taking sandwich leave all through the year. The fact that even the younger employees are taking such leave to travel augurs well for the economy. We have allowed our employees to take such leave but have also ensured that the business continuity does not get affected,” said Yadav.
Mahindra Lifespaces and Kellogg India are among the organisations that have given an additional holiday on Tuesday (the day after Diwali). In fact, Kellogg India’s Taloja factory will also remain shut for four days, starting Saturday.
Krity Sharma, chief people officer, Mahindra Lifespaces, said, “The pandemic taught us many things. While we did a lot for employees’ health and well-being during Covid, we did not want to announce a policy that we could not sustain. Our leave policy did not change. But we are very conscious of giving longer weekends to employees wherever possible. Since Diwali is coming on a Monday and Bhai Dooj is on Wednesday which is an optional off for us, we decided to give employees an off on Tuesday as well, so that they can get a longer weekend starting from Saturday. ”
A marketing communications person said although Tuesday is not a holiday for them, many employees take an off to have a longer stay away from work.
On the other hand, many would also be working overtime during these festive days — a time when consumer sales rise extraordinarily.
While most of the time, any kind of leave requires an approval from a senior manager, at Cimpress India, employees can take leave without formal prior permission.