Hello everyone. July has arrived!

Once the rainy season ends, the height of summer will be upon us.

I personally don’t care for summer all that much, but with summer comes the summer holidays.

I did some research on the unique holiday systems being offered at other companies.

So, let me now present some of the more interesting ones to you.

• Self-Development Holidays (Cybozu, Inc) Granted for those individuals who are under 35 years of age and would like to change companies or study abroad for the purposes of self-development. It is possible for them to return to their regular jobs at any time within a maximum span of 6 years.

• Receive a Month off after Working for 11 Months (Wab Design INC) This holiday system allows individuals to have 30 consecutive days off. During that time, they can use the holidays for anything, including studying abroad, traveling, or even working for different companies.

• The Endless Summer System (Geocode Corporation) Allows for 6 days off in June and July in addition to the standard summer holidays in August.

It seems like a variety of holiday systems are out there.

ISAO’s Summer Holidays

ISAO offers 5 weekdays off as part of its summer holiday system.

The 5 days may be taken off at any time during the 5-month span of June to October.

Each individual has their own way of taking the days off. Some take Mondays off in order to have multiple 3-day weekends, while others take longer holidays.

Using Incentives to Promote Longer Holidays

ISAO recommends taking extended holidays!

When bringing up the topic, we can expect to hear things like, “I am too busy to take such a long vacation!”

While that may be true, I believe the merits for taking extended holidays are as follows.

Overlapping Duties

Improving your job (the objective opinions of others gives you a great chance to reconsider the way you do the work you have grown accustomed to doing). Becoming mentally and physically refreshed. ISAO implemented a new system last year. In that system, individuals who take Monday to Friday off along with their regular weekends off (for a total of 9 consecutive days off) during the summer holidays are rewarded with 10,000 yen!

77 individuals took 9 consecutive days off last year.

Before and After Extended Holidays

Already this year one of our employees took a week off to go to the United States.

You can see the difference that can be made by taking a week off.

Summary

Taking extended holidays will allow for mental and physical refreshment, and lead to a better working environment.