Zalando gifts employees one week of vacation

Online fashion retailer Zalando has come up with a special gift for its employees for the holiday season: “zacation”, or one collective week off, as a thank you for the hard work during the pandemic. 

“Covid-19. When we said goodbye to the office in March, we thought: See you in four weeks. Now, a year and a bit later we see that a pandemic is still a pandemic: It takes time,” said Carsten Keller, VP Direct to Consumer at Zalando, in a LinkedIn post.

“During this year, we have reacted, we have innovated and worked incredibly hard. And it paid off. And we can all feel it. Back-to-back video conferences at kitchen tables. Problem solving with teams during homeschooling. Being home alone for a year,” added Keller. 

“And hence we decided to take a BREAK. One week off extra in August. To breathe. To recharge. To reflect.We call it zacation. And I love it,” concluded Keller. 

Comments from colleagues at Zalando and other companies are consistently positive and range from “holiday envy” and “good move and well deserved” to “What a great initiative! Time to breathe – exactly what everyone needs right now”.

Exact details of when the extra vacation week will take place and how it will affect day-to-day operations at Zalando have not been mentioned. Logistically, this step could be a challenge for the e-tailer and it will be interesting to see how the company manages it. Should it succeed, other companies may follow suit. 

Images: Jonas Ferlin/ Pexels; Carsten Keller / Zalando