This company is giving workers a full month of holiday PTO: ‘Everyone is going to be coming back with a clear mind'

Companies often give workers a few extra days off around the winter holidays, but one retailer is going a step further: On Dec. 15, the roughly 30 staffers at Cakes Body started a full month of PTO until Jan. 15.

Cakes Body, an e-commerce brand that sells nipple covers, was cofounded by twin sisters Taylor Capuano and Casey Sarai, 32. Both left their previous corporate careers in part because their jobs didn't provide enough flexibility for them after becoming moms.

In 2022, they launched their own business and prioritized flexible schedules and ample PTO: "Not only did we want to create this product that could be helpful for women, but we really wanted to create a better work culture for ourselves and our team," says Sarai, Cakes Body's CEO.

Earlier this year, each sister went on maternity leave for three months each with just one week of overlap. Meanwhile, their business grew nearly eight-fold. "We grew from a $10 million-a-year company to a $75 million-a-year company," says Capuano, the company's chief creative officer, discussing sales figures that were reviewed by CNBC Make It.

The sisters believe their massive growth period was a direct result of being laser-focused while preparing for their leave. "We were able to move things along much quicker in a shorter period of time because we had this deadline," Capuano says. "That transformed how we thought about progress and efficiency on our team."

Ultimately, she says, "time doesn't necessarily equal progress."

A month off with full pay

Cakes Body staffers began preparing for their month off back in August.

Everyone was tasked with defining their short-term goals to get them through Dec. 15, including handling Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the busy holiday shopping season, Capuano says. Employees also de-prioritized things that could be pushed off until mid-January.

Individuals then worked with their managers to come up with a coverage plan for their month off.

The process was a good exercise in identifying inefficiencies and ways to optimize their time, Capuano says. For example, until recently, the company manually scheduled their social media posts. They realized they should instead be using a tool that could automate the process.

As for the quiet period itself, all meetings are canceled. Some employees who normally oversee daily operations may do a weekly check-in and send updates in Slack, but otherwise, "anyone who doesn't need to be working will not be working," Capuano says.

"It's funny — a few of them were trying to schedule meetings over quiet period, and I had to tell them to stop," Sarai says.

Customers will still be able to order and receive Cakes products — the company uses contract customer service representatives and a third-party fulfillment center.

How to make collective PTO work

Capuano and Sarai say it's important that they, as leaders, communicate why they think the quiet period is important and what they expect will come of it.

For example, the cofounders say they've revised their sales forecasts for January and February to be lower than usual. Doing so has two big impacts: Employees won't burn themselves out leading up to their break, and they won't feel behind coming back from it.

"I know the feeling of getting ready to go on vacation, and it's like, 'Well, I just worked overtime this whole week to prepare for my vacation next week, so it's kind of a wash,'" Capuano says. "But because we prepared so far in advance, and we're able to help prioritize what needs to get done through the end of the year, it's not really been the case."

Meanwhile, "it wouldn't really be a helpful month off if everyone was going to feel pressure that we're going to come back Jan. 15 and we're already missing our numbers," she adds.

It's helpful that everyone is taking the same period off, Sarai adds, so people don't feel like they're slacking off while other people cover for them.

Finally, Capuano and Sarai says they have to walk the talk and commit to not working during the break, too.

"If we were like, 'Oh, let's meet next week after quiet period starts when there's time to really dig into this,' all of the sudden, everyone feels pressure to be making progress during this time," Capuano says.

'To do 12 months of work in 10 months isn't a crazy thought'

Capuano and Sarai are optimistic that in the future they'll implement not just one, but two month-long quiet periods for their employees.

"To do 12 months of work in 10 months isn't a crazy thought," Capuano says. "You just need to plan for it."

Their No. 1 goal with the experiment is ensuring that employees remain fulfilled and happy with their work, and that they don't experience increased levels of burnout, Capuano says.

On the business side, they plan to measure success by seeing if the team can still hit their quarterly goals in the new year.

"If we meet or exceed them, this is a huge success," Capuano says. "If we're falling short, maybe there's a little more planning involved."

Employees say they already have big plans for the time off: A few will work on writing books, another plans to take up pottery, and others will catch up on TV, sleep and home organizing.

"I have no doubt that we're going to make up for [the break] in the months that follow," Capuano says, "because everyone is going to be coming back with a clear mind and recharged."

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