A firm in Poland is offering three days of additional paid leave to employees who adopt an animal from a shelter.
The Polish branch of international transportation firm Bolt announced the decision this week in an Instagram post, while also advertising the fact that it was seeking to fill eight new positions.
“We have extended our employee benefits package to include pawternity leave,” wrote the firm. “Employees who decide to adopt a pet from a shelter will receive three days of additional paid leave – to spend some time with the new family member.”
“During the pandemic, keeping the Bolt team happy has become especially important to us,” Olimpia Kicielińska, Bolt’s “People Partner”, told website MamStartUp.pl. “We want to set an example as the best workplace and offer employees what they need to help them stay happy in their professional and personal lives.”
“We believe that the long-term benefits of adopting a dog or cat will influence the wellbeing of our team,” she continued. “The pandemic, but also changes in the contemporary family model, make us feel that it is time to take a non-standard approach to meeting the needs of our team.”
The benefit also applies to staff who have adopted a pet over the past two years, reports Wprost, a news weekly.
The decision is not the company’s first pet-friendly policy. Last year it launched Bolt Pets, offering transport to passengers travelling with pets in Warsaw, Kraków and the Tri-City of Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia.
On Valentine’s Day this year, Bolt offered 1,000 discount codes for journeys on its services. But it hid them within the online descriptions of animals at a shelter in Warsaw, in the hope that reading them would encourage people to adopt.
“We hope some of you will find a new love in your search for a free code,” wrote the firm, but warned bargain hunters they should keep a supply of tissues ready before reading some of the animals’ stories.
Bolt’s latest offer for its staff has won praise from many commentators – both as a way of encouraging adoption and also as an effective PR move. However, Wprost expresses concern that it could encourage irresponsible adoption by staff motivated by the extra time off.
There has been a growing trend among companies worldwide to offer so-called “pawternity leave”, notes Business Insider. Among them are BrewDog, a Scottish brewery, and the Indian branch of publisher HarperCollins.
Bolt – formerly known as Taxify – is a Talinn-based firm that offers transportation, vehicle rental and food delivery services in over 35 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia and North America.
Main image credit: David Parker/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
