Dive Brief:
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Online retailer Zappos, known for its groundbreaking no-managers “Holacracy” employment structure, has given its workers Leap Day off.
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The Amazon-owned retailer is giving all 1,600 employees Feb. 29 off, including those at its normally 24-hour, seven-days-a-week open call center.
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The company also created a hashtag #TakeTheLeap and is hosting a Twitter chat, calling on people to share photos of themselves leaping and information about how they’ll use the extra time. The company also started a Change.org petition to create the day off for everyone by promoting the idea that Leap Day, which occurs just every four years, should be a national holiday.
Dive Insight:
Zappos is pointing to its unusual employment structure with this campaign, saying that Leap Day has the potential to be an important day to spend time with family and friends or give back to the community, rather than just a novelty that disrupts birthdays for those born on that day.
Callers to the company’s normally always-open call center will hear an “inspirational message” instead, calling on them to take advantage of the strange extra day and letting them know that Zappos will be available again around-the-clock when the extra day is over, Kristin Richmer, a brand awareness staffer at Zappos, told Adweek.
"We're big proponents of our culture that encourages out-of-the-box thinking and bold stunts," she told Adweek. "So celebrating Leap Day in a big way simply makes sense for us as a brand, while maybe not so much for other brands. We want to give that day back to the people. It should be used as a bonus day to do good—for your community, your family or yourself."