Time off

At Nebulab, we recognize the significance of time off. It's not just a policy on paper; it's a critical component of our work culture aimed at fostering a harmonious work-life balance. Two primary forms of leave facilitate this: Paid Time Off (PTO) and Unpaid Leave.
 Bob  is your go-to for all time off related activities. It allows you to view, track, and request leaves as well as view  who's at the office on any given day —on this last topic, to preserve everyone's personal privacy, most requests are marked as "Out of office" so that people know when you're not available but not exactly why.
Please refer to the Table of Contents below and read the paragraphs that refer to your specific contract.

Paid Time Off (PTO)

Nebulab's PTO offering isn't just about ticking boxes. It's a reflection of our commitment to our team's well-being.
We've categorized PTO into five specific types:
    .1Holiday Palm Tree: When you feel the need to recharge, just request a holiday on Bob. While it's technically auto-approved, giving your manager a heads up is always appreciated. Only full days are tracked as "Holiday"—if you ever need a smaller portion of a day, despite being a small amount—you're not required to request a "Holiday" day off.
    .2National Holiday  Confetti Ball:  Similar to "Holiday" but you don't get to decide the exact days. This is, just as you would expect, set national days for celebrating important festivities. It's the only PTO you won't find on Bob.
    .3Sick Leave Face with Thermometer: Illness is an unavoidable part of life. Nebulab provides paid sick leave up to a certain limit, ensuring you don't have to worry about lost wages when you're unwell.
    .4Hourly Leave No Entry️: Recognizing the need for occasional schedule changes, we've incorporated Hourly Leave. This is computed automatically based on your monthly timesheets. The No Entry️ sign stands exactly for that: you should only use this to know how many hours you have for the current month, but you should not manually request them.
    .5Special Paid Leave People Hugging: Life's significant moments, both happy and challenging, are supported through Special Paid Leave. Whether it's your wedding or a period of grief, we're here for you.
    .6Conference Studio Microphone: Annually, you're allotted four days specifically for conferences, affirming our commitment to your professional growth.
    .7Investment Time Brain: 10% of your annual working hours is dedicated to your personal development. It's a tangible representation of our investment in your growth, whether you choose to learn something new or simply take a breather.
It's pertinent to mention that the specifics concerning the number of days and end-of-contract details differ based on whether you're a payroll employee or a contractor employee.

The Nebulab Philosophy

At Nebulab, we deeply value your well-being and work-life balance. Our PTO guidelines are crafted to ensure you get the rest you deserve while maintaining fairness and flexibility.
Here are the main guiding principles of our approach to time off:
  • Aligned Policies: While we strive for uniformity between payroll and contractor policies, sometimes legal and practical differences prevail. We aim for fairness and equality in every scenario.
  • Days Over Pay: We encourage you to use your PTO days for rest and rejuvenation. The intent is to relax, not to exchange unused time off for additional pay. While this has a different interpretation for contractor employees (you will not receive compensation for unused PTO) and for payroll employees (we will encourage you to fully utilize your PTO), the overall theme is that we always prefer you to regularly take time off work.
  • Open to Change: Nothing is set in stone. If you encounter ambiguities or have suggestions, we're open to discussion and policy refinement. Your input is valued and can lead to positive changes.

Holiday Palm Tree

Every Nebulab team member is entitled to 22 vacation days annually. Clear communication is crucial, especially in roles with significant responsibilities.
On Bob, you'll find this leave labeled as "Holiday Palm Tree" and they are accrued at the beginning of the year for the whole year (i.e. you'll always see in Bob the grand total of days available for the current year).
Holidays are always auto-approved, but your manager will be notified once you request it. Please remember to request such leaves in advance.

Contractor employees

Any remaining Holiday days at the end of the year expire 6 months after the year is over—i.e. if you have 5 unused days from December 2021, they expire in June 2022.
Important: Holiday days expire 6 months after the 31st of December of the current year.
A couple of things worth mentioning:
  • despite not being mandatory, we strongly suggest you take at least 10 days off every year
  • unused/expired days are never paid out in the form of additional compensation

Italian payroll employees

Everyone with an Italian Payroll contract in Nebulab is under the contract type named "CCNL Commercio". Laws in Italy are pretty complex, so it's always a good idea to refer to your monthly pay-slip to understand how PTO works.
Note: Pay-slips are uploaded every month on  My docs .
Given that laws are pretty complex, take this with a grain of salt, but there are two main principles:
  • it's mandatory that you take at least 10 days off every year
  • PTO days never expire and, when they do, they are liquidated in the form of additional compensation
Important: you're legally required to take at least 10 days off every year.

National Holiday Confetti Ball

Everyone has 12 days of National Holiday which are reported in a dedicated calendar on Bob, based on your country of residence. On such days, you're automatically out of office.
In pure HR jargon, this is also referred to as "Bank Holiday/Stat Holiday".
Given that every country has very different laws when it comes to national holidays, you'll be reached out at the beginning of the year (especially if you're the only representative of your country) to decide a set of 12 days.

Contractor employees

Whenever a National Holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, instead of skipping that day completely, that particular day(s) will be paid. Given the number of countries our team covers, you're required to add those additional days to the invoice.
Important: If a National Holiday falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, add that extra day to your invoice.

Italian payroll employees

The national contract strictly defines the Italian holidays, and you have 12 national holidays too.
A special mention goes to the Patron Saint holiday ("Santo Patrono") which is celebrated on the 10th of October (because that's when it happens in Pescara, where our legal entity is). On this day, our offices are not closed, and you can decide whether you want to work or not.
Since this is considered work on a holiday, your pay will be +30% of the standard pay if you choose to come to the office or work remotely.

Sick Leave Face with Thermometer

At Nebulab, we prioritize your well-being. If you're feeling unwell or dealing with health issues, it's crucial to focus on resting and getting back to full health. Pushing through illness can impact productivity and prolong recovery times.
Note: Our sick leave policy applies to personal illnesses, not caring for sick family members.
All sick leave is managed and tracked through Bob labeled as "Sick Leave Face with Thermometer". Given the complexity of local labor laws regarding sick leave, our approach to sick leave varies widely based on local laws and employment types.

Contractor employees

For our contractor employees, we've designed a sick leave policy that balances flexibility with accountability. There are two types of Sick Leave requests:
Immediate Sick Leave:
You are entitled to 5 days of sick leave per year, which can be availed without prior approval or the need to present a medical certificate. These days are in place for those times when you wake up feeling under the weather and need to prioritize your health.
Note: You can request up to 5 days/year without neither approval or medical certificate
Sick Leave With Certificate:
In the event you have utilized all your allocated sick days within a year—a rarity, in our experience—you will then be required to submit a formal sick leave request. This must be approved by the Operations department, and accompanied by a valid medical certificate to substantiate the continued need for time off.
Important: Sick leave longer than 5 days requires approval and medical certificate
A couple of important closing remarks:
  • No Health Insurance is provided: We do not provide health insurance coverage. We believe that the gross compensation paid to our contractors reflects this, and we trust you to manage your health coverage needs accordingly.
  • Long-Term Illness Strategy: While we don’t have a policy for long-term illnesses specifically for contractor employees, we do offer Unpaid Time Off (UTO) as a measure of support. Given this, we highly recommend securing private health insurance to provide the necessary assistance and financial support during extended periods of illness.

Italian payroll employees

Sick leave dynamics depend on your "CCNL Commercio" contract. The system determines the percentage of your daily pay based on factors like sick leave requests throughout the year and total days off due to illness.
Important: A valid medical certificate is always required.
The medical certificate should be uploaded with the sick leave request or its code mentioned in the time off request comment section.
As for the exact compensation during sick leave, feel free to use the following tables as a generic reference, but as always, defer to more in-depth research if you want absolute clarity.
# of sick leave requests during the year
1 to 3 days
4 to 20 days
More than 21 days
1st and 2nd
100%
75%
100%
3rd
66%
75%
100%
4th
50%
75%
100%
5th+
0%
75%
100%

Hourly Leave No Entry️

We've talked extensively about  ⁠⁠Attendance⁠  and how you can use Bob to track time easily as you clock-in/clock-out of the office.
This section here is simply to remind you—the No Entry️ symbol serves that purpose specifically—that you should never submit Hourly Leave requests because the exact number of hours is tracked automatically at the end of the month depending on the schedule.
Important: Hourly Leave is automatically adjusted for you at the end of the month, never submit a request manually!
Despite being managed automatically, these hours are still tracked and visible on your  time off page , so that you can keep track of how many hours you're using month by month. At the end of every month, the missing hours will be added to Bob as an adjustment.
If you ever find yourself submitting a request for this type of leave, do not worry!  Andrea Iurisci , marked as the approver for this type of PTO, will gladly reject the request and explain why it isn't needed Slightly Smiling Face.
The number of hours you can use every month is determined by a yearly budget. For the sake of simplicity, the amount is accrued month by month, so you can always check how many hours you can use that month on Bob.
Note: A negative budget is perfectly fine, it just means you need to take less hours in the upcoming months to ensure the budget goes up again.
The annual budget depends on your tenure at Nebulab, here it is:
Years of Service
Yearly Allowance
Less than 2 years
32
After 2 years
68
After 4 years
104
Like Holiday Palm Tree, Hourly Leave hours expire 6 months after December 31st. In rare cases of deeply negative budget, we may ask you to exchange some Holiday Palm Tree days to compensate the negative hourly budget.

Special Paid Leave People Hugging

In special cases, you're eligible for requesting a special paid leave. You can request these days on Bob by using the "Special Paid Leave People Hugging" time off and selecting the appropriate reason.
Below you will find the reasons available for your request—if you think you have the right to paid leave, please submit the request and we will take care of reviewing it before the final approval.

Bereavement Leave

Work should take the back seat during tough times, as teammates want to focus on being with family, friends, and loved ones.
We support you giving up to 3 paid days off after the death of a close relative. Close relatives include a parent, grandparent, spouse, sibling, or child.

Blood Donation

This is usually a half-day leave to fulfill your duties as a blood donor.

Marriage

In case of marriage or civil union, you are entitled to 10 working days of paid leave.

Parental Leave

In the event of childbirth, if you're not the parent in charge of the newborn care, you'll be entitled to 10 days of paid time off.
If you're the parent in charge of the newborn care, please contact your manager to discuss your needs; we're going to arrange and provide economic support for a longer period.

Other

If you think you're eligible for something that isn't listed above, please submit a request and we'll evaluate it. Make sure to include a comment to explain your request and we'll reach out to discuss it!

Conference Studio Microphone

Staying updated and engaged with the broader community is vital, and conferences are a fantastic way to achieve this. At Nebulab, we're committed to supporting your ongoing learning and networking endeavors.
The request can be sent through Bob with "Conference Studio Microphone" and should have the name of the conference attached to it in the comments so that we're aware of where you want to go.
In terms of budget, here's what we offer:
  • Every team member is entitled to up to 4 work days and an annual budget allowance reported in  ⁠⁠Benefits⁠ .
  • If the event you're keen on attending surpasses the number of days, feel free to discuss the possibility of an extra budget with your manager. We're always open to conversations that foster growth and enrichment.

Investment Time Brain

Investment Time is your time to both grow and relax—we talked extensively about it on  ⁠⁠Benefits⁠ . If you have a full-time contract it should be around 165 hours every year, but you should use Bob to learn what the exact budget should be.
Whenever you use some of your time as Investment Time, send a request through Bob with "Investment Time Brain".
There a couple of differences from the other PTO policies on this page:
  • Investment time falls under "Working policies" because it's not removed from the amount of hours you work every day.
  • You can schedule the same amount of time across different days, allowing you to reserve X amount of hours for Y days (making it very easy to schedule in advance).

Unpaid Leave

At Nebulab, we understand that life's unpredictable nature sometimes demands our undivided attention. Whether it's a personal health issue, caring for a family member, or taking the necessary time to recover from burnout, we believe in supporting your journey to well-being with unpaid time off (UTO).
Understanding Unpaid Time Off:
  • Well-Being Comes First: We stand by any well-reasoned request for UTO, especially when it contributes to your or a loved one’s well-being. From surgery recovery to managing long-term illnesses or disabilities, we’re here to support you.
  • Preserving Our Relationship: Our business model may be structured around active work, but our relationship with you goes beyond that. If unpaid leave is what you need, we strive to preserve and pause our professional relationship, not end it.
  • Health Over Hardship: We never want our team to work through undue hardship. If more time off than your PTO allows is necessary for your best health, we consider that an investment in our team's future success.
  • Life Before Work: Some events in life are simply more important than work. In such instances, pressing pause on professional duties is not only understandable but supported.
Planning Your Unpaid Time Off:
  • Utilize PTO First: We encourage you to use your PTO in full. If more time is needed, UTO can be a seamless continuation.
  • Approval is Key: Any UTO requires a conversation and approval from your manager and the Operations department to ensure alignment and proper planning.
  • Contract Considerations: While on UTO, your contract enters a 'hiatus' state. Rest assured, your role remains secure, and you'll resume work as usual upon your return.
Your journey, health, and well-being matter to us. At Nebulab, we want to ensure that you have the time you need, without the worry of work waiting for you. When you’re ready, we’ll be here to welcome you back.