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  1. About Bloom
  2. Employment terms and policies
  3. Code of Conduct
  4. Your first few weeks at Bloom
  5. Computer and equipment
  6. Tools to know
  7. Things to set up in your first week
  8. Meetings - what to expect
  9. Pay and benefits for salaried employees
  10. Working hours
  11. How we show up
  12. Time tracking
  13. Time off
  14. Expenses and reimbursement procedures
  15. Travel and relocations
  16. Career growth, professional development, and competencies
  17. Outside activities and conflicts of interest
  18. Leaving Bloom

Work/life balance is an important part of Bloom’s culture. We all need a break sometimes, so take the time you need for yourself and your community.

Types of leave for salaried employees

Regardless of the type of leave, you need to
communicate your plans for all time off. Personal time, floating holidays, and respite leave must be approved by your manager.

  • Full-time employees (40 hours per week) accrue up to 120 hours of personal time each calendar year. You accrue 5 hours per pay period.
  • Full-time employees also get 64 hours (8 days) of Floating Holiday time. Use it on any day, not just on federal or state holidays. If you want to celebrate National Ice Cream Day, you do you. We opted for this instead of a regular holiday calendar because we have a diverse group of people, and we want you to choose the days that mean the most to you.
  • Employees who work fewer than 40 hours per week get a prorated amount of personal time and floating holiday time.
  • You can carry over up to 40 hours (5 days) of unused personal time from calendar year to calendar year. Floating Holidays don’t roll over from year to year. Remember, it’s important to take time off regularly — make sure to plan your time off accordingly!
    • You may want to use your floating holidays first, since they don’t carry over.
    • For part-time employees (less than 40 hours per week) the amount of PTO you can carry over from year to year is prorated based on your work hours. For example, someone who works 32 hours per week — or 80% of full time — can carry over 32 hours to a new year.
  • All salaried employees get 80 hours (10 days) of respite leave, which is intended to give you time off when you’re sick, need medical care, or otherwise need rest. This leave balance doesn’t carry over from year to year.
    • Effective January 1, 2024, for new employees, this leave will be prorated based on when in the calendar year you join.
    • Respite leave includes caretaker leave, mental health days, and bereavement.
    • If you run out of respite leave, talk to your manager about how to take the time you need.
  • Bloom is closed from Christmas (observed) through New Years (observed) each winter (a total of 6 business days). This is considered time off outside of the Floating Holidays, and does not come out of your personal time balance.

Jury duty

To provide income protection while you carry out your civic responsibility, Bloom provides the difference between jury duty pay and your regular day’s pay for time spent serving on jury duty.

Generally, we provide income protection for time spent serving on jury duty for a maximum of five workdays. We will consider additional income-protected time away from the workplace for this purpose on a case-by-case basis.

All salaried Bloom employees are eligible to receive this benefit.

If you’re summoned to serve on a jury or to act as a court witness, notify your project lead. We’ll ask you to provide copies of the subpoena or jury summons to People Ops for recordkeeping.

If you’re appearing in your own case as a plaintiff or defendant or for a non-subpoenaed court appearance, you’ll need to use personal time, floating holidays, or unpaid time rather than Jury leave.

Voting

If you’re unable to vote outside of working hours, you may take up to 2 hours during the work week to vote. If voting takes more than 2 hours (because of lines, travel time, or other issues), let your manager know.

Parental leave

We want to support employees in bonding with new children (by birth or adoption, or placement in foster care) and acclimating to the new life ahead.

Once you’ve been at Bloom for at least 9 months, you can take 8 weeks of fully-paid leave for the birth, adoption, or placement of a new child any time in the 12 months after they join your family. If you’ve been at Bloom for less than 9 months or need additional leave, we’ll review requests on a case-by-case basis.

Birthing parents also have the option to use short-term disability for additional paid leave. Contact People Ops for more information on this benefit.

Short-term disability

If you need to be out of work for more than 5 consecutive business days for medical reasons (including pregnancy or childbirth), you may need to apply for short-term disability benefits. In some cases (depending on where you live), you may be able to supplement short-term disability benefits with PTO in order to keep your pay at your normal salary. Short-term disability is only for your own medical needs, not for caregiving or family needs.

If you need to take more than a week off for illness, injury, pregnancy, or other medical reasons, contact People Ops and your manager for assistance.

Bereavement

The death of a loved one is a difficult and emotional time, and we want to do everything we can to support our employees. If you’re struggling with grief, logistics, or focus following a loss (yes, even a four-legged friend), let your manager know and use your respite leave to take the time you need. If you need additional accommodations, work with your manager.

Communicating time off

Time off is important, and we want Bloomers to take the time they need. We ask you to request leave in advance and communicate about your leave thoroughly because we need to be able to predict project timelines and manage teams’ workloads responsibly. We try to approve most requests, but don’t make nonrefundable plans before your leave is cleared!

If you need to accommodate an appointment or event during business hours, you may be able to shift your working hours that day instead of taking leave. If you do that, make sure your availability is reflected on your calendar and your manager is aware.

Before taking planned leave, be sure to

  • Discuss the dates with your manager and engagement manager, and get approval. If you’re taking less than three full days, give your manager at least 2 weeks advance notice of planned time off whenever possible.

    • If you’re planning to take more than 3 full days off, we need to know at least 3 weeks in advance, and make a copy of the OOO coverage plan and complete the checklist. This helps us manage projects smoothly and make sure we’re supporting teams consistently.
    • If you’re traveling and plan on working from another location on the days before or after your leave, see personal travel and temporary relocations.
    • Request the time off in 🇺🇸 Gusto or 🇨🇦 Remote. When you enter the leave request, note if it’s been approved by your manager. (Sometimes your manager will approve leave directly, but in some cases People Ops helps approve leave, and this lets them know you’ve already had that conversation.)

  • Mark your out of office time on your calendar and mark full days off in the shared Bloom calendar (create a full-day or multi-day event titled [NAME - OOO]). Do not mark partial days off or personal appointments on the Bloom Calendar.

  • Decline, cancel, or reschedule any meetings you’ll miss.

  • Tell team members, partners, and clients via Slack or email. Work with your project lead or engagement manager to make sure your work is covered.

  • Set up an email auto-responder as appropriate. This should include both when you’ll be back and a point of contact/team email for while you’re out.

    For example: I am out of the office on Wednesday April 2nd and will respond to your request when I return on Thursday the 3rd. If you need immediate assistance email [email address] and your request will be directed to the appropriate party.

  • Update your Slack status to indicate that you are OOO.

In general, we like approving time off! But we also like not being confused or scrambling to cover work, and clear communication supports all these things. If you don’t consistently request and communicate time off according to these steps, we may need to increase oversight of your time off and potentially deny future requests.

For unplanned time off (such as illness, weather events, emergencies)

  • Let your manager know as soon as you safely can.
  • If you’re safe, have access to a computer, and feel well enough:
    • Change your Slack status
    • Mark the day off on your calendar and the Bloom calendar
    • Decline any meetings you won’t attend
    • Briefly let your team know you’re out
  • If possible, let your manager or People Ops know if you are too ill or unable to work. If you are unable to notify anyone at Bloom, we will take note, attempt to reach out, and check with your emergency contact if necessary.
  • When possible (or when you get back to work), request the time off in Gusto or Remote.

Leave policies for salaried employees

Written documentation of time off

Bloom also reserves the right to require documentation verifying your need to use time off, particularly for extended sick leave or if there are indications of a pattern of abuse, such as repeated use of unscheduled time off on or adjacent to weekends, holidays, or pay days.

If we ask for documentation of a medical condition (yours or someone in your family’s), verification from a health care provider is appropriate, but should not explain the nature of the condition and should not result in an unreasonable burden or expense on the employee.

Abuse of time off

Abuse of time off, including legally-mandated paid sick leave, may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination. Disciplinary action may be taken if a pattern of potential abuse of time off develops, if an employee is failing to attain necessary goals for his or her position, or if an excessive number of absences occur that are beyond the scope of any approved FMLA leave, approved disability leave, or leave provided as a reasonable accommodation.

State/provincial and local paid sick leave laws

To the extent state/provincial or local laws mandate paid sick leave, this policy is intended to ensure that eligible employees who work in those jurisdictions accrue and receive paid sick leave in accordance with those requirements. Bloom prohibits discrimination or retaliation against employees because of a request for time off for legally-protected paid sick leave purposes, or use of such time off. If you believe that you have been treated unfairly on account of your use of such time off, or request for such time off, immediately report this concern to People Ops so that the matter may be reviewed and appropriate corrective action may be taken.