This company is paying people to take time off

When Mike Lombardo and his business partner launched their gut-healthy iced tea brand, Halfday, they didn't expect to become advocates for paid leave — much less that they would one day pay strangers to take time off. 

The brand's name was originally meant to just be a fun play on words about taking time to relax and have a drink with friends. However, as Halfday gained popularity, Lombardo and his team realized that a lot of the consumers coming across their page assumed the company was a  leave management platform. Instead of changing the name or publicly separating themselves from the idea, they leaned into it.  

"People kept asking about the name and commenting on it," Lombardo says. "It prompted us to dig in a little bit and try to understand more about the landscape of PTO."

Read more: PTO policies need a reboot — this platform has a plan

As a result, Halfday partnered with market research and data analytics firm YouGov to look into the state of paid leave. Their joint survey revealed that 52% of U.S. workers experience feelings of guilt when taking time off — specifically for self-care — and more than one in three people haven't even taken a half day off in at least a year. Halfday wanted to use their newfound platform as advocates for PTO to change that. 

"We thought that if we could use our brand name as a fun way to promote a new narrative, we could do a really good thing," Lombardo says. "So that inspired the question of, what if we paid people to take time for themselves? Would that nudge people to do the right thing for their own mental and physical health?" 

Earlier this month, Halfday launched their campaign "Take A Halfday On Us," in which the brand is giving 100 people a cash prize of $100 to put toward the half day of their choosing, whether it's a spa day or a nice meal or a round of golf. Participants can both nominate themselves or someone in their lives by submitting their name, contact information and a short introduction and an explanation on how the prize money would help. The winners will then be selected at random on May 10, 2025. 

Read more: Want to prevent burnout? Invest in AI benefits and more robust PTO

In just two weeks, Halfday has received around 1,000 submissions. But what began as a lighthearted initiative has quickly become an eye-opening experience on how dire the situation has become and how little employees are taking time off for themselves, according to Lombardo. 

"It's been more shocking than we had expected," he says. "We thought people would be writing about day trips and baseball games, but a lot of people are out there working really, really hard and not feeling appreciated at work and feeling like a cog in the machine." 

In the first ever submission Halfday received, an applicant nominated a friend that works in a cancer research facility for children with cancer. Despite how physically and emotionally taxing the nominee's job is, the applicant wrote that their friend hardly ever takes any time off because they feel that the work they're doing is too important, opting instead to work longer hours. Since that submission, Lombardo and his team have fielded so many more, all sharing similar experiences of burnout and guilt. 

"People have even written to say that even if they don't win, the campaign has opened their eyes to the mindset shift they want to have," Lombardo says. "It has made them want to take care of themselves, and that has been really impactful for us to see." 

Read more: How much PTO workers get, based on company size

While Halfday hopes to spark a larger, more holistic conversation around the topic of leave, it cannot end there. As a people leader himself, Lombardo stresses the importance of having policies and benefit offerings that promote self care, even if it's in small ways. Being a startup, Halfday's resources are more limited than that of a large corporation. Still, Lombardo and his co-founder make it a point to go the extra mile to respect the time employees do have by encouraging them to take it and never reaching out unless it's an emergency.

Not every company can afford things like unlimited PTO, but being transparent and being as accommodating as possible doesn't cost organizations anything.  

"The culture of the company starts with the founders and it works its way down through leadership throughout the rest of the organization," Lombardo says. "Build a culture that makes people feel comfortable taking time off and show appreciation for their hard work to make up for the moments they can't."