Workers offered as much holiday as they like

First there was flexi-time, now some workers may enjoy flexi-holidays. An employer is offering its staff a pioneering holiday entitlement scheme allowing them to take months off, provided the work still gets done.

Inbucon, a human resources consultancy in Richmond, Surrey, has introduced the scheme to "empower" its employees and encourage trust and responsibility.

Staff will be paid for any amount of holiday leave as long as they manage their yearly workload and satisfy colleagues and customers.

In what may seem like every employees' dream, the company said it would no longer monitor the amount of days taken off by staff and that up to three months' paid leave a year would not be a problem.

David Brooks, the company's co-founder, said he decided to go ahead with the unconventional arrangement after consulting the staff of 40 about how to improve working life.

Mr Brooks said all individual employees would keep their own holiday records, to ensure the company complied with health and safety legislation. Management would also be able to see the records, he said, but would not "monitor" the amount of time off.

"What we wanted to do was empower people by giving them a real sense of ownership of the organisation," he said.

"It requires individuals to consider the impact of the amount of holiday that they are taking on their customers and also on their team members. We are treating them as adults, we are trusting them, but as part of that trust they have to take the responsibility that goes with it."