Why Hybrid Teams Are Rethinking Time Off — and What New Research Says About It

The shift to hybrid and remote work changed how teams communicate, collaborate, and manage projects. But one area has been slower to adapt: time-off policies. Most organizations still rely on leave management frameworks built for a world where everyone showed up to the same office every day.

New research from actiPLANS suggests that gap is now creating real problems — for compliance, for retention, and for the ability to plan work around people’s absences.

The study

The report, titled “Leave Management in Hybrid and Remote Teams” is based on a survey of more than 300 organizations and a review of leave policies at 16 companies, including GitLab, Microsoft, PostHog, Buffer, and Sourcegraph. The sample covers technology, professional services, and public sector organizations across North America, EMEA, and APAC, ranging from mid-market to enterprise size. Policy details were validated as of February 2026.

What the data shows

Employees under unlimited PTO policies take 14% fewer days off than those with traditional accrual-based plans. The report attributes this to performance anxiety in remote settings. When no one can see you at your desk, the pressure to appear available increases.

The problem extends beyond PTO usage. 64% of hybrid workers in the survey check work communications during their time off when disconnection policies are vague or culture-dependent rather than formally enforced.

On the operational side, 85% of the organizations surveyed have a formal leave policy, but only 40% have real-time visibility into who is actually available on any given day. For managers running projects across time zones, that gap means scheduling conflicts and last-minute scrambles.

The financial picture

The research connects leave management to business performance. Companies with structured flexible leave policies grew revenue at 12% annually between 2019 and 2024, compared to 7% for rigid peers — drawn from a joint BCG and Scoop analysis. On the retention side, 76% of organizations offering flexible leave report higher retention, with the average cost of replacing a single employee estimated at over $36,000.

Five trends

The report identifies five trends reshaping leave management in hybrid and remote organizations — spanning policy design, cross-border compliance, retention strategy, approval workflows, and operational tooling. Each is documented with benchmarks, company examples, and a strategic playbook. The report also recommends a three-tier technology approach to close the gap between written policy and actual team visibility.

As companies settle into long-term hybrid models, the patchwork of pandemic-era time-off policies is showing its age. This research offers a detailed look at how the organizations getting it right are structuring their approach — and where the rest of the market is falling behind.

The full report is available for free download here.

actiPLANS is a leave management and work scheduling platform developed by actiTIME, Inc. The software helps organizations manage leave requests, track PTO balances, monitor team availability, and plan resources through visual timelines and automated workflows.