How it works
The company picks one or more dates, often next to a weekend or public holiday, and closes for the day. Some companies give a single day, others several a year, and some a full recharge week. Unlike individual leave, the whole organization stops together, so nobody returns to a backlog of messages from colleagues who kept working.
Customer-facing teams complicate the model. Support, sales and operations may need cover, so companies either move those teams' recharge day to another date or schedule recharge days when customers are also likely to be offline, such as around major holidays.
Critics argue that recharge days treat a symptom. If people need a company-wide day off to feel rested, the cause may be meeting-heavy calendars and little control over their time. Hybrid and flexible working give people more day-to-day control, which some employers prefer to scheduled days off.
How to measure it
- Check whether people actually disconnect: messages sent and meetings booked on recharge days.
- Compare burnout and engagement survey results before and after introducing recharge days.
Examples
- A software company closes on the Friday before a long weekend each quarter and asks teams not to set deadlines around it.
- A company gives extra days off around major holidays instead of standalone recharge days, when most customers and partners are offline anyway.
Benchmarks
Fortune's coverage of its best companies to work for highlighted IHG, which offers three recharge days a year, ServiceNow, with six additional well-being days, and HP, which gives employees one 'me day' each year.
Kadence: Why recharge days miss the point of modern work (citing Fortune)
Common mistakes
- Scheduling a recharge day and then expecting work to be finished early, which just moves the pressure.
- Forgetting customer-facing teams, who either work anyway or return to a backlog.
- Using recharge days as a substitute for fixing workloads and meeting culture.
How Kadence helps
Kadence Closure Management closes buildings for holidays and company-wide days off, so nobody books space on a recharge day, and workplace announcements tell people about the closure through Slack, Microsoft Teams, email and the mobile app.
Frequently asked questions
What does recharge day mean?
A recharge day is an extra paid day off that the whole company takes at the same time. It is meant to let people rest without the usual pressure to keep up with messages, because colleagues are also offline. Some companies call it a wellness day, and some give a full recharge week.
What is a global recharge day?
A global recharge day is a recharge day that a company takes across all its offices and time zones at once. The idea is the same as any recharge day: the whole organization stops together, so nobody returns to a pile of messages from colleagues elsewhere who kept working.
Do recharge days prevent burnout?
They help people rest, but a single day does not fix the causes of burnout, such as heavy workloads, back-to-back meetings and little control over time. They work best alongside everyday flexibility and realistic workloads, and when companies make sure work is not simply squeezed into the days before.
How is a recharge day different from a four-day week?
A recharge day is an occasional extra day off, taken by everyone at once. A four-day week changes the regular pattern so that every week has one fewer working day. One is a periodic break; the other is a permanent change to working time.
Related terms
- Compressed work week A schedule that fits full-time hours into fewer, longer days, such as four ten-hour days, in exchange for extra days off.
- Four-day work week A working pattern that cuts the standard week to four days, usually with fewer total hours and no cut in pay.
- Flexible working Any arrangement that changes when, where or how much someone works, such as flextime, hybrid work or part-time hours.
Kadence editorial team · Last reviewed