Does your organisation offer grandparental leave to their staff? Or perhaps you’re thinking of increasing your employees’ holiday entitlement as they get older? As businesses look to provide ever more appealing packages to their staff, we are seeing more and more unusual leave types being offered by all types of organisation around the world.

This month, we take a look at 5 of the more obscure leave types we’ve come across in recent years.

‘Pawternity’ leave

As it turns out, some companies sympathise with new pet owners and the responsibilities that come with pet ownership, offering ‘pawternity leave’. According to Petplan, 5% of pet owners have been offered paid leave specifically for their pet-owning duties.

Brewdog and Mars PetCare are among those to implement the animal-friendly leave type. Some have even offered pet bereavement leave.

Holiday entitlement increasing with age

Whilst many would consider this leave type to be potentially ageist, employees in Hungary receive a basic entitlement of 20 working days per year of annual leave, which then rises as they get older. Starting from the age of 25, as they get older, employees can benefit from 10 extra working days in total!

Wedding leave – with a catch

In a bid to encourage marriage and childbirth later in life, certain provinces, regions and municipalities in China offer extra paid wedding leave to staff, provided that they’re over a certain age.

Chile have followed suit by offering employees 5 extra annual leave days for their wedding. On the more generous end of the spectrum, Spanish employees can take up to 15 calendar days’ holiday for their marriage.

‘Bad mood’ leave

You read that right. A theme park in eastern China allows its employees to take leave if they’re ‘in a bad mood’. Each worker is entitled to 1 paid holiday per month to relax and feel better.

According to China Dinosaur Park, workers often need to deal with unreasonable customers in the park, and sometimes these customers would leave them feeling sad and wronged; therefore, the leave policy ‘shows the company’s support and love towards our staff’.

Running your own business

A very unusual – and somewhat disruptive – entitlement, staff in Sweden are entitled to take up to 6 months’ leave if they wish to start their own business. Surprisingly, the perk has been in place for the last 20 years; no wonder Stockholm has become Europe’s start-up capital!

Implementing custom leave types is possible with LeavePlanner’s absence management system. Whether you’re looking to offer staff paid leave to move house, play sports, or implement the highly-debated ‘pawternity’ leave, all is possible with just a few clicks. Start your free 30-day LeavePlanner trial today.