Understanding Sandwich Policy: How Does It Affect Your Weekends and Holidays?

Hi all, can anybody help me understand what a sandwich policy is? Is it related to only Saturdays, Sundays, or any holiday?

It depends on the company's individual leave policy. Some companies apply Holiday - Leave - Holiday or Leave - Holiday - Leave as the Sandwich Rule in the leave policy. Some companies consider any non-working day as a holiday, like Saturdays and Sundays, which are also holidays due to being non-working days. Therefore, in any case, the leave policy or Employee Handbook applied by companies will be mostly considered authentic for defining the sandwich rule policy for the particular company.

Hope this will help you understand your query. All the best.

I too have doubts about this concept, but one thing is sure: it is meant to support and encourage the flexible timing concept to help employees. It helps when you need only a few hours off from work. If you have to lose the whole day for the same, you may feel it's a waste of a holiday. This helps you utilize the same holiday twice, which is especially beneficial when you have medical appointments or need to attend a social function.

Myths Related to Flexible Timing

I have observed a lot of myths related to this concept. Some employees think, as I said above, that merging two halves into one is possible. Others believe that if you take a holiday for three days in a row, and one of the days in between is a holiday, your leave will still be considered for three days instead of two.

Some others say that taking half a day on Saturday and half a day on Monday, with Saturday and Monday merged with Sunday, counts as three days of paid leave.

It would be helpful if anyone could explain in detail if this concept is adopted in their companies and if they have utilized such leave options and understood them well. Thank you.

Thank you, Maulik, for your reply. In my company, I have implemented a sandwich policy as "leave - holiday - leave," and the holiday can be any official off - Saturday, Sunday, Republic Day, etc.

Currently, I am facing a debate on this concept. People say that the sandwich policy is applicable only for Saturday and Sunday holidays. As you mentioned, it depends on the company's leave policy and what they want to implement. My question was just to seek final confirmation that what I am implementing is correct as per the standard leave policies. If my implementation is correct, then it would be justifiable.

If you have implemented the "Leave - Holiday - Leave" as a Sandwich Policy, please stick to it whether it's Saturday, Sunday, or any festival leave. Please do mention that any non-working day declared in the Holiday List will be considered a "Holiday" and it will be applicable to the sandwich rule.

Drafting a Formal Email

To avoid unnecessary doubts, draft a formal email and send it to all HODs and concerned parties. This way, they will get a clear idea about the true implementation of the Sandwich rule and will not ask you any questions.

Hope this will help. Revert in case you require more clarification on this.

Regards