Take “breathing leave” and then return to the company more motivated. This is what some Orange employees have been able to do since January 2022. The CAC 40 group is experimenting with this unprecedented program which allows its employees to be absent for three to twelve months while receiving 70% of their salary. A holiday designed for all company employees, whether they are executives or not.
This unique system is reserved for people who joined the company at least 10 years ago and who have held the same position for at least a year. However, there is no question of going around the world. To benefit from this programme, explains Human Resources Director Gervais Pellissier to Les Échos, “ employees must join structures or programs that contribute to the general interest “: some get involved in an NGO, others choose to teach, to train, or to work in another company.
But beware, it is not a question of providing free labor to companies that could afford it, explains Gervais Pellissier again. “ The idea is to bring the expertise of our employees to structures that need it, that are starting their activity or that are relaunching after a backup plan, for example.. In this case, if the company in question agrees to pay them, the total compensation must not exceed that which they initially received at Orange.
80 employees took this breathing leave
Currently limited to 250 employees per year (out of the 76,000 in the group in France), the system could eventually be extended to 1,000 employees per year. And, why not be accessible to employees who have less than ten years of seniority.
Among the 80 employees who have made this choice so far, there is in particular Delphine Ponge, UX Designer since 2021 and previously in HR at Orange: since June, she has been working within an aid association to visually impaired people. And, she tells Echoes, discovered another way of working, more outside than behind a computer.
Brehima Diarra, a commercial for eleven years, is for his part in training to become a footballer’s agent and aims to help his brothers, one of whom is a professional player and the other aspires to become one. But he also plans to return to Orange, probably in another position and in another country.
Orange will know in 2023 if its bet to give its loyal employees some breathing space to better reintegrate them is paying off.