Dive Brief:

• Ferris Bueller would be proud. According to the Wall Street Journal, a smattering of U.S. employers are now offering workers paid days off to focus on themselves and just kick back and relax – apart from normal vacation time and personal time off (PTO)/sick days.

• The article cites employers such as LinkedIn, where workers get monthly meeting-free “InDays” to merely hang around the office or go to offsite events, and Waterford Research Institute LLC, where employees actually get twice-a-year “Ferris Bueller” days. REI’s 13,000 employees get two paid “yay days” annually to literally "commune with nature" — and then log their activities on social media, according to the Journal.

• The Journal reports that managers believe employees need "guilt-free time to switch off from the smartphone-enabled workday," but the article adds that some HR experts remain highly skeptical, seeing the idea as more of a marketing ploy than anything else.

Dive Insight:

The article goes on to describe how employees working for companies who offer such perks are taking advantage of the opportunities, yet those aforementioned HR experts don't see it as a widespread solution for building engagement.

“Really what we’re talking about is branding personal days,” Bruce Elliott, manager of compensation and benefits at SHRM told the Journal. "Companies are slapping new names on an old benefit, trying to prove they are hip," he said, adding that “Your older workers are going to go, ‘What the heck?’”

Susan LaMotte, CEO of workforce-consulting firm Exaqueo Inc., told the Journal that the trend is “a lazy solution” to a larger problem. These special days off wouldn’t be necessary if leaders eased demands on workers and stopped emailing them on vacation or deeming all projects a high priority, she told the Journal.

Meanwhile. U.S. employers have a tough enough time getting workers to take their entire vacation and PTO days as it is, so adding one or two more days probably will not be catching on soon.