Optional Holidays Policy

How Launch handles federal and observed holidays. The short version: every holiday is optional. Employees choose to work or take the day off as paid time. If you work a holiday, you bank that day to use as PTO later.

How it works

Launch publishes a list of recognized holidays at the start of each calendar year (federal + a small set of observed days). For each one:

The choice is yours. You don't need approval to take a holiday or to work one. You don't need to justify either way.

Recognized holidays at Launch (2026)

The Christmas Week shutdown is the one exception: the office is closed and no client work happens. Employees can use it as full PTO or work on internal projects, but client-facing work is paused.

How to record it

When you decide for any given holiday:

If you're taking the day off

• Mark the day in Harvest as the holiday name (e.g., "Memorial Day — Holiday")
• Set your Slack status with the holiday name and "back tomorrow"
• Turn on your email auto-reply
• Note any work that needs coverage with the relevant team member

No advance notice required for predictable holidays. For the Christmas Week shutdown, just confirm in the December team meeting which days you're working vs taking.

If you're working the day

• Clock normal hours in Harvest as usual (client work to client codes, internal to internal codes)
• Add a Harvest entry tagged Holiday Worked — Banked for 0 hours, with the note "Banked PTO day from [Holiday Name]"
• Email Monica + cc Lorena confirming you worked the holiday — this is what triggers Lorena to add the banked day to your PTO balance
• Subject line: Banking [Holiday Name] — [Date Worked]

Lorena updates the PTO tracker. You'll see the banked day appear in your PTO balance within a few days.

Using a banked holiday later

Banked holiday days work exactly like regular PTO:

• Schedule with normal PTO request via Slack to Monica
• 1-week advance notice for full days, day-of OK for half days
• No expiration — banked days roll forward indefinitely
• On separation: unused PTO including banked holiday days is paid out per WA state law

What this policy does NOT do

• Does not allow holiday-only stacking — you can't bank 13 holidays in a year by working all of them; we expect most people to take most holidays. It's an option for someone who genuinely wants to work that day.
• Does not turn into 1.5x or 2x pay — working a holiday at Launch is straight time, plus the banked vacation day. We're not offering premium holiday rates.
• Does not allow contractor banking — this is W-2 employee only. Contractors invoice for hours worked; they don't bank holidays.
• Does not apply to mandatory closed days — if Monica announces the office is closed (e.g., a snow day, a power outage, a major client event), that day is closed for everyone with no banking option

Edge cases

Client meeting falls on a holiday

If a client has scheduled a meeting on a Launch holiday and you're the meeting owner:

• You can choose to keep the meeting and bank the day
• You can choose to reschedule the meeting before the holiday — talk to the client
• You can choose to hand off to a teammate who's working

Whatever you choose, don't no-show. Communicate.

Half-day holiday

Sometimes a holiday lands awkwardly (e.g., Christmas Eve isn't a recognized holiday but everyone leaves early). For those:

• Talk to Monica day-of, propose a half-day close
• If approved, half-day is paid; no banking
• Document in Slack so the team knows

Holiday during a project deadline

If you bank a holiday and your project has a deadline that crosses it, the deadline is yours to manage. The bank is yours, the deliverable timing is also yours. Don't bank and miss a deadline — talk to the project owner first.

How this connects to other PTO

Banked holiday days are PTO. They're not a separate bucket once they're in your balance.

What changed and what didn't

• What changed: The Optional Holidays Policy is now explicitly documented. Before, it was practice but not written.
• What didn't change: The actual behavior. Launch has always offered optional holidays. This SOP exists so a new hire doesn't have to ask "wait, am I supposed to work Memorial Day?"