Nothing less than the healthiest version of you
Table of Contents
- Healthcare and Disability Insurance
- Payroll
- Observed Holiday List
- Vacation and Sick Leave
- Paid Family, Parent Leave
- Other Protected Absences
- Sabbatical
Yen's priorities with benefits are wellness and education, so it’s important that we offer our employees great medical coverage and disability insurance.
We offer medical, dental, and vision coverage at Yen for employees and their dependents.
- Health Benefits: Anthem Blue Cross of CA | Anthem Platinum PPO 20/10%/3000 3057 - Base Plan | Anthem Gold PPO 20/30%/6500 302G - Optional - Yen covers 75% of Anthem Platinum PPO.
- Dental: Beam | CA Beam Smart Premium Plus 100/80/50/50-1500 - Yen covers 75% of the Premium.
- Vision: Beam | CA Beam VSP Choice Plan 2 - Yen covers 75% of the Premium.
You may review your benefits through Gusto at any time or ping John directly. If eligible, you will have the opportunity to enroll during the proper enrollment period.
We use Gusto for Payroll and as a part of your onboarding process, will walk you through setting up your direct deposit and filling out necessary paperwork. We'll also collect through Gusto any hiring documents (e.g. W-4, I-9, Direct Deposit Authorization) and do the State and Federal filings for you.
If we have any questions or need anything specific, we will ping you!
These may change (we may add more!) as the year progresses.
| New Year’s Day | January 1 |
| Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. | January 15 |
| President’s Day | February 19 |
| Cesar Chavez Day | March 31 |
| Emancipation Day | April 16 |
| Memorial Day | May 28 |
| Independence Day | July 4 |
| Labor Day | September 3 |
| Indigenous People’s Day (Columbus Day) | October 8 |
| Veterans Day | November 12 |
| Thanksgiving Day | November 22 |
| Christmas Eve | December 24 |
| Christmas Day | December 25 |
If a holiday falls on a weekend, we’ll let you know when the holiday will be observed. Usually, if a holiday falls on a Saturday, we will observe it on the Friday before. If it falls on a Sunday, it will be observed on the following Monday.
Taking time off and recharging is critical to doing your best work at Yen, so in addition to the recognized Holiday List above, Yen offers 120 hours each year (3 weeks or 15 business days) of paid vacation every year that accrues 1.25 of a day per month of work starting from your first employment date. Employees should schedule their vacations, let the rest of the team know, and add it to their shared work calendar at least a week in advance.
Employees also accrue the same for sick leave, 120 hours each year (3 weeks or 15 business days).
Employees should report vacation and sick days to the founder they report to, who will mark it in the payroll system (which keeps track of accrued days and should include them on every pay stub).
Employees with chronic or terminal illnesses should talk with the founder they report to about their needs for flexible time, disability leave, and/or other support.
Yen offers 12 weeks of paid leave for all full time employees, regardless of gender or sexual identity, after the birth or adoption of a child. This time is for the new parent to welcome the newborn or newly adopted child or children into their home and family. The leave should be taken within a year after the birth or adoption of the child.
Employees should give the rest of the team as much notice as possible before they take new parent leave, though there is no requirement for how far in advance notification needs to be given. Parenthood can be unexpected and sensitive, but the more that a team can anticipate the absence, the easier it will be to handle.
Paid time off of any kind, including New Parent Leave, does not accrue additional paid time off in the form of vacation days, sick days, or time towards sabbatical. For instance, an employee who has worked for Yen for 4 years will be eligible to take a sabbatical after 1 more year of work. If they took 12 weeks of new parent leave, when they returned they would still have 1 full year of work before they were eligible for their sabbatical.
In California, State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave programs will pay part of an employees salary who are unable to work due to pregnancy and childbirth. It is illegal for an employer to overpay an employee while they are using those programs, so Yen will supplement them to maintain the employee's salary instead of paying the full salary on top of them.
California law entitles a childbearing employee to take Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL) if they are disabled because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition, including prenatal care and severe morning sickness. The length of leave will be up to 4 months or the equivalent number of days the employee would normally work within the 4-month period. Intermittent leave or a reduced work schedule may be taken. Employees should give notice to the founder to whom they report.
An employee who wishes to take time off due to the death of an immediate family member should notify the founder to whom they report. Paid bereavement leave will be granted up to three consecutive days for the death of a family member including the following: Spouse, domestic partner, cohabitant, child, stepchild, grandchild, parent, stepparent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandparent, great grandparent, or sibling.
Employees will be granted up to 3 days paid time to serve on a jury or as a witness. In order to minimize disruption in the office, employees are requested to check in with the founder to whom they report when jury duty or witness testimony lasts less than four hours per day and may be requested to work remotely. A copy of the jury duty or witness summons and all associated documents must be presented to the founder to whom you report as soon as reasonably possible.
Yen will grant leaves of absence for other activities as required by law. Unless otherwise required by law, employees will not be paid for such leaves of absence.
After every 4 years of working at Yen, employees are encouraged to take a one-quarter (12 contiguous weeks) paid sabbatical.
During this sabbatical, they should work on passion projects -- something outside the scope of their normal work that is interesting and exciting to them. This could be researching a topic of interest, working for the US Digital Service, helping a nonprofit, or something else altogether.
The sabbatical should be a time of self-improvement and exploration with a central activity or theme. At the end of the sabbatical, the employee should put together a presentation about their sabbatical and present it to the team when they get back to the office.
The sabbatical is meant to help further our core value of improvement by letting the employee explore and learn about another area of interest. It may also help some employees avoid burnout from working on one thing for too long.
To make sure that sabbatical is not overly disruptive to their team, employees should have taken fewer than twelve weeks of paid time off in the year before a sabbatical. They should also notify the team that they will be taking the sabbatical at least 4 weeks in advance.
There is an expectation that employees return to work at Yen after their sabbatical, and not use it as a soft exit from the company. This is our investment in you!
Paid time off of any kind, including Sabbatical, does not accrue additional paid time off in the form of vacation days, sick days, or time towards sabbatical. For instance, an employee who has accrued 3 sick days before taking a 12 week sabbatical will still have 3 available sick days when they return.