Family and Friends Day

At GitLab, Family & Friends days are shared days away from work to prioritize time with family and friends, volunteering, self-care, or anything else.

What is a Family and Friends Day?

We started our Family & Friends day benefit in early 2020 to help team members cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. We planned to continue Family & Friends days for as long as the majority of the world was dealing with the pandemic. While the World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 global health emergency in early 2023, we have maintained Family & Friends days as a team member benefit with different iterations each fiscal year.

Team members are encouraged to share about their Family and Friends day in the #family-and-friends-day Slack channel after the event, or publicly on social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn, or wherever they’re most comfortable using the hashtag #FamilyFriends1st. Sharing is optional. Taking the day off is strongly encouraged if your role allows it.

FY'26 Family and Friends Days

In FY25, we chose one day a quarter to recognize a Family & Friends day. In FY26, we plan to consolidate those 4 Family & Friends days near the end of the calendar year. Keeping our Friends & Family day benefit at a time when our customers are often away from work, and during a quieter time in the year, will allow us to best serve our customers and meet our business objectives.

The proposed dates for FY26 Family & Friends days are:

2025-12-26
2025-12-29
2025-12-30
2025-12-31

Family & Friends days will be automatically loaded into Workday by end of Q1FY26, for all team members, so there’s no need for team members to enter them manually.

In countries where a Family & Friends day falls on a public holiday, team members are encouraged to utilize their public holiday on another day, keeping in mind that the public holiday accrual balance needs to be used within the same calendar year.

For example, if the Family & Friends day on 2025-12-26 is a public holiday in your country, create a new absence request in Workday for the public holiday on another day within the same calendar year, such as 2025-12-24, by selecting Type of Absence > Time Offs > Public Holiday, and add a note that you are using your public holiday on this day because 2025-12-26 is a public holiday in your location which falls on one of GitLab’s Family & Friends days.

In Israel, Family & Friends days will be adjusted to 2025-12-28, 2025-12-29, 2025-12-30, and 2025-12-31.

As with years past, team members in roles that require them to work on a date designated as a Family & Friends day can work with their manager to find an alternative day. Team members in roles that require them to work on a date designated as a Family & Friends day will be able to request the alternative(s) day in Workday (or via the Workday link in Slack).

Choose a day that works best for your manager and your team. Please note: The alternative date should be within 30 days (before or after) of the scheduled Family & Friends day.
Log into Workday and request time off using the category “Time Off in Lieu”, reason “Family and Friends Day”.
In the comments section, please note: “In lieu of Family and Friends Day on XXX”.
This will route to your manager for approval.