After we graduated from ‘founding team only’ to ‘can’t count all our colleagues on one hand’, we figured it was time to create a proper time-off policy. We first went the Silicon Valley route and adopted an unlimited PTO setup. But our colleagues began being too careful with their vacation days and burnout was upon us. What first sounded like a perk became a lofty promise.

To fix this, something had to go, and it darn well wasn’t going to be our mental wellbeing. So we went hunting. We found tools that fell broadly into two buckets: full-blown HR suites that did more than manage time off, and lightweight trackers.

We began with a lightweight tracker because it was easy to use and catered to our very basic needs. We managed to keep the flexibility we wanted to make part of our culture. We were also encouraging people to take the time off they deserve.

But as we grew to fill our boots, several cracks began to show.

Identifying what worked and what didn’t

We combined our expertise in building digital products and our experience of one such time-off tracking app as a client. Through this, we found several gaps between what we wanted and what we had:

Clunky workflows

Despite being nifty enough, our lightweight leave tracker had gone through its fair share of feature bloat. This resulted in confusing processes and counterintuitive pages that were neither delightful nor easy to use.

Transactional approaches

As an organisation, we look at time off as integral to how we work, and not as an afterthought. So obviously, the transactional and predatory nature of existing tracking tools really chafed against our nature. We wanted to look at time off like a big picture. To go beyond transactional time-off tracking and keep the entire team informed and productive.

Basics, but only the basics

We love empathetic features: nudging teammates to take time off if they haven’t in a while, or planning around colleagues’ breaks so they’re refreshed and we’re forging ahead. The basic features on our leave tracker did their job well. Which is to say, they tracked. But they lacked the nuances of time-off information that we wanted.

Building the ideal time off management tool

As it turns out, there’s a wonderful shift happening in workplaces today: they’re becoming less robotic and more empathetic in nature. More and more companies of all sizes are loosening up their rigid leave policies to be more human-centric.

But the tools in our largely systems-first world hadn’t come up to speed yet. We used user insights to conclude that we needed to overhaul the perception of ‘time off’ and how it’s treated by software providers today. And so, having built some of SE Asia’s most successful consumer products, we decided to take matters into our own hand.

Long story long, that’s how Pause came into being. It’s a handy time-off management tool that helps teams plan and take time off as needed, and view overall schedules in one place to keep projects running smoothly.

With Pause, you’ll get the table stakes in terms of features, but you’ll also get empathy and transparency. That’s because a heartfelt philosophy guides Pause, not just a robotic assessment of lucrative markets. And for that, it’s as humane as can be.

The philosophy

We believe that that time off is a necessity, not just a nice-to-have — and this governs all our decisions while building. We want Pause to be the first choice for active time-off informing, rather than passive tracking and monitoring. Therefore, the principles of trust, empathy and intentional growth guide our groundwork.

The intent

We want to enable teams to better manage their organisational planning and set up policies that promote a healthy culture. We want to avoid falling leaving our users to piece things together. Instead, we’re constantly making sure that Pause is built for the user — whether’s that’s an HR person checking the stats, a team member planning their week ahead, or a founder rallying the troops for a big project.

The final product

Every feature, flow, and pixel you will see on your screen has been carefully considered and thoughtfully placed. Our processes intentionally simplify a system that can get very complicated, very fast. The integrations compound the power of existing tools like Google Calendar and Slack. The unobtrusive features make team wellbeing, seamless collaboration and information communication a priority.

Pause today to recharge for tomorrow

Software continues to grow and evolve with its users, and so will Pause. We’re constantly improving, adding and removing elements with the help of our beta users. We want Pause to be the frontrunner of new-age products that are non-intrusive and human-first.

Pause is buoyed by strong intentions and forethought. It comes waving the flag of a larger mission:

To create a happier alternative world that, instead of rewarding an “always-on” culture, encourages team members to put themselves first and see the magic that happens.

We hope to become an indispensable tool in your arsenal (fingers crossed!) So if you have an idea, a concern, or a request, please tell us over Intercom chat!

Here’s to technology bringing out the best in our workplaces,

💜 Team Pause