A floating holiday is a paid day off that an employee can use at their own discretion, rather than on a fixed public holiday. It gives people flexibility to observe religious or cultural days, personal milestones, or simply a day that matters to them, instead of being tied to the calendar of national holidays.

Floating holidays are popular with multinational companies and diverse teams, because they let a single policy respect different traditions fairly. They are usually granted as a set number of days per year, are separate from annual leave, and often do not carry over if unused.

The flexibility that makes floating holidays attractive also makes them easy to lose track of. Setting them up as their own leave type in Calamari's Time Off module keeps balances clear and ensures requests are approved consistently across the whole company.