And the U.K. is also looking into new immigration rules following the Brexit vote last year, something that has concerned many businesses in the country.
Polaroid Swing’s policy gives its employees a week of paid civic engagement so they can go and protest, write letters or get involved in politics in some way. For Stadlen, immigration has been key for the start-up.
“Myself and my co-founder are British and we wouldn’t have been able to start this company if it wasn’t for open immigration in the U.S,” Stadlen said.
“There is huge value at stake for tech companies. Britain for example needs a strong tech sector and closing immigration down is going to negatively affect that.”
So far, a few people have taken time off, Stadlen said though the policy was officially announced on Tuesday.
Such a policy isn’t widespread yet across the tech world, though some companies have enacted similar rules. Jelly, a start-up co-founded by Biz Stone, who is also a co-founder of Twitter, launched paid time off for civic engagement in February. And database start-up Fauna also launched a similar policy in February. Other technology companies offering paid leave for political engagements include Buoyant, Turbine Labs, Atipica and Vicarious.
Stadlen said other companies need to introduce this policy too.
“We are really urging other tech companies to do something similar, I think it will be great for engaging employees, it will help people create an environment where people can stand up,” Stadlen told CNBC.
“You are seeing a backlash against tech from privacy, extremist content, gender inequality, tech needs to do something to regain trust and define our contribution to society a lot more clearly.”
