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Ask HN: Can you take more than 2 consecutive weeks of vacation?

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Re: Ask HN: Can you take more than 2 consecutive weeks of vacation?

#21

Post by samsolomon »

There's a lot of "it depends" here. As both a former founder and early startup employee these are the things that come to mind—

How far out did you discuss this with your employer? Were they aware of it when you joined? There's a pretty big difference if this is 6 months or two weeks away. Setting expectations go a long way here on both sides.

What is the size of the business? People are more critical the smaller the business is. The stakes are very different for a business with 10 vs 100 vs 1,000 employees.

Is the business cashflow positive—or near it? You said startup, so that makes me think they aren't cash flow positive. Three consecutive weeks is a lot to ask for a small business that isn't making money.

Essentially, the more stable the business is the less of an issue I'd expect it to be—given expectations were set in advance.

Re: Ask HN: Can you take more than 2 consecutive weeks of vacation?

#22

Post by SoftTalker »

When I worked in academia, yes absolutely if the weeks aligned with breaks in instruction. So winter holidays, or pretty much any time in June, July, or August were fine for long stretches of PTO.

In the private sector, I think I took one two-week vacation. It was not a problem, but it had to be approved.

One company I worked with had a mandatory 8 week sabbatical after 10 years, and every 5 years thereafter. It had to be taken as a single block of time off.

Re: Ask HN: Can you take more than 2 consecutive weeks of vacation?

#26

Post by MDGeist »

At my previous company they created a policy where if it was more than a week or two you had to get permission from the CEO (company was a few hundred people in size). This was after one month where like 5 people all took 3 week vacations after direct manager approvals and it created some operational issues... This all struck me as a bit unreasonable though because it was not an unlimited PTO place at the time so the time had been banked.

Re: Ask HN: Can you take more than 2 consecutive weeks of vacation?

#27

Post by mlhpdx »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #18

This is why unlimited PTO is stupid. You have to get permission for ANY time off. Lame.

Folks don’t ask me for permission for time off, they inform me. I ask if they’ve coordinated with their teammates, if that’s appropriate (sometimes it isn't, given a family event or the like, in which case managers and peers coordinate whatever is needed for the person to get leave with a clear conscience).

Re: Ask HN: Can you take more than 2 consecutive weeks of vacation?

#30

Post by arcticbull »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #18

This is why unlimited PTO is stupid. You have to get permission for ANY time off. Lame.

It has its pros and cons, and it depends on your employer. Your employer generally has to approve PTO even on a PTO plan that tracks hours. If you don't trust your employer to honor a reasonable PTO policy - unlimited or otherwise - then you should get a new job because there's probably lots of other problems.

I've been able to take blocks as long a 3 weeks off at an employer with an unlimited PTO policy, because I worked hard when I was there and my manager and I were on the same page. I told them when I was going and how long for, and they said nice, have fun.

Etiquette was to give at least 2x as much notice as the duration of the PTO. If you're going to take 3 weeks off give at least 6 weeks notice.

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