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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?

#71

Post by bb88 »

fnimick wrote: post #66
id00 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any serious business needs to have a continuity plan and can't depend on availability of a single person. What if the person you depend on will have a medical emergency or resign? Business owners can take this risk but using "don't take more than 2 weeks of PTO" as a risk mitigation strategy is disingenuous and disrespectful to their employees.

Startups running lean, which is what you need to do in order to maximize runway, don't have the money or time for "continuity plans". Haven't you ever joked about the "bus factor"? All the startups I've worked at would have likely failed if any one of the core people had to depart, for any reason.

Then startups need to be honest about their needs up front, and stop using misleading terms like "unlimited" -- particularly early stage startups.

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

#72

Post by marssaxman »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #18

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

That's not been my experience, unless by "get permission" you mean "provide notification". I simply tell my manager when I'm going to be gone; the longer I'm going to be gone, the further in advance I let him know. That's it. I don't have to nickel-and-dime myself with PTO hours or keep track of them at all. I strongly prefer unlimited PTO to the traditional model.

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

#73

Post by bb88 »

fnimick wrote: post #60
jejeyyy77 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, unlimited PTO is a scam. But, to make lemonade, I make sure to take 4-5 weeks of PTO per year, EVERY year. That way, it's actually a perk/advantageous over traditional PTO packages.

How do you successfully advocate for that? These experiences blow my mind - I have managed to take 4-5 weeks of PTO, total, over the course of a decade in my career at "unlimited PTO" startups due to pretty much always being mission critical, and even those took some real pushing.

To me it's a simple argument. PTO has to be negotiated upon job start.

If you say you're going to take 5 weeks of PTO every year, and that was negotiated during the offer phase, well they can't then say you can't take it. Particularly if you want to take December off, say to wind down and go on some ski vacations.

What companies with "unlimited PTO" really mean, is that it's negotiable -- primarily in their favor.

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

#74

Post by paulcole »

organsnyder wrote: post #40
Random_BSD_Geek wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unbelievable nonsense. Your employees accrue PTO. If you can't handle them using their PTO, maybe you shouldn't have employees. If three consecutive weeks is a lot to ask, what would you do when that same employee gets hit by a bus and is dead for even longer? Oh right, you'd just replace them and the business would move on. OP, this is the real answer to your question. The business doesn't care about you or…

The OP doesn't indicate how much vacation time they've accrued. Perhaps they get "unlimited" PTO, which makes things murky.

If they had unlimited PTO it wouldn't be murky. The problem is that nobody has unlimited PTO, there's always a limit.

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

#79

Post by frumper »

foota wrote: post #38
Random_BSD_Geek wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unbelievable nonsense. Your employees accrue PTO. If you can't handle them using their PTO, maybe you shouldn't have employees. If three consecutive weeks is a lot to ask, what would you do when that same employee gets hit by a bus and is dead for even longer? Oh right, you'd just replace them and the business would move on. OP, this is the real answer to your question. The business doesn't care about you or…

I don't think you want your boss to replace you when you go on vacation.

I've yet to see a job where hiring a new employee is more efficient than letting one have off 3 weeks instead of 2. There is a really good chance that a new employee wouldn't be working yet before they've returned.

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

#80

Post by paulcole »

arcticbull wrote: post #30
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 w…

> Your employer generally has to approve PTO even on a PTO plan that tracks hours

They don't have to, they choose to.

We track days of PTO where I work and there's no approval process. You take the days you want to take and that's that.

It's the ideal way to do it IMO.

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