Our Vacation Policy: Take Some • Hacker News Board

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#11

Post by funkah » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:27 PM UTC

rfrey wrote: post #2

The company I work for recently adopted a NetFlix style "we don't track vacation" policy. It's been about nine months, and anecdotes (no data available - we don't track!) suggest total vacation time taken is less than half of last year. I suppose that whether that's good or bad is pretty subjective.

This is how my company works too, and I think it's a great idea, assuming that the culture isn't one where people are belittled for taking vacations. If the culture causes people to feel a complex about taking time off, people will just resent the policy. Personally, I really enjoy the flexibility it affords, and it's quite a golden handcuff when I think about leaving to find another job.

Looking at job descriptions with their little 3.5 weeks of vacation is just a bummer now. Who wants to sit around thinking about the optimal way to use that time? Just do a kick-ass job and take vacations when you want. This benefit means more to me than a considerable increase in salary would.

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#12

Post by ed209 » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:29 PM UTC

I adopted that policy for myself. Being a freelancer, every April/May I head to the spanish south coast and work from there. Somehow I manage to accrue more hours than a normal month, but I'm pretty sure I hit the beach most days at 3pm (with my MBP of course ;).

As long as the work gets done and you're not holding anyone else up, who cares when you choose to do it?

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#13

Post by colinhowe » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:30 PM UTC

rfrey wrote: post #2

The company I work for recently adopted a NetFlix style "we don't track vacation" policy. It's been about nine months, and anecdotes (no data available - we don't track!) suggest total vacation time taken is less than half of last year. I suppose that whether that's good or bad is pretty subjective.

I often think that you should track vacation but track it against a minimum. Some talented folk actually need forcing out of the building.

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#14

Post by akg_67 » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:36 PM UTC

15 years ago, the company I worked for, piloted no limit on sick leave policy. The average number of sick leave taken fell from 12 days to 9 days. Company publised the statistics to employees and Only people whose sick leave exceeded 2 standard deviation were notified. We also piloted alternate Friday off, the absenteeism due to doctor, dentist, car service appointments fell off to negligible.

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#15

Post by chollida1 » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:40 PM UTC

The problem I have with systems like this is that I've worked at a company that says this, but it can get dicey.

To their credit they really did mean take vacation when you want to, but to them, what that meant was, feel free to take a week or two if you want, or a random day if it pukes on the hill.

The problem is that my wife and I save our vacation, she's a teacher, and take 2 months every other year in Europe.

With the "typical" you accrue vacation policy this isn't much of a problem as long as you book in advance.

With this take what you want I've had some pretty heavy handed conversations about "not begin a team player" and taking advantage of the company when I asked to do this.

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#16

Post by qbleep » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:42 PM UTC

I would much prefer a generous but explicit vacation allowance. I feel that with the "take some!" vacation policy social pressure would prevent some from taking as much as they really want to. It's going to boil down to everyone implicitly deciding what's a fair amount and that will become the unwritten rule. I'd rather everyone just decide what's a fair amount and write it down.

That being said, a fair amount is definitely not two weeks (10 work days)! I'll never work for a company that's that cheap again!

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#17

Post by JonoW » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:42 PM UTC

I'm sure this is well intentioned, but wouldn't it leave employees to doubt whether they're taking too much leave (i.e. "Is my boss testing my Commitment?"). I can see how people may land up taking less leave due to fear of being judged to as work-shy.

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#18

Post by acangiano » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:50 PM UTC

peteretep wrote: post #8

wccrawford wrote: post #4

HR policies that treat people like professionals and adults are refreshing. Sadly, not everyone can afford to hire only those who will act this way. It's expensive, and not always worth the cost.

They also only last until the company hits a certain size, and someone starts taking 4 months of holiday a year, because they can. In countries where you can't easily be fired, anyway. Most stupid HR policies come about from an employee abusing the system. Come in before 9:30! No sick pay! etc etc

It's also worth noting that punishing every worker for the abuse of one, is a very common and stupid attitude. Get rid of the slacker, don't make it hell for the rest of the team.

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#19

Post by balsamiq » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:54 PM UTC

Hi all, Peldi here. Thanks for the feedback. I don't know how much vacation everyone here is taking (I could look in the shared vacation calendar we have), but I'd say everyone is taking 3-4 weeks a year, plus some more time when they take their laptop to the beach and work half-days from there.

This is one of the policies that I fear might not work if we ever reach a certain size, but so far we're all happy with it...it's just not something we keep track of for other people, just ourselves.

Thanks again for the feedback, it's a big reason why I'm sharing our current policies.

Re: Our Vacation Policy: Take Some

#20

Post by adgar » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:59 PM UTC

acangiano wrote: post #18

peteretep wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also only last until the company hits a certain size, and someone starts taking 4 months of holiday a year, because they can. In countries where you can't easily be fired, anyway. Most stupid HR policies come about from an employee abusing the system. Come in before 9:30! No sick pay! etc etc

It's also worth noting that punishing every worker for the abuse of one, is a very common and stupid attitude. Get rid of the slacker, don't make it hell for the rest of the team.

And when the employee sues for wrongful termination, because all s/he did was follow the company policy of taking as much vacation as s/he wanted, what do you do? Maybe not in the US, somewhere where you're not likely working at-will?