Who is hiring AND offers 4+ weeks of vacation? • Hacker News Board

Re: Who is hiring AND offers 4+ weeks of vacation?

#21

Post by cal5k » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 5:25 AM UTC

latch wrote: post #13

cal5k wrote: post #5

To be honest going into job interviews with a sense of entitlement about paid vacation time would probably reflect poorly with potential employers. We offer 3 weeks (fairly generous for Canada), but I would be extremely put off by a candidate who wanted to discuss vacation time first and foremost.

I would say that's extremely common in Canada. Not sure what's worse, having a sense of entitlement as an employee, or thinking what you offer is above average as an employer. Snarkiness aside..I have mixed feelings about your first point. Entitlement sucks, 100% agree with you there. Flip side, vacation is awesome on so many levels, I feel that there genuinely should be a push for more vacation time.

I'm actually a pretty big fan of the Netflix model - take as much as you need so long as you can get the job done. We just haven't worked out the logistics of that kind of thing yet.

Let's be honest, though. Technology work is highly team-based... it's not the company so much as your team that will be aggravated by excessive vacation time. I suspect that if we offered that type of model people would actually take LESS vacation - I don't have data to support this hypothesis, but I already know that most people don't actually use up their full allotment in a given year (in general, not just at our company).

Re: Who is hiring AND offers 4+ weeks of vacation?

#22

Post by crazy_startup » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 5:44 AM UTC

latch wrote: post #14

aspir wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A similar point: I've never actually met someone who has 4 weeks of vacation to actually use all 4. Generally, when you work up to the point at a BigCo where you can command a larger vacation, it's hard to remove yourself from the day-to-day practices of work. Plus, America has an embedded culture of trying to "outwork the competition" in everything we do, from sports, to academics, to the workplace. It stems from th…

From what I understand, a company which allows employees to accumulate large pools of timeoff tend to have very unpleasant liabilities on their balance sheet. It is, I believe, a very serious liability (regardless of where you live, all places have very strict rules about it). It's a lot like reward points. The initial programs didn't have expiry...after years, auditors warned them that they had billions in liabiliti…

This happened at my previous job. They forced everyone to burn down the vacation time from their previous limit of 280 hours to 120. After that they instituted policies with a maximum of 180.

The issue is that it was impossible to take vacation time. Even on vacation I was working 3 hours every day and during the normal workweek was 60-75 hours without overtime or rewarding the extra time.

Frankly, I think that the company should just have a bucket for PTO and put it in the bank and earn interest on it. The liability should be backed by actual dollars so it's not a serious financial risk.

Re: Who is hiring AND offers 4+ weeks of vacation?

#23

Post by mattm » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 5:56 AM UTC

I applied recently to Server Density (but was rejected). What attracted me was their job description offering "unlimited" vacation. But you actually get a bonus if you take more than 5 weeks. I thought that was a good way to make sure people actually use their vacation time.

http://blog.boxedice.com/2011/08/19/our-holiday-vacation-pol...

Re: Who is hiring AND offers 4+ weeks of vacation?

#24

Post by throwawayday » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:08 PM UTC

aspir wrote: post #4

gfaremil wrote: post #3

This will be the shortest thread in HN history... On serious note, I'm really not aware of a single one. I heard some

A similar point: I've never actually met someone who has 4 weeks of vacation to actually use all 4. Generally, when you work up to the point at a BigCo where you can command a larger vacation, it's hard to remove yourself from the day-to-day practices of work. Plus, America has an embedded culture of trying to "outwork the competition" in everything we do, from sports, to academics, to the workplace. It stems from th…

I actually get 6 weeks paid, plus 10 holidays, and I work in the US. I make sure that I take the full amount. Why? It's considered part of my compensation. It'd be like saying "No, I don't need that 26th check, you keep it".

Re: Who is hiring AND offers 4+ weeks of vacation?

#25

Post by bigsassy » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:20 PM UTC

The American Legacy Foundation in DC. Excellent pay, excellent benefits, and an excellent cause. Among other things, they are responsible for "The Truth" anti-smoking ad campaign.

I'm pretty sure they're looking for a python developer right now.

http://www.legacyforhealth.org/

Re: Who is hiring AND offers 4+ weeks of vacation?

#26

Post by plugger » Wed, Sep 21, 2011, 1:37 AM UTC

Australia. Our economy is booming and unemployment is arguably the lowest in the developed world. Plus the USD is on parity with the Aussie dollar. If you can get down here, do it.