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Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

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Re: Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

#11

Post by DanielBMarkham »

One of the things I've seen looking at many companies is the mandatory shutdown. Key maintenance staff stays on, but the place is a ghost town for, say 2 weeks in the summer and the last 2 weeks of the year. (The maintenance guys have a similar system, though staggered)

That way there's no excuse of "I have to stay on because $BIGPROJECTX needs my help." There's literally nothing going on. Go home. Get a life.

Such drastic measures are necessary, unfortunately, because just a few folks working 1.5x hours can end up sucking everybody else in. If you make it mandatory and set a designated date, it's much harder to have the game-playing.

Note that this is also a good way for people who work together to do things together. After all, you're all off during the same times :)

Re: Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

#13

Post by fennecfoxen »

oflordal wrote: post #7
sqs wrote: post #2

I would love to hear if any other companies are doing the same thing or considering it, and from anyone who works in banking and has to take mandatory time off. Reddit comments here: http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1zglqs/mandator... .

Most companies in Europe will do this (although with 5+ weeks). They tend to be mostly competitive. It is a bit hard to understand why US tech workers put up with not having this.

People in the US may be paying more attention to cold hard cash and less to vacation promises.

Re: Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

#14

Post by gaving »

oflordal wrote: post #7
sqs wrote: post #2

I would love to hear if any other companies are doing the same thing or considering it, and from anyone who works in banking and has to take mandatory time off. Reddit comments here: http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1zglqs/mandator... .

Most companies in Europe will do this (although with 5+ weeks). They tend to be mostly competitive. It is a bit hard to understand why US tech workers put up with not having this.

To be honest, it's hard to understand why US tech workers put up with a lot of things.

Re: Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

#15

Post by roeme »

felipehummel wrote: post #5

From my brazilian perspective it's very strange to read this. In Brazil, vacation is mandatory by law. Any employee has 30 days of vacation by year. But the moment the employee goes on vacation and how he does it (30 days straight, 15-15 days, 20-10...) is still discussed previously with the employer. I'm not judging which one is better, just acknowledging the culture difference.

Swiss here; having 25 days excluding local and national holidays.

It really is a strange sight, this theme popping up all the time on HN, with some author proclaiming "look guys this is a good thing because X,Y,Z", when it's an absolute no-brainer for oneself.

Mind you, 25 days is more or less a norm; the law requires only 20 days.

Re: Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

#16

Post by sqs »

jacalata wrote: post #8

I'm very curious how you'd enforce "no work email except customer facing stuff", is that just going to be self-enforced?

It'll be enforced by the team as well. After all, if the person continues to chime in on emails or commit code, then they're not upholding their end of the bargin with their team (that they'd build good enough systems and write good enough code so they don't have to always be present).

And by "enforce" I don't mean that we have some formal reprimand process or anything, obviously. But if it becomes an issue, we'll deal with it.

Re: Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

#17

Post by roeme »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #13
oflordal wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most companies in Europe will do this (although with 5+ weeks). They tend to be mostly competitive. It is a bit hard to understand why US tech workers put up with not having this.

People in the US may be paying more attention to cold hard cash and less to vacation promises.

It's not a promise when it's written in your contract.

But – in contrast to the US I guess – in the EU breaching this contract as am employer _will_ cost you dearly; there are even courts dedicated for employment disputes in some countries, resulting in timely rulings.

Re: Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

#18

Post by jaredsohn »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #11

One of the things I've seen looking at many companies is the mandatory shutdown . Key maintenance staff stays on, but the place is a ghost town for, say 2 weeks in the summer and the last 2 weeks of the year. (The maintenance guys have a similar system, though staggered) That way there's no excuse of "I have to stay on because $BIGPROJECTX needs my help." There's literally nothing going on. Go home. Get a life. Such…

After a startup I was working at was acquired, the company that bought us had a week-long mandatory shutdown in mid-January. This was horrible since many of us had already taken vacation a few weeks earlier for Christmas/New Years. Also, this time would have counted against our vacation days which meant that we would be less likely for us to be able to take time off during other times of the year.

Re: Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

#19

Post by dusing »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #11

One of the things I've seen looking at many companies is the mandatory shutdown . Key maintenance staff stays on, but the place is a ghost town for, say 2 weeks in the summer and the last 2 weeks of the year. (The maintenance guys have a similar system, though staggered) That way there's no excuse of "I have to stay on because $BIGPROJECTX needs my help." There's literally nothing going on. Go home. Get a life. Such…

I shut my company down every year between Christmas Eve and New Years. The first couple years we didn't, but we noticed no work got done, clients were out, projects were usually stalled anyways, so why be here. We do it in addition to each persons vacation time. I hope they appreciate it.
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