I really like the tone of this post. It makes me think that this person is trustworthy and I'd be glad to work for him.
I wish my company had such an open communication!
Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
51–60 of 336 posts
Re: Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
#52I've said it before and I'll say it again, unlimited days off (or "open") and zero days off are identical. If you have unlimited vacation people are inclined to take less and people respect the vacation you take less ("as you can always take more!"). Here's a study[0] (PDF) called "Overwhelmed America: Why Don’t We Use Our Earned Leave?" It is biased (travel association) but interesting nonetheless. According to this…
A lot of these "unlimited" places have a "as long as your work gets done" policy, meaning you can take tons of short days off or afternoons off, but almost no extended holidays (e.g. travel abroad, out of state, etc). My friend works at a company with unlimited vacation and they pay you $1000 for every full week you take off.
Your normal pay + $1000 or just $1000 ?
In Sweden you actually get a ~12% higher pay during your vacation.
Re: Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
#53Genuine question: how do companies/teams that run services deal with peak vacation periods? E.g. Christmas holidays. Even if everyone wants to take the last two weeks of the year off, you have to have someone keeping the lights on. Also, what happens if a high priority problem comes in? Are the team leads/managers careful not to schedule work around the holidays?
We have an open vacation policy for 2014, and I will take the last two weeks off (I've taken off about 5 weeks so far this year), but I will be available if need be. I don't mind, I don't expect any issues, and even if there are, it's not like I wouldn't be called in if I had a limited number of days off (which will happen next year).
Re: Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
#54The company I work for has open vacation and it works out fine. People take a few days, a week here and there and it winds up being 4-5 weeks a year. This is in the US. I'm sure there's no big payout for unused vacation when people leave, but no big deal. When you're sick, you stay home, when you need time off, you take it. The CTO and upper managers are all coders and have worked hard at maintaining a good work culture.
Re: Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
#55I've said it before and I'll say it again, unlimited days off (or "open") and zero days off are identical. If you have unlimited vacation people are inclined to take less and people respect the vacation you take less ("as you can always take more!"). Here's a study[0] (PDF) called "Overwhelmed America: Why Don’t We Use Our Earned Leave?" It is biased (travel association) but interesting nonetheless. According to this…
I'm curious to read about what it means to "de-stress" from work but I think you forgot the [1] citation. Maybe this is not common, but if I worked at a company with "unlimited vacation", I would definitely take extended vacations occasionally. I think as long as you timed them appropriately and gave advance notice, you could easily take a week or more off.
Wow, so in Silicon Valley a week is an 'extended vacation'! I used to think that meant a month or more. How fast the world is changing.
Re: Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
#56We have an unlimited vacation policy at Adzerk and I try to lead by example by taking at least 2-3 weeks off a year (especially in the summer). We also try to encourage everyone to take at least one solid week off a year and it seems to work pretty well. I think that's the real issue with unlimited policy - if the leaders don't take vacation no one else thinks they can.
We also close between Christmas Eve and January 2nd so that is a another week that is mandatory off for everyone.
I meant 2-3 weeks in a row. Last year I took off 10 days to go to Europe, then another 2 weeks in the summer. Plus the random day off her and there and the week in December and I will probably have taken 4-5 weeks off total for the year.
Re: Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
#57I jokingly refer to Unlimited Vacation Policy as Guilt Driven Vacation Policy. IMHO, it is a sham so companies don't have to take liability for accrued vacation time on their books. While I commend Travis for coming up with a workable solution wouldn't it be easier to just say: "Everyone has 4 weeks vacation, use them!".
Isn't that exactly what they did? Everyone has to take 5 weeks minimum, and on top of that you may take more if you want/need.
Re: Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
#58I've said it before and I'll say it again, unlimited days off (or "open") and zero days off are identical. If you have unlimited vacation people are inclined to take less and people respect the vacation you take less ("as you can always take more!"). Here's a study[0] (PDF) called "Overwhelmed America: Why Don’t We Use Our Earned Leave?" It is biased (travel association) but interesting nonetheless. According to this…
I'm curious to read about what it means to "de-stress" from work but I think you forgot the [1] citation. Maybe this is not common, but if I worked at a company with "unlimited vacation", I would definitely take extended vacations occasionally. I think as long as you timed them appropriately and gave advance notice, you could easily take a week or more off.
Well, here in Uruguay, you have to take 10 days minimum, at least twice a year.
Plus you get close to a week off a few times a year (Easter and Carnival). So a week is nothing special here :)
It has a silver lining: it forces the company to plan for backups and make processes more explicit.
Re: Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
#59We have an unlimited vacation policy at Adzerk and I try to lead by example by taking at least 2-3 weeks off a year (especially in the summer). We also try to encourage everyone to take at least one solid week off a year and it seems to work pretty well. I think that's the real issue with unlimited policy - if the leaders don't take vacation no one else thinks they can.
Two or even three weeks seems very unhealthy to me: - You need a longer break to seriously disconnect: at least two weeks. - Around Christmas/New Year you probably want to be around family and friends: one week. - At least a week distributed over the year to do something fun with your kid, visit that distant friend, etc. Maybe it's because I come from Western Europe, where getting 5 weeks (25-30 days) off in total is…
I phrased it poorly - we get off the week around the holidays as the company closes down. I also take probably another week off for random days here or there.
Re: Travis CI: From Open to Minimum Vacation Policy
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's sad that works in the US. Here in Australia you have to give a full time employee a minimum of four weeks (paid), which accrues if unused. So somebody at a company with unlimited vacation would be no worse off of they never took holidays than someone who worked at a company with the regular 4 weeks.
I'm an Australian living in Japan. I moved here 2 months ago. Most Japanese get around 3 weeks of annual leave per year - but each day expires after 24 months. It is quite common for leave to expire.
Here in Uruguay, if you don't take your leave, the company has to compensate you (pay it as an extra worked day). Same if they fire you.