I don't follow this "I work for Heroku" stuff. He works for Salesforce, which Heroku is a part of, no?
[deleted]
On Heroku and 2012
31–40 of 51 posts
Re: On Heroku and 2012
#32I don't follow this "I work for Heroku" stuff. He works for Salesforce, which Heroku is a part of, no?
Salesforce owns Heroku, and we leverage that relationship where it makes sense. Other than that, Heroku operates independently of Salesforce, which is how both sides want it to be.
We have our own office, we're keeping our brand, and we operate the business as we see fit.
We're 2 years into the acquisition with no signs of that relationship changing anytime soon.
Re: On Heroku and 2012
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does 3+2 mean "3 required, optionally take 2 additional"?
Sorry, forgot to explain. 3+2 means "3 weeks accrued over the year and usable anytime, 2 weeks of company-wide break (specifically the weeks of thanksgiving and christmas)". The decision to do a company-wide break probably deserves a thread of its own. The short version is that it works great.
Wait, how do you have a week-long "company-wide" break? Does that mean nobody is working for a whole week?
Re: On Heroku and 2012
#34I don't think unlimited vacation is a good thing because it really isn't unlimited and just keeps the employee guessing as to what is appropriate.
Is it unlimited vacation without salary or is it unlimited paid vacation? There is a world of difference there as to how people will behave around it.
Re: On Heroku and 2012
#35I don't think unlimited vacation is a good thing because it really isn't unlimited and just keeps the employee guessing as to what is appropriate.
Is it unlimited vacation without salary or is it unlimited paid vacation? There is a world of difference there as to how people will behave around it.
Paid.
Re: On Heroku and 2012
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not how it really works out at Heroku. Our managers and vibe team really push us all to take at least a few weeks (3-4) off per year at a minimum. That's important because we all love our work so much that we work hard the rest of the time.
I think his point was that there's some unwritten upper bound, like say, 16 weeks. Would be easier to just tell me what the upper bound is, so I can take that, rather than under utilize my vacation days or offend the unwritten rule.
It is a pain in the butt to file paperwork as an employee and do all the accounting as a business. I know of another company that got rid of vacation days for this reason, and it seems nobody regrets it.
Even though one might take comfort in a de jure number of vacation days, frankly, it seems to me that if one exists in a toxic culture when it comes to vacation no amount of policy is likely to make the situation much better. In the pathological case, it gets lost entirely from over-accrual or turned into a cash payout.
Another way to look at the vacation day policies is they are mostly a reflection of the work/vacation culture, not the cause of it. And in that respect, such a strategy makes it harder to evaluate an employer's gestalt attitude towards vacation. Too bad it comes with a bitter pill of accounting work for all involved.
For what it's worth: Heroku is my current and has been for a couple of years, and I take vacation, and have been reminded to do so. I'd say about 25 days/annum. I've not kept count, but I can think to some of the bigger-ticket travel making up most of that, so if there is a mis-estimation it is not vast.
Re: On Heroku and 2012
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does 3+2 mean "3 required, optionally take 2 additional"?
Sorry, forgot to explain. 3+2 means "3 weeks accrued over the year and usable anytime, 2 weeks of company-wide break (specifically the weeks of thanksgiving and christmas)". The decision to do a company-wide break probably deserves a thread of its own. The short version is that it works great.
What about support?
Re: On Heroku and 2012
#38I don't think unlimited vacation is a good thing because it really isn't unlimited and just keeps the employee guessing as to what is appropriate.
Agreed. What I've seen happen is the company becomes destructively divided into two camps: Those who have a slightly too healthy work-life balance and take liberal amounts of vacation, and those who have a tendency towards work-aholism, take little vacation, and grow to resent the first group as a result.
What works much better is to just decide on what's an acceptable amount of vacation, say 3 weeks, and tell everyone that's what they get; take it or leave it.
Re: On Heroku and 2012
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, forgot to explain. 3+2 means "3 weeks accrued over the year and usable anytime, 2 weeks of company-wide break (specifically the weeks of thanksgiving and christmas)". The decision to do a company-wide break probably deserves a thread of its own. The short version is that it works great.
What about support?
Not everyone works on products requiring 24/7 support. We also take a mandatory 1.5 week company break around the December holidays -- it's fantastic!
Re: On Heroku and 2012
#40> Don't spend a single moment in life doing something you don't want to do. This advice or its cousins are found in many places around here and, well, I have a bad feeling about it. Is it not the epitome of egoism? Is it possible to share a house with friends, or a spouse, or your kids, without ever "doing something you don't want to do"? And in professional life, if you are a janitor, do you "want" to clean this toi…
This advice comes up very often when people write about re-evaluating their lives. (Also, this retort comes up very often when people read what those people wrote. I don't disagree with your logic, per se...) I think you're right, but the author probably did not mean the advice as literally as you're reading it. You're interpreting the advice as a call for egoism [0]; selfishness to the point of being unwise. I think…
Yes, read flatly this advice is borderline egoism, but it can be read in a more useful way if some ideas are added.
You shall not want to do something that you would not want others to be allowed to do. (Eg: you cannot want to kill people for fun in the streets. That's a Kantian principle, IIRC)
You should better have a long-term perspective on what you want to do, and why. If you are tooth ache, your primary self probably do not "want" to go to dentist, but your reasonable self tells you that you have to do it, even without any immediate wishes to go.
Even if you were Xi Jinping or Obama, you cannot control everything you wish to control. The stoistic advice works here: you should do all you can to prepare yourself a nice cruise (or life), but once on the boat, you can't help if you are caught in a storm and should better shut up than complain.
An example is marriage+kids: you should probably jump carefully on this little boat, but once in, better eat your hat than jump overboard at the first annoyance.