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Unlimited Vacation Time

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Re: Unlimited Vacation Time

#41

Post by [deleted] »

fizx wrote: post #37
kelnos wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you worked at a company that offers unlimited vacation? I do (it's a recent change for us). It works fine. People take time off when they want to (one of the guys on my team is on a 2-week vacation in Thailand right now). Yes, some people (including myself) do the illogical guilt thing on occasion. But if your manager isn't encouraging you to take time off periodically, he's doing a bad job as your manager. Righ…

So we agree unlimited vacation really means "vacation at the mercy of your manager." The problem with "quit and find a company that doesn't lie to you about its culture" is that you can't tell if they're lying until you've made the enormous investment of quitting your previous job and getting hired there. Even if they're the good guys(tm), their investors can kick out the previous CEO, and management styles can chang…

[deleted]

Re: Unlimited Vacation Time

#42

Post by stdbrouw »

CWIZO wrote: post #40
dworin wrote: post #16

Like most things in business, the problem isn't with the policy, it's with management. If you create a culture that frowns upon employees taking vacation time, it won't matter if you give them unlimited vacation or only two weeks, nobody will take it. And if you create a culture that values rested, refreshed, happy employees, the total number of days isn't nearly as important. With that said, when unlimited vacation…

Can you explain why people are afraid to take a sick day? I'm not from the USA, so this might be a cultural thing or things just work different where I'm from. Also, since I'm moving there, does this apply to the UK?

A lot of companies in the US either give you a fixed amount of sick days – they won't fire you if you go over, but you won't get paid – or they consider paid time off and sick days to be equivalent, and so if you're sick for a week, you're seriously eating into your vacation time unless you can afford to go on an unpaid leave (and your supervisor lets you).

Dunno about the UK.

Re: Unlimited Vacation Time

#43

Post by eloisant »

eru wrote: post #30
seldo wrote: post #27

"Unlimited vacation" translates to "no vacation". What does "as long as you're getting your work done" mean? There's no point in the year when nobody would be happier if you got something done sooner. There's never a time when taking vacation doesn't mean that some work you might have done doesn't get pushed to somebody else, or never done. The point of vacation is that you should be able to relax, but if you're worr…

Have you considered minimum vacation time?

In France we get 5 weeks minimum (some companies give more). If you don't take your vacations, that's not good for the company.

The accumulation of vacations is considered a debt in the accounting book, and if you leave they need to pay it cash.

In a previous job I remember seeing the accountant sermoning my boss (the CTO and cofounder) because we was not taking any vacations.

Re: Unlimited Vacation Time

#44

Post by dagw »

kelnos wrote: post #34
seldo wrote: post #27

"Unlimited vacation" translates to "no vacation". What does "as long as you're getting your work done" mean? There's no point in the year when nobody would be happier if you got something done sooner. There's never a time when taking vacation doesn't mean that some work you might have done doesn't get pushed to somebody else, or never done. The point of vacation is that you should be able to relax, but if you're worr…

Have you worked at a company that offers unlimited vacation? I do (it's a recent change for us). It works fine. People take time off when they want to (one of the guys on my team is on a 2-week vacation in Thailand right now). Yes, some people (including myself) do the illogical guilt thing on occasion. But if your manager isn't encouraging you to take time off periodically, he's doing a bad job as your manager. Righ…

People take time off when they want to (one of the guys on my team is on a 2-week vacation

What if I wanted a 2 month vacation instead of a 2 week vacation? I've yet to hear of a place that would forbid you taking two weeks off once in a while. Using the word "unlimited" and then talking about days and weeks seems kind of counter-intuitive.

Re: Unlimited Vacation Time

#45

Post by ghshephard »

Simucal wrote: post #26
ghshephard wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you work for a company with unlimited vacation? While we have 'unlimited vacation', our sick policies went from no tracking to a limited number of sick days per year. After being on it for a year, I would prefer to go back to the 'guaranteed 12 days a year'

That seems like an odd thing to do when employees have unlimited vacation time. "Oh, I'm out of sick days? I'll just take a vacation day then."

Vacation needs to be negotiated in advance with your manager, and you need to make sure all your projects are taken care of. In theory, your manager can't deny you a sick day, and they don't need to be negotiated.

Re: Unlimited Vacation Time

#46

Post by ghshephard »

dworin wrote: post #28
ghshephard wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you work for a company with unlimited vacation? While we have 'unlimited vacation', our sick policies went from no tracking to a limited number of sick days per year. After being on it for a year, I would prefer to go back to the 'guaranteed 12 days a year'

I own my own company now, but I've worked at both companies with unlimited vacation and those with a set number of days. Allowing unlimited vacation but tracking sick days seems strange - how do you define the difference, and why do they care? I've also found that once you're in a system, change makes it worse even if it's too a better system. If you go from unlimited to a set amount, you feel like someone has now ca…

We went from "Unlimited Sick Days" to a set amount, and the general reaction was, "How on earth could anybody require so many sick days." (Answer, the number is the dividing line between, "Sick Days" and "Short term disability")

On the flip side, when you have a set amount of vacation, there is a nice "target" for you to take, with a hard number appearing on your paycheck every two weeks reminding you.

Re: Unlimited Vacation Time

#47

Post by ghshephard »

dagw wrote: post #44
kelnos wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you worked at a company that offers unlimited vacation? I do (it's a recent change for us). It works fine. People take time off when they want to (one of the guys on my team is on a 2-week vacation in Thailand right now). Yes, some people (including myself) do the illogical guilt thing on occasion. But if your manager isn't encouraging you to take time off periodically, he's doing a bad job as your manager. Righ…

People take time off when they want to (one of the guys on my team is on a 2-week vacation What if I wanted a 2 month vacation instead of a 2 week vacation? I've yet to hear of a place that would forbid you taking two weeks off once in a while. Using the word "unlimited" and then talking about days and weeks seems kind of counter-intuitive.

We actually did have on employee take a full month. He was one of our rock start developer/architects who had basically built the foundation for our current generation of product. There was a natural, "division" line for him to take some time off.

In general, though, your managers have a target that they manage to - and they negotiate you to that number. In our company, "Unlimited Vacation" means two weeks a years.

Re: Unlimited Vacation Time

#48

Post by ghshephard »

CWIZO wrote: post #40
dworin wrote: post #16

Like most things in business, the problem isn't with the policy, it's with management. If you create a culture that frowns upon employees taking vacation time, it won't matter if you give them unlimited vacation or only two weeks, nobody will take it. And if you create a culture that values rested, refreshed, happy employees, the total number of days isn't nearly as important. With that said, when unlimited vacation…

Can you explain why people are afraid to take a sick day? I'm not from the USA, so this might be a cultural thing or things just work different where I'm from. Also, since I'm moving there, does this apply to the UK?

Some companies, (I think Cisco is one) - gives you a "bucket" of days to use how you wish, Sick Day, Vacation Day, whatever. So, using up a sick day just means one less vacation day.

Re: Unlimited Vacation Time

#50

Post by Udo »

ghshephard wrote: post #47
dagw wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People take time off when they want to (one of the guys on my team is on a 2-week vacation What if I wanted a 2 month vacation instead of a 2 week vacation? I've yet to hear of a place that would forbid you taking two weeks off once in a while. Using the word "unlimited" and then talking about days and weeks seems kind of counter-intuitive.

We actually did have on employee take a full month. He was one of our rock start developer/architects who had basically built the foundation for our current generation of product. There was a natural, "division" line for him to take some time off. In general, though, your managers have a target that they manage to - and they negotiate you to that number. In our company, "Unlimited Vacation" means two weeks a years.

> In our company, "Unlimited Vacation" means two weeks a years.

So, that's significantly less than the minimum you're getting by law in, say, a European country. And it sounds like you have to negotiate (or be perceived as a prodigy) to even get that. Am I missing something here? Because it sounds just awful.

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