Unlimited Vacation Time

[Big Guy]

More and more companies are trying a new concept – unlimited vacation time.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-25/why-a-tiny-number-of-companies-offer-unlimited-vacation-time

Is this a good idea or a bad idea?

Would you like to see it implemented in your workplace?

Edited October 6, 2014 by Big Guy

[Michael Hardner]

“Netflix does not have an unlimited vacation policy.” Rather, the company trusts that everyone will get their work done, and it has no interest in monitoring their hours, either at work or away from the office.[/size]

I work in an environment like this. Deadlines are what are important, not being in the office for a set number of hours. It's a more natural approach to working, more like self-employment than Chaplin's "Modern Times"

[Bonam]

I work at a tiny tech start up and it's similar here. Long as you get your work done. Of course, there's always 10x more work than anyone can finish...

[cybercoma]

I work at a tiny tech start up and it's similar here. Long as you get your work done. Of course, there's always 10x more work than anyone can finish...

This was the point I was going to make.

I'm not sure if I can dig it up, but a sociologist was doing some research on work flexibility and found that it draws a parabolic curve when you graph flexibility on the y-axis and number of hours worked per week on the x-axis. In other words, those who work few hours have quite a bit of flexibility. This is usually part-time employees, who often get to set limitations on when they begin and end work. Think of university students who schedule their working hours around their classes. We're talking folks who generally work less than 30 hours per week. In the middle of the curve, you have the least flexibility. These are full-time employees working around the 40 hour per week mark. Typically their schedules are very rigid with little room for choosing their start and end times for the day. Think of office workers who have to be there from 9am-5pm or some such similar hours. Finally, we have people who work 48 hours or more per week. These might be executives or university professors or professionals like lawyers. They get to set their own hours a lot of the time. However, what's the sense of setting your own hours when you work almost every waking hour anyway? What's the sense of flexibility when you have so much work to be done that you're never really off the clock. Flex time is great, except when you work so many hours that there's barely a distinction between your work and personal lives.

Edited October 6, 2014 by cybercoma

[The_Squid]

I've also heard that there are internal work issues if someone actually wants to take advantage of the "flexible" work hours with those in the office who don't feel as free to do so.

There is also a stigma by supervisors, even though they came up with the system, that they see the ones who take more time off as lazy workers. And then people feel obligated not to take any time off!

At Marketplace, Tracey Samuelson quotes Scott Francis, an engineer who once had unlimited vacation time: “It sounded really cool to me until I started working at a company that had one. The two problems that I had were not feeling like I had necessarily earned vacation because it wasn’t accruing, and also feeling like it was going to reflect negatively on me if I took vacation that wasn’t owed to me.”

Ms. Samuelson also talks to the economist Robert Frank, who likens fear of taking vacation to the drive to work long hours: “The investment bankers and the consultants work 65- or 80-hour workweeks, not because there’s that much to do, but because promotion chances are limited and the ones who are seen to be working the hardest are the most likely to get them.”

http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/if-you-have-unlimited-vacation-will-you-take-it/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

[Michael Hardner]

There is also a stigma by supervisors

The term "supervisors" doesn't apply. These types of workplaces doesn't have them.

[Shady]

Unlimited vacation time only works in certain industries and for certain jobs. It's not something that can be applied in a general sense.

[cybercoma]

Sure it can. You set goals and deadlines. The employees jobs are to meet those goals and deadlines. They get to set their own schedule and work at the times that suit them. They can plan their own meetings and essentially come and go as they please. If the goals and deadlines aren't met, they get reprimanded or terminated, just like any other job.

That's not going to work in retail or something like that, but it can work in most offices.

Edited October 7, 2014 by cybercoma

[Shady]

Sure it can. You set goals and deadlines. The employees jobs are to meet those goals and deadlines. They get to set their own schedule and work at the times that suit them. They can plan their own meetings and essentially come and go as they please. If the goals and deadlines aren't met, they get reprimanded or terminated, just like any other job.

That's not going to work in retail or something like that, but it can work in most offices.

Thanks for making my point. It can't work in all industries.

[cybercoma]

It's a pretty banal point, like saying a production line wouldn't work in all industries. Of course the organization of work isn't the same across industries.

[Wilber]

It's a pretty banal point, like saying a production line wouldn't work in all industries. Of course the organization of work isn't the same across industries.

Of course. Branson may be able to incorporate it in some of his companies but he could never run his airline that way.

[Shady]

Of course. Branson may be able to incorporate it in some of his companies but he could never run his airline that way.

Bingo!