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More companies are experimenting with unlimited vacation policies. But is it really all a day at the beach?
Sanket Naik took a six-week trip last year to Thailand and India to see his family, but he didn’t worry about using up all his alloted vacation time.
Naik, senior director of cloud operations at Coupa, a tech startup, doesn’t have to accrue days off, and he didn’t negotiate a plum deal with his employer. The company just gives him and its staff of 100 all the vacation days they want.
“There’s the flexibility to travel or fulfill personal commitments without violating HR policies. We don’t have to count anymore,” he said about Coupa’s vacation policy, which was implemented in January.
Welcome to the world of unlimited vacation days. Coupa is one of a handful of companies, including TheLadders and Netflix, that have decided to offer the perk to employees.
“This is an unusual benefit and not in the mainstream yet, but more companies seem to be looking at this as an option,” said Steven Miranda, managing director for the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University ILR School.
"It's not a gimmick," said workplace change management consultant Matthew Stegmeier.
“Organizations that have had success with unlimited vacation, such as Netflix and Red Frog Events, rely strongly on accountability,” he said. “Employees must make sure all their responsibilities are covered prior to leaving, which often means counting on a colleague to pick up the slack. As such, excessive vacation usage will be frowned upon as it grates on colleagues.”
Indeed, unlimited vacation doesn’t mean you can spend your life at the beach. Most employers who offer the option still require workers to get permission for the time off from their managers. And many workers who are offered the benefit end up working during those so-called vacation stints.
During his long vacation in Asia, Naik estimates he worked remotely for Coupa for about two to three weeks, using online tools such as Skype and mobile broadband to get his work done.
When asked whether the mixing of work and leisure time takes away from the goal of a vacation, which is to recharge, Naik said, “That’s the reality. Even if you did not have unlimited vacation, you still have to deal with managing your personal time with work time -- a challenge anyone that works in a modern work environment needs to deal with.”
For Mark Verbeck, Coupa’s chief finance officer, the unlimited vacation policy was about freedom. “We want to empower our people to make the right decisions and be responsible without bogging us down with many pages of policies and rules.”
As for the potential to abuse the system, he said, “If you’re making sure people are getting the job done, then this policy can’t be abused.”
However, Cornell's Miranda said some employees may not take the time off they deserve.
Because there are no specified vacation days, some employees may not take time off, especially if they are worried about their job performance. "If the company has a culture where it's working people to the bone they’ve not eliminated an aspect of forcing people to take time off," he said.
TheLadders, with 200 employees, has had the unlimited vacation-time benefit for three years. The longest period of time anyone has taken off consecutively since it's been offered is about five weeks, said Angela Romano Kuo, vice president of human resources for the company.
“Our salaried employees aren’t given a bank of vacation days; they take what they need,” she said. “If there’s a long weekend or a longer vacation that they want to take, they simply need to get their manager’s approval for the specific time off. Managers will ask the requesting employee for a plan of what will happen to his or her work during the absence, and if they’re confident that the workload will be covered, the request is approved, which it almost always is.”
In the end, she said, “Our employees are responsible for the quality of their work, responsible for the hours they work, so they should also be responsible for the amount of vacation time they use.”
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Well Obama's wife has taken advantage of this since Obama took office, but of course she has to have protection and Gov. jet and security with her at all times... I would like to know just how much she has spent so far on vacations since Obama took office.. How many MILLIONS????????? The millions she spent could have done a lot of good helping OTHERS!!!!!
It would be abused by some people. Our manager is weak. Some front office people with more charisma would continue to walk over him. I think unlimited vacation has good potential in a company with strong accountability.
The reason why things like this work is that they are self-regulating, and the culture of the businesses allow for self-regulation. In these types of cultures, non-performers are identified easily and weeded out, simply through lack of performance identified by other team members. Accountability is the key to self-regulation, and if you have specific responsibilities and are not meeting those, there's no use in keeping you around.
I've worked in this type of culture for a couple of years. It's great, the staff love their jobs and our customers love us (we service Fortune 500 companies).
If you're taking your work on vacation or even home.....wouldn't that mean you're not meeting those responsibilities at work, if not then why even come into an office? Or is it poor management with endless & useless team meetings, office luncheons, etc. getting in the way of productivity?
Some jobs lend themselves to this approach...others, not so much. Auto assembly plant...probably not so much. Computer code writer....probably works. Oh, and you have to have a self-motivated workforce....not one of those self-absorbed, do as little as possible, union shop kind of places. There's no sense of personal responsibility there. Overall, the idea is good, but will have limited application....
Unlimited vacations would be great. It states nothing in the article whether or not employees receive paid or unpaid vacation time so I'm going to assume it's paid, just because the article states that people are still working (i.e. checking emails, etc.) while they're away. So, why should employees receive unpaid time off when they're still "working" while on vacation? To me, that's a totally jip. When a person earns vacation time, they should be able to get away w/o feeling obligated to respond to emails.
Heck, I work in the IT department and I'm still trying to convince the employer that we can do our work from home without commuting an hour each way--waste of gas, wear 'n tear on your car...
My assumption is that these are salaried positions. That's one of the incentives of this, be good at doing your job right the first time, and you get rewarded by getting away from the office more. but this hinges on the job being done correctly by all and, like it or not, probably increases accountability so that recognition is gained and time off approved.
As suspected while reading the article, there is a great lack of faith that the slack would be picked up by others during one's absence. I honestly think this would never work as a widespread social policy in the present climate on our country. We have become so polarized in our haves-vs-havenots of society, that there would inevitably be jealousy for one who time off is spent lavishly and attitudes of superiority from the one who can be lavish. No one is willing to just be human and help out a fellow human. Everyone thinks they are better than someone else for some reason or another. No one is willing to work for the mutual benefit of all.
Look at the statement made by Obama about businesses. Owners got all in a wad but seriously, how did they get to their business each day, walk? how did they get their mail? Where did their children go to school? etc......
Though Obama's statement was not well written, why can't we tell the owners "good job!" and they reply, "thanks for your help. I might have been able to do this alone, but it would have been almost impossible." thus giving credit where credit is due to all involved. take away our infrastructure and see how easy it is to start up, much less maintain a business or sustain a family. our infrastructure is what makes this country or breaks it. and it needs our attention. we have got to quit taking it for granted. how would you flush your toilet, much less build that new mansion without it.
this is just an example. There are so many more issues that are further polarizing our society for nothing more than one not giving credit to another for the help given them by the other. Can we, as a nation, swallow our selfish pride and stand together in national pride? Or will our worship of a man made illusion we call money destroy us as a species?
I once developed a plan for retiring when I was young and could really enjoy it. I offered to allow someone to pay me $100,000 per year while I was retired. I would then come back at 65 and work for free the rest of my life. Sadly, I never found a taker...........
I can take all the vacation days that I want as well. At my poorly paid, not-quite full time job that I am working since the financial company I used to be with went under, I can schedule my own time off, and then reap the reward of not earning a pay check for the time I spend with family in other parts of the country. Just another perk of the 99%. Benefits? Ha ha.
I have done this and it works at certain companies.
I used to take work-cations to destinations that are cheap. I ended up living in Pondichery (a small town with a French colonial past) in India for a few weeks, in Thailand and Morocco.
I used to get up early or work late to make sure that there was an overlap between the local time and the time at my workplace office.
Sometimes I used to work from 5am in the morning to 2pm in the afternoon and then nap for two hours and after 4pm, it was party time! I had the whole evening to myself which meant, I could go spend time at the beach or go eat out or sit at cafes and bistros and take life easily.
I live in a boring landlocked city and it's amazing to live like a local at an exotic location for a few weeks.. Most people don't get time to relax because they have boring errands like getting their car washed to take care of.. Didn't have to deal with any of that when I was on a work-cation. Just rented a bicycle. Wohoo..
I cant see my company doing this , We have so many that all ready abuse FMLA plan , Its like 8 weeks of vacation !
To many are useing FMLA as there unlimited vacation,So I really dont see my employer giving unlimited vacation time.
I'm not sure how well that would work in a company that works 364 days out of the yr like the company i work for.
This sounds like the beginning of another corporate scam against its' employees, just like the invention of being on "salary." What a joke! They used what corporate managers like to call "buy in" from their employees by telling them it's just for the "professional" positions, thus making it look like a prestigious benefit. They told them you get paid for 40 hours whether you work 35 hours or 45 hours because it's going to vary based on medical appointments and family obligations and work projects. What it really means today is you work 60 hours and get paid for 40 hours and they gripe at you when you want to go to the dentist and have your teeth cleaned! Always having to beg for that 2 hours you need off one week to get some personal thing taken care of during business hours. It's always, "are you going to be making the time up?" Huh? I thought I was on "salary." I've made it up the past 3 months working 60 weeks.
So here we go with "unlimited vacation." You can get it approved if you have your work load covered by your co-workers. LMFAO! Yeah, OK. Like my co-workers want to work more than the 60 hours they are already working to cover my crap! Great way to pit employees against each other. This will ultimately end with no one taking any vacation, EVER!
Work in the medical maintenance field 24/7, 365 days a year. Been with the company 5 years. When I started, there were 5 people in my department, so I could be covered to take my vacation time. Now it's only me doing all the work, no one to back me up, and do my job while I try to take vacation. Have over 300 hours of vacation time on the books, and cannot take one day without being called back to work. Management always says they will make up the time to me, yea right, just add it to the time I cannot utilize. Last time I complained that I physically needed some time off to rest, as that's what vacation is for, they told me that if I cannot keep up with the job requirements, maybe they needed to look around for a replacement that can. They also put me on a salary based on a 40 hour a week pay scale, now currently work 60 hours per week regularly. I was out of work for 1 year before finding this position, I guess I should just be happy to have a job...at least that's my employers view!