Ask HN: negotiating for vacation instead of salary? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: negotiating for vacation instead of salary?

10 pointsluu10 comments

Have you tried doing this? Did it work? Is this even possible at big companies, where people get X weeks of vacation to start, and then Y weeks of vacation once you hit N years of experience?

Am I even asking the right question? Should my question be “what companies have generous vacation policies?”

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Yes, I've seen it work at a big company that has a vacation "policy". If you're talking about salary they probably want to hire you, so don't wimp out in negotiation. Don't drag it on too long, but don't accept their first verbal offer either.

General plan (especially with big companies): overshoot your idea of a reasonable salary by 20% or something, and when they come back "low" ask for more vacation, citing the "difference".

It might be worth asking about how easy it is to take unpaid leave. Some companies have no problem with employees taking off one or two weeks per year unpaid on top of their regular holiday. Or time off in lieu might be another option.

I work at a big company, and no it is not negotiable. At big companies you get thrown into groups, and for people to be "special", requires a lot of HR work, and managing to get right. Usually something out of the box requires a high level okay, and they don't like to do that.

That being said, if you offer something that is rare, big companies will work with you. This is true of high profile persons being hired by big companies.

Also as you move up into hierarchy, or attain a certain number of years under your belt the company might be willing to budge.

I work at a big company, and no it is not negotiable

I have worked for big companies as well (Gateway, Washinton Post), and while it is true that officially getting bumped to a higher vacation allotment is nearly impossible (e.g. managers get 2 weeks, and I'm asking for 3), it is possible to negotiate "off the books" vacation time with your direct supervisor. Usually your vacation requests go to him/her to sign send to HR/Payroll, who then deducts the days from your allowance. If you have an arrangement with your supervisor, the occasional Friday off or 1 week vacation when you only had 3 days banked can go unnoticed. 2 weeks of vacation can easily become 4 if you get one off-the-books day off per month.

Same experience for me. Sad that corporate culture is so thoroughly fucked at so many companies, but the closer you get to HR, the more likely you are to hit some power tripping asshole that gets off on creating and enforcing arbitrary policies that treat high-talent and low-talent individuals alike.

In this world, you learn to get what you can, however you can, with as few people aware/involved as possible.

creating and enforcing arbitrary policies

It's actually not an arbitrary policy to limit vacation time. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires companies to report accrued but untaken vacation time as a liability on their balance sheets.

Since companies are required to pay out vacation time upon termination, and some states don't allow caps on accrued vacation, bumping you from 2 weeks to 4 weeks now could be risky. What if you never use the 2 extra weeks? Fast forward 20 years to your retirement, and they could be forced to pay you 40 weeks pay in a lump sum.

I asked for 2-3k more and was denied, so I asked for another week of vaca and got it. Now I'm the only developer with less than 5 years seniority with 3 weeks a year.

“what companies have generous vacation policies?”

most of them outside the US

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statutory_minimum_emplo...

My last job had a pretty good vacation policy:

20 PTO days, 13 holidays, office closed between Christmas and New Years

Not a statistically significant sample, but I've asked for this in (almost?) every job negotiation, at both bigcos and startups, and it has never even been considered.

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