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Comment by aynsof | Hacker News Reader

He talks about how important it is for people not to feel judged for taking more than the minimum amount of time off, then calls out a member of his team by name:

"Tyler has taken over double what most of the rest of the team has at this point."

But it's fine, because Tyler has a legitimate reason that we're assured no-one is judging him for:

"Tyler got married and went on a honeymoon. Literally no one in the company is mad that he did that."

What if my reason is because I just wanted to have some time away? Or because I had some deeply personal reason that I don't feel comfortable advertising? This system doesn't exactly scream 'psychological safety' to me.

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That's what I took from it as well. Apparently using your vacation is ok as long as you have a 'good reason' for doing so, and 'good reason' is to be defined by your manager at an arbitrary time. I don't see how this 'fixes' anything.

There is some danger here, to be sure, but I think time off is a tricky beast. People can get resentful it they think they have to shoulder the work burden for others who are taking too much time off. Also people tend not to take vacation for the same reason, that they don't have a good social excuse. I think a minimum vacation policy is a step in the right direction to rectify this. I'd certainly like to force people to take at least a week off every quarter or two, and at least 2 weeks off once a year. I think it's too valuable for employee productivity, and it has a double value of showing where you don't have enough skill/responsibility overlap as a manager.

What do you view as alternatives? It seems to me like this is a huge improvement on unlimited vacation, so you should add suggestions for improvement rather than knocking it down.

* Give fixed, but generous vacation allowances (4 weeks/year good, 5 weeks/year better)

* Vacation time use stats can be shared internally if your culture demands it, but should never be shared externally except in aggregate (violates the privacy of your employees)

* Don’t advertise unlimited vacation, because it’s not truly unlimited

* Properly account for staff being out in your capacity planning. If someone isn’t able to take their vacation time because there isn’t sufficient slack in the workload, you have failed and have essentially taken their compensation from them

Bonus points: Parental leave (offer what you can afford if you feel you need to compete on that benefit)

> What do you view as alternatives?

Some sort of vacation budget system, where you can take a certain amount each time period.

(Perhaps a certain amount could roll over from time period to time period.)

That manages expectations, and assuages anxieties about taking vacation. No need to constantly question "Has Mary/Dave/I earned this?" Big culture win.

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Apologies for the snarkiness, but this ultimately seems like a self-imposed problem.

Might it be better to force you to use any remaining vacation time at the end of the year? That way, there shouldn't be any pressure to not use your vacation time.

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