As expected, my annual vacation time (along with my salary, bonus, stock grants, and stock vesting) is 60% of what it was when I was full-time. However, holidays that fall on Monday or Friday (of which there are about 8 per year for U.S. Googlers) now generate comp time for me to take whenever I want. Furthermore, about once per quarter I have a week-long oncall shift which requires me to be in the office for 8 hours on Monday and Friday; each of these oncall shifts generates 2 comp days for me to use later (a total of 8 comp days per year).
Working only Tue/Wed/Thu means I can go away for 11 consecutive days by taking only 3 days off. So far this year I have:
- taken a 10-day trip to Japan,
- taken a 10-day trip to Iceland and the UK, and
- done a 10-day silent meditation retreat.
Google has HR policies that support flexible work schedules. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case at most of the larger tech companies.