Comment by henrikschroder | Hacker News Reader

Comment by henrikschroder | Hacker News Reader

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> Workers who fully commit to Epic — who survive the long hours and grisly sights — are treated to a remarkable perk. After five years, they get a sabbatical, including round-trip airfare for two to travel somewhere they’ve never been for a month, plus a per diem for meals and lodging. (They get another sabbatical after 10 years, 15, and so on.)

Obligatory snark: In Europe we call this paid vacation, and we get it every year.

But on a serious note, it's so funny how experiences temper expectations. Only in a place where most people's vacation time is used for familial obligations or not used at all, does a month of traveling sound like the ultimate luxury. And they're willing to slave away for five years to get this?

When me and friends briefly served a stint as middle managers in corporate America, we had a vacation policy of "always yes". And people would still start their time off discussions by laying out arguments as to why they really needed time off. No, stop, you need zero arguments to get a yes from me as long as you have earned the time off according to company policy. It's my fucking job to make things work despite your absence, not yours.

The fact that it's a paid for trip is why it is worth mentioning, not necessarily the length. Five weeks of vacation, while not very common, is common enough that it's not really worth writing about otherwise. Edit: Agreed that 5 weeks of contiguous vacation is rare

> Five weeks of vacation, while not very common, is common enough that it's not really worth writing about otherwise.

Where do you work that you think this is common?

My wife and I are both in reasonably well compensated professional careers, and while we get to take more vacations than most americans, a solid 5 week block is basically impossible. And I don't think that's atypical: the Bureau of Labor Stats certainly doesn't support that idea (https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/private-industry-workers-r...)

In Sweden, five weeks of paid vacation per year is the legal minimum, and you also have the right to take four weeks contiguous in the summer if you want. But you don't have the right to choose when exactly if you exercise that right. Different industries do it differently, some shut down and kick everyone out in July, others try to get their employees to spread their vacation over summer so that there's at least someone in the office.

The difference in mentality and expectations is absolutely crazy.

It's common for teachers and many positions in higher education.

It is the length that makes it worth mentioning. A month long consecutive vacation in the US is rare. The paid vacation portion is not particularly generous, liberally assume $200 for lodging and $50/person for meals, it's worth somewhere around $12 to $14k including flights on the high end, i.e. $2k to $3k per year bonus.

This almost makes me feel lucky to be on “sabbatical” while trying to recover from illness.

A paid five weeks trip, flights, hotel, food for two people is maybe $20k.

Split over five years is $4k/year. I don't know how much Epic pays, if they're up to silicon valley standards, but say you make $120k/year there? An extra $4k is fucking peanuts.

Also multiply that with the five-year employee retention rate, and you get the true cost for this "perk".

If a perk costs the company peanuts, the proper valuation of the perk should probably also be peanuts. Don't get suckered in by companies that do these kinds of things. Always think about what each perk actually costs the company.

I didn't realize that companies in Europe were requires to actually pay for the vacation, on top of normal pay, by providing airfare, meals, and lodging.

Not sure if it's required, but it's common to have a 13th month of pay on top of the paid time off. I don't believe it's considered a bonus (ie it's not performance based) - it's vacation pay. It's talked about as spending money for while you're on vacation, although there's no actual restrictions on it that I'm aware of.

Usually not required by law, but mandated by the joint agreements between the employee unions and the labor unions. I.e. it might not be legally mandatory, but de facto it is.

It sounds like you know about this -- what could I google to find out more? Is it applicable to the whole EU or just certain countries? All industries or just some? I've never heard of this before (as an American who's lived in Japan for over a decade and has had multiple German/French/English expat friends who've chosen to stay here).

My knowledge comes via osmosis from having grown up in the EU.

This seems to be a decent starting point into this culture around the world https://radford.aon.com/insights/articles/2017/13th-and-14th...

I don't think that's the norm. You get your salary and free time; that's it. Everything else is negociated and bonus only.

They aren't

Honestly that doesn’t sound like that great of a deal. I’d rather have continuous work life balance than kill myself for 5 years so someone can buy me a 5 week vacation.

I get 10 month vacation fully paid as any normal work month.

I work in ad tech.

It just depends on what you know, workplace is flexible for people who can't be replaced easily, so we might as well flex.

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