Comment by cHalgan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cHalgan | Hacker News Reader

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Reasoning goes like this:

- If a company is really about "we don't care about how much vacation you take", then why not to give me minimum vacations? It seems intellectually dishonest.

- How I do know how much of vacation I can take and whether that amount is preventing me of getting raise/bonus/promotion?

- This policy means that my vacation will vary depending on manager and current project. I cannot commit to travel with my kids, I cannot commit to visit my parents... because who knows: I might have a different manager next month.

- If I take two weeks vacation and none of my teammates are taking vacations, am I going to be fired? Are they going to consider me that I'm not a team player?

- I can lose a job after working for year or so without taking any vacation, but if I did accure vacation I will get some money (kinda reward for working hard for a year and not taking vacation), while in case of "flexible vacation" I get nothing.

It seems like the one correct answer to the vacation policy question is, "Do what you want, as long as you don't hose the company."

If you want to work remotely for the next month and nothing depends on your physical presence at the office, fine.

If you want to fuck off for the next month and you're not on anyone's critical path, that's fine, too.

Restricting things a bit, "not hosing the company" could be interpreted to mean that you can take off when you want, but for absences longer than x days you need to let your supervisor know y days in advance so s/he can take it into account when necessary. It doesn't sound like this would be an unreasonable thing to ask, as long as x and y are clearly stated by the company and respected by employees.

This whole thread reminds me of why I don't work for other people. The idea of someone demanding my physical presence for a portion of each day, for no reason other than the fact that they can, makes me frown and cock my head to the side like a puzzled beagle.

If you want to fuck off for the next month and you're not on anyone's critical path, that's fine, too.

But if you can do this, maybe they and you will think about whether they need you the month after that, too.

If you're doing good and valuable work, and the company acknowledges this, you won't want to vanish for weeks or months at a time.

The overriding goal is to run an outfit where the employees want to be there. If you do that, then vacation-policy abuse will not be a major problem. If you don't, then vacation-policy abuse is the least of your problems.

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