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Comment by benatkin | Hacker News Reader

Some holidays

Those aren't the biggest holidays for everyone, and it isn't even the new year for everyone

As a foreigner, I don't care. Holiday schedule is one out of many issues with US-centric policy and culture, but mainstream biases exist everywhere. This is about an employee perk.

Extra time off is always much appreciated, especially in the US tech sector where prestige white collar work = your life & identity. Most work overtime during the year anyway and are available outside of business hours and make countless other sacrifices for their employer every hour of every day.

Moreover, many of us celebrate Thanksgiving and July 4th anyway, because, well everyone else is (ie the same reason as most Americans).

Then maybe just allow employees to take the week off during a time that's relevant for them.

But regardless, with this move everyone loses regardless of when they would enjoy the week off.

They've absorbed those days, and it will inform their policies. I can see why they wouldn't just make a direct transfer of that time off.

I think they already have something like this where you get a few weeks to take off per year whenever you like and you still get paid.

And is that pool getting an extra week to compensate for this week being removed?

And how true is the "whenever you like"?

Idk, I think they're getting as many weeks as their employment contract dictates. That's how it always worked for me.

If I'd been getting an extra week beyond that, a long-standing perk that's used to help recruit employees, I'd certainly be annoyed and considering my options if it gets taken away.

People consider their options every single time they drive to work. No one is arguing that when perks are taken away you can be sad. But it's not like employers aren't disappointed by employees often too and still keep them for weeks, months, years longer after the disappointment.

well, when the whole company shuts down its actually a lot nicer. Do it in the summer or winter whatever, but it's nice to not miss anything and really let work stop

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