Ask HN: Is unlimited vacation still a thing in tech jobs? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is unlimited vacation still a thing in tech jobs?

7 pointschirau13 comments

I remember around 2015 plus or minus 3 years, so many tech jobs in NYC and SF were offering unlimited vacation days. Is that still a thing or it died out? If so, what happened?

Does 'remote' replace it or compliment it?

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My current employer has an unlimited vacation policy. Really it's just a joke because it's a way for them to write off a crude vacation as an expense from their books. Since vacation is no longer than accrued earned benefit now when I quit I don't get paid out any outstanding vacation because there is none. In reality when you have accrued vacation that has a maximum limit you will end up taking your vacation because it's a tangible thing and if you don't take it then you will be leaving money on the table so to speak. Going to an unlimited vacation policy people tend to take less overall vacation because they don't have a number sitting in front of them that says how much they can carry over a year to year and how much they'll lose if they don't take it.

Since vacation still needs to be approved by your manager or HR I'm shocked more places don't go to unlimited vacation. My employer is pretty good with vacation as long as you don't take unreasonably long stretches. If you try to take more than 3 weeks at one time they do end up questioning you about it because that seems like a abnormally long period. Overall I've taken eight weeks throughout the year and never been questioned with it. I imagine not all employers are happy to authorize that much even though the policy is technically unlimited.

> Overall I've taken eight weeks throughout the year and never been questioned with it.

If you have taken eight weeks of vacation per year, and have not even seen push-back on it, you are definitely on "unlimited" compared to most of the world.

We used to offer it to employees with long service. We felt it would benefit people so they didn't just count days - if they needed time off they took it. (And they could take it without "asking" or needing "approval".)

In practice it had negative side effects. Folk ended up taking less, not more, time off. Plus they lost accrued-leave payouts (for leave not taken).

Since it was not achieving the goals it was supposed to achieve, and since it didn't benefit employees, we killed it and went back to the regular approach.

My company doesn't offer it, but for all practical purposes, I offer it to my reports. I never track their time -- and my boss doesn't track mine. But weirdly, people keep maxing out on their PTO, meaning they /need/ to take vacation because they can't accrue any more time. My boss and I can't wrap our heads around it. We have to literally go around to our teams and say "please take vacation." It's weird.

I'm a big fan of unlimited (or very high amounts of) vacation as long as you also have minimum required vacation. You are required to take 2 weeks off per year, but you can also take 6 weeks over the course of the year if you want to.

Life is more than a job. Go do something else. Geez.

/rant. But to answer your question: yes, companies still offer it -- I have a few friends that work at them and my company is considering switching to an untracked policy.

I work fully remote and have "unlimited vacation", but I have yet to test the limits of it. Earlier in April I had asked a day off 3 weeks in a row (i.e, I asked off 3 thursdays in a row) and my boss admonished me not to "let the unlimited PTO get in the way of my work", despite having only taken off maybe 6 days the entire year. When I pushed him to explain what he meant, he started walking back what he said.

Anyways I'm gonna try to ask off for 2 weeks in December, so let's see how that goes!

Yeah, that sounds pretty close to what I’ve seen — more than two weeks off starts to impinge on other team members ability to take time off (assuming you’re on a small team).

Not sure how many companies offer it, but it seems like it’s still a thing. My current company offers it, and the practice is to ask one question before approving: “have you talks with your team about it and made any arrangements needed for coverage?” A “no” to that question is fine in urgent situations and just means the manager takes on doing that prep ex post facto, but in almost every case the answer is “yes” and the time off goes on the books.

When employers offer it, its generally to _their_ advantage more than yours. Often, its a way for corporations to avoid paying out vacation days when you leave. You might "have" unlimited vacation, but its all up to your manager. Want to work a 4 day week using "unlimited vacation", its not going to happen. Just like phone companies saying you have "unlimited data", there is often a catch.

You're better off getting PTO days which are tracked and guaranteed.

A company I worked at had "unlimited" vacation, I had a surgery. You'd think this would be a good candidate for using that "unlimited" vacation, NOPE. Thankfully I lived in California (while my company with "unlimited" vacation was in Oregon), so by law I had PTO days on the books, and I had A LOT of them. I had to use my banked PTO to recover after surgery, otherwise I was asked to take medical leave (which comes with half of your pay rate).

My mostly remote tech company has unlimited PTO. I'm on track for 8 weeks this year, like last year. I've found more than 8 weeks to be stressful because I still have to get things done. It's definitely one of the reasons I'm sticking around for now.

I've never been denied when I ask.

During the interview process, ask any company that offers it, “What’s the limit?”

Some employers does some doesn't.

My current employer offers it.

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