Merry Xmas!

My wife is an HR professional in the tech space, so I know that the idea of unlimited vacation is an attractive one. People imagine taking off whenever they like and taking 6+ weeks off each year. The reality is much different. When you aren’t given x amount of vacation days that you’re expected to take, you may feel pressure from “go getters” to skip out on vacation days. Chances are, you’ll take the same amount of time off or less when compared to whatever vacation days you would have been given.

An added benefit to employers is that when you don’t give each employee x number of vacation days each year, you don’t need to pay out unused days when they quit, get laid off, or don’t use them all up. Project: Time Off says this saves companies an average of $1,898 per employee.

I could see a happy medium, if the employer is truly interested in their employees taking a break and not using “unlimited” as a ploy, being a blended policy. Each employee gets x weeks off that they are expected to take (whatever is normal in non-unlimited vacation day companies), plus they can take more time off should they wish to have it.

This would make “unlimited vacation” a true benefit without any catches.

This is complicated by the fact that those high level positions often do work more, and feel like they need to work more than everyone else usually. Open communication and leading by example are the two best solutions I’ve experienced.