Comments on: The Strangest Vacation Policy I’ve Ever Seen

By: kannan

kannan — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:45:38 +0000

Dear Suzanne

Iam appearing for an interview for a Head – HR position with a start up software company and i would need tips on formats on a) establish ladder b)Establish review calendar c)Establish review document and process d)Establish rating review system e) system for annual bonuse) documentation throughout process f) model for cash and stock and documentation. Sorry the list is big… can you help me by thursday the 15th march
regards
Kannan

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:49:53 +0000

The US is a little interesting in this type of thing, but you should check your contract and its definition of a "day". Cleary a day is the same regardless of the length of a shift unless separately defined (this one is generally a beauty in Union contracts). Anyway, in Europe, you get 20 vacation days minumum, and since last year this excludes National Holidays. When you take it is up to the employer/employee, but portions can be specified to be taken at a set time (hence August is generally a dead month), and its always subject to reasonable notice.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:37:00 +0000

If this was the vacation policy for the company I was going to work for, I'd look for work elsewhere.

Heh. And if I had am employee considered it their "right" to take vacation any time they wanted to, without regard to MY NEEDS (as the one who writes a paycheck...) they're be out on their arse in no time.

My business.
Mine.
Mineminemineminemine.

Not theirs.

We have busy times of year and slow times of year. We have busy days and slow days. We have days when we need all staff front and center, and days when I don't mind if people take a 2 hour coffee break, on the clock.

I explain that to everyone I hire. BEFORE they take the job. It's part of the job.

There is no "vacation fairy" who comes and magically takes care of all business needs when someone is out. So yes, I damn well expect my employees to do their darndest to fir their vacation into my schedule, or go somewhere else.

And by the way: penalty? Bonus? All relative; same thing. It's a little "Rain Man" for me:

"I don't want to have 2 weeks of vacation when they only count for 1/2 during the summer!"

"OK then. You now have ONE week of vacation. But good news! It counts for DOUBLE in the winter!"

"Oh, OK then. "

By: Olivia

Olivia — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:17:00 +0000

I think it's a brilliant way to try to incentivize employees to take vacation in the winter, but I don't like the "penalty" side of the summer. As a parent with a child, I wouldn't mind this - as there are lots of snow days, holiday events and other school items during the year where I would really appreciate the mileage out of those extra days.

I agree it's legal (a company doesn't legally have to give you any paid time off).

As people have mentioned though, many people would find it punative toward parents, so if those are people you want to keep, you might consider revising.

And yes, Evil HR lady is perfectly correct in saying you're insane if you think that only one policy is enough! (unless you're a one-person office!)

By: Leroy Grinchy

Leroy Grinchy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:38:00 +0000

I don’t know why people see the glass as half empty. I’d just take the time when it paid off the most. End of story. In a way, it’s an incentive for people who take their vacation at a certain time in the year. I like bonuses.

By: Dataceptionist

Dataceptionist — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:33:00 +0000

I don't think this is such a bad idea, but I don't have kids.

I think someone's point about taking time off over christmas for half the leave time would be great!

By: Cali

Cali — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:48:00 +0000

We're with our friend, Scot. It is completely ludicrous to think that you will keep your best talent by screwing around with the one thing they care about most – their time.

This company needs to wake up and start looking at whether their employees are achieving their results, and not whether they should be whipping people for taking vacation during a time of year that the kings and queens have deemed "not appropriate".

Results-Only Work Environment, baby!

Cali & Jody
http://www.caliandjody.com/blog

By: Sandi Mays

Sandi Mays — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:45:00 +0000

Really? People quit a job because of the vacation policy?

I need to add that to my interview questions.

By: Infamous HR Guy

Infamous HR Guy — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:42:00 +0000

HA!!! Creative policy making, yet oddly amusing. Hopefully this company is not in California because....well I can only imagine the case law that would come from it.

From an employee standpoint, I'd be on the first job that matched my vacation without limitations.

Sounds to me as though the owner of said small company likes to vacation in the summer and can't when said employees take time away from work. OR Is just too lazy to enforce a vacation request system that relies upon first come/first serve.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:32:00 +0000

Just a regular old manager rather than an HR person or lawyer, but the way we worked this at my last job was fairly simple and seemed to work well. It went something like this:
* As kelly o described, we had certain particularly busy periods (about 8 weeks/ year, broken into 3 blocks) where vacations typically weren’t approved, and all staff members were informed about this when they were hired. Occasional exceptions were made, e.g., for a sibling’s wedding or parent’s extended hospitalization, of course.
* For the rest of the year, vacation was approved a few months in advance. A call for vacation requests would go out to the staff — e.g., “Please submit your vacation requests for June, July, & August to your supervisor by March 31” — and once that deadline had passed, management reviewed all the requests at once. If we had enough people wanting a particular day off that the business wouldn’t be able to function, each manager would take the issue back to their staff and ask them to help work it out — but most of the time, we were able to accommodate everyone who’d gotten their requests in by the deadline, even if it meant the managers answered the phones or our coverage was a bit thin on certain days.