Microsoft Employees Are Getting Unlimited Time Off 151
In a memo seen by The Verge, Microsoft's chief people officer, Kathleen Hogan, announced that the company is giving its U.S. employees unlimited time off. "Microsoft is calling its unlimited time off 'Discretionary Time Off,' and it will apply to all salaried U.S. employees," adds The Verge. From the report: The changes will start on January 16th and mean even new Microsoft employees don't need to wait to accrue vacation time anymore. Microsoft will offer 10 corporate holidays, leaves of absence, sick and mental heath time off, and time away for jury duty or bereavement alongside this new unlimited time off policy. Employees that have an unused vacation balance will get a one-time payout in April.
Hourly workers at Microsoft won't be offered the unlimited time off, nor will employees outside the US. Microsoft says federal and state wage and hour laws make it difficult to offer unlimited time off to hourly workers, and those outside the US will keep their current vacation benefits because of different laws and regulations in other countries.
Hourly workers at Microsoft won't be offered the unlimited time off, nor will employees outside the US. Microsoft says federal and state wage and hour laws make it difficult to offer unlimited time off to hourly workers, and those outside the US will keep their current vacation benefits because of different laws and regulations in other countries.
Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:5, Insightful)
Employees will probably still need manager approval for time off. I could see this turning into "No Time Off". Am I being too cynical?
Re:Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:5, Insightful)
Employees will probably still need manager approval for time off. I could see this turning into "No Time Off". Am I being too cynical?
No "time off" means the company does not have to legally accrue and hold in reserve every outstanding PTO hour due to every employee.
Gut feeling this has fuck-all to do with offering the employees a gift horse, and everything to do with what the corporation has to hold in minimum reserve to cover legally obligated debts. "Unlimited" is rather hard to put on a ledger, so the number becomes essentially zero.
Re:Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:5, Insightful)
They save money because now they don't have to pay out unused vacation for employees when they leave. That's a big savings, and they got it for free because they are not likely to approve more PTO than what was original being offered (3-4 or so weeks).
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It's worse than you think. Unused accrued entitlements scale with grade and pay. If you have an employee with 50 days off accrued, and that employee gets promoted and a 25% pay increase, you now on the hook for 25% higher costs on those leave days. That really starts to bite across the corporate portfolio, and there's a reason a lot companies where it is allowed have limits to how long entitlements are valid (and they typically expire before the pay review cycle).
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Why do they have to pay out unused vacation? I've never left a job and got paid for my unused vacation days.
Re: Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:2)
Many solid blue states have laws that say once vacation is earned, it cannot be taken away
So no "use it or lose it" and must be paid out.
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One of my previous companies did the same thing. We got acquired, and somehow they failed to realize that the majority of use had at least 20 days accrued.
It only took a month after the acquisition where they announced they were going to unlimited PTO. First question asked from the US employees was what happened to accrued vacation and they said it was gone. (Surprised, si
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Yup and it should make people nervous because when this really has a big impact is during mass layoffs.
It doesn't matter if they approve more PTO than was originally being offered. For salaried staff PTO and Vacation are benefits which are paid by your co-workers (or yourself working a higher density to catch up on your return) not the company.
The trade off is that they can't realistically include it in the value of a compensation package anymore. In the short term it won't make a difference but after the l
Re:Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:5, Interesting)
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I'm sure he was salaried. When salaried and in tech almost always have what is called "exempt" status; there is no such thing as getting paid for extra hours. You get paid for the job, almost always more than standard hours.
I used to do this for various startups for many years because I enjoyed it and had a chance at making it big. But I put in as little as possible at big corporations. My contribution even as an executive was meaningless at a huge place. Everyone's was as individuals. Just a bunch of
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... I WANT to argue against you here but I mean you have a good point.
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Spot on and case 2 give far better blowjobs.
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Two for two. Cocksucker is actually a throwback to insulting a guy by suggesting he is gay.
When you call a woman a cocksucker it is a dirty term of affection not an insult. I suppose a gay man might use it the same way.
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Wow. Is that how you respond every time someone agrees with you? What an ass.
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I figured fuck it, if I don't take time, I'm giving them my 20k equivalent of time for free.
That is the way it should work.
The purpose of vacation time is to TAKE A VACATION, not free money when you quit.
A vacation helps a company by reducing burnout and also by ensuring no single employee holds critical knowledge necessary for daily operations.
You know that woman in accounting who is a stellar employee, showing up every day without a break for years? That's because she's lapping [wikipedia.org] and knows her embezzlement will be exposed if someone fills in for her.
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I figured fuck it, if I don't take time, I'm giving them my 20k equivalent of time for free.
That is the way it should work.
The purpose of vacation time is to TAKE A VACATION, not free money when you quit.
A vacation helps a company by reducing burnout and also by ensuring no single employee holds critical knowledge necessary for daily operations.
It doesn't always work out that way in practice. If you are really worth it, and bring value added, yeah - you'll get phone calls on vacation, and taking off sick days requires a lot more need.
So what?
Yes, I lost vacation, and got paid a lot of money for vacation and sick days when I retired. Poor me!
It might seem like I was being abused, but consider that I retired at 55 and take home in retirement was my take home pay in my final year of regular work.
A lot of people my age who weren't going to
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You paid for it either in broken relationships or your loved ones paid for it by picking up the slack on the home front while you only worked.
I've been married 46 years now, and raised a family in which we are all successful. What is more, despite the present narrative that it is not possible, they shall all be getting a sizable inheritance. Hell, I was a coach on my kid's hockey team. Perhaps I just manage my time.
I merely point out an alternative that you reject. Anyhow - you do you, and I'm sure it will work out perfectly, with no one taking advantage of you. That's the most important thing, amirite?
Re:Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:4, Insightful)
I've been married 46 years now
Then you're a boomer.
despite the present narrative that it is not possible, they shall all be getting a sizable inheritance.
I am also a boomer. Economically, our generation hit the jackpot. Debt-free education was accessible and affordable. We had good careers in an expanding economy. We bought cheap housing in nice neighborhoods and watched our property values soar.
But what worked then doesn't work now.
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I've been married 46 years now
Then you're a boomer.
despite the present narrative that it is not possible, they shall all be getting a sizable inheritance.
I am also a boomer. Economically, our generation hit the jackpot. Debt-free education was accessible and affordable. We had good careers in an expanding economy. We bought cheap housing in nice neighborhoods and watched our property values soar.
But what worked then doesn't work now.
As I recall, when I entered the workforce, the way things were going to work was inflation was going to eat up every penny of savings, so spend it now while it is still worth something.
And the hatred of us Boomers is based on two things - we simultaneously had every advantage and fattened ourselves off the backs of others, and we didn't prepare at all, and will now be a burden on society.
It's great that you support the victimhood of present generations, these terribly abused people who have it worse t
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I am also a boomer. Economically, our generation hit the jackpot. Debt-free education was accessible and affordable.
Millennial here -- it still is, if you're not completely fucking stupid. It turns out that overpriced schools don't do you any favors, it's more about the quality of the student than the quality of the school. I personally didn't borrow a cent for school, and paid for most of it out of my own pocket, despite being on minimum wage.
I'm gonna call bullshit on that one. You may have been working for minimum wage, but mummy & daddy probably paid your way thru school. No freaking way otherwise.
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Millennial here -- it still is, if you're not completely fucking stupid. It turns out that overpriced schools don't do you any favors, it's more about the quality of the student than the quality of the school. I personally didn't borrow a cent for school, and paid for most of it out of my own pocket, despite being on minimum wage.
I'm gonna call bullshit on that one. You may have been working for minimum wage, but mummy & daddy probably paid your way thru school. No freaking way otherwise.
A lot depends on the situation. Many colleges give big discounts for employees, and even students who are interning. I got my education while working for a large discount on tuition and books.
And some go on military service bennies as well.
Whatever the veracity of his statement is, the path many people took to get themselves horribly into debt for a college education makes me question if they were actually smart enough to be in college. Take on debt for tuition and living expenses for 4 years, get a deg
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Previous generation of women were willing to run the home front while husband never took a PTO in 46 years. That wont work today.
The problem with memes is they are memes. My wife was an executive in the construction industry until she retired about the same time as me. Her take-home pay was pretty much the same as mine.
We were and still are both professional in outlook.
Even my parents, who didn't make much money, took us in vacation as I remember. Oh - and my mother also worked. There's another meme busted. A woman from the greatest generation working? Must be a unicorn or sumpin!
The enslaved housewife meme is right up there w
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It doesn't always work out that way in practice. If you are really worth it, and bring value added, yeah - you'll get phone calls on vacation
Good luck with those phone calls, when you are drunk on a beach or without signal on a plane. And even if you are not, you don't have access to files on your office desktop. The standard reply is: I am on vacation, ask my coworker X.
The thing that amazes me is exactly what is the insufferable inconvenience with answering a question? If they can't get hold of me they can't. But if they can, it's 5 minutes of my time.
And at raise time or figuring who to keep during a downturn - that's the kind of thing that's remembered. But you do you.
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Often if you work in a finance related position, vacation time is mandatory, typically no less than a continuous two-week stretch.
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"The purpose of vacation time is to TAKE A VACATION, not free money when you quit."
It isn't free money. It's part of your compensation package so it came at the expense of equivalent salary. The idea being that it is usually compensation the company doesn't actually have to pay because other employees have to cover for you. Also the company wins when an employee doesn't take advantage of all their sick/PTO time or lets vacation expire unused. Sort of like selling gift cards because you know everyone won't u
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Re: Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:2)
Probably.
My employer offers unlimited time off. I've never had an issue getting approved.
I generally don't really ask for time off, though. I inform my supervisor I am taking time off to give them an opportunity to bring up any issues in scheduling. The "approval" is just a digital record of the schedule.
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Same. I can certainly see how things could go wrong if my manager was trying to make my life miserable, but on the other hand, I found "no/unlimited time off" to work great for me. You no longer have to wonder if you're taking half a day off, a full day off, or even whether you have enough days left to take your christmas week off at the end of the year. You just work when you can, being reasonable. Similarly to when you're sick, you just inform others in your team that you'll do the best you can considerin
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Employees will probably still need manager approval for time off. I could see this turning into "No Time Off". Am I being too cynical?
I imagine that they still have to get some work done. Otherwise a person could come in on their first day, and take mental health days off and never come in again.
It's probably "unlimited" the same way that Internet access might be advertised as unlimited.
You probably don't just get hired and disappear forever, fully paid.
Re:Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a manager, and if my company implemented this I'd make sure that I kept a record of my team's leave and MADE SURE that they were all taking at least the equivalent of PTO they had before.
I like and respect my team, and any sane person understands that 20 days a year, or whatever, is even not enough to have a good work/life balance - some have kids, some are carers, some have health issues. Are there really managers out there who are trying to scam their reports out of leave? I honestly find it baffling.
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I'm a manager, and if my company implemented this I'd make sure that I kept a record of my team's leave and MADE SURE that they were all taking at least the equivalent of PTO they had before.
I like and respect my team, and any sane person understands that 20 days a year, or whatever, is even not enough to have a good work/life balance - some have kids, some are carers, some have health issues. Are there really managers out there who are trying to scam their reports out of leave? I honestly find it baffling.
Thank You. My previous company switched to unlimited PTO and it caused a number of challenges.
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1) We found anything over 20 days got flagged for review by HR, even if it was approved by the reporting manger. This was never publicly announced but we all knew about because the first person who took more than 20 days after the switch was not pleased by the hassle it caused.
2) We were allocated additional compensation time for (reasons) and we had no way of tracking that additional compensat
Re: Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:2)
There's no shortage of managers who still believe in man months. To them, less time at work means less work gets done. That's it.
Re:Could turn into "No Time Off" (Score:5, Insightful)
"Unlimited time off" usually ends up meaning less time off. If you have a fixed number of days off, there's no guilt about using them. When you go on vacation, people don't think you're lazy. You're just using the days you've accrued. With unlimited time off, you have to second guess whether you're taking too much time off. Does it look bad? Is everyone noticing you're out and thinking you're lazy? How much time off is everyone else taking? Will you lose a promotion if you take more time off than someone else?
The result is people taking less time off. It's great for the company. They get to look generous at the same time they're making people work harder.
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Unlimited time off has been shown to be bad for employee and employer.
Studies show that people take LESS vacation time when offered "unlimited". No one wants to be the person others think is using too much and abusing it. At least with a set number of vacation days, that's not the case, as you're only taken what you've been explicitly given.
Employers like it, because 1) as mentioned above, it means people taking less time off, and 2) it means they don't have to pay out banked vacation time when someone leav
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How it works out depends on your position and manager. The company I'm working at has "unlimited time off" for a couple years now. Be a grown-up. Make sure you'll have coverage and/or everything is settled enough to wait until you return. If you can't do that then it should actually be something serious.
I work a combination of projects and operational related activities. I've never had time off rejected but I do (and always did) actually consider what is going on at work when planning my time off. Technical
Nice (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm obviously missing something.
Maybe every time someone takes a day off their boss kills a puppy.
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By going to unlimited PTO, there is no more accrual, so there is no more liability and no payouts when people leave.
That said, I've spent the l
Explains Lack of Accrual at Many Places (Score:2)
Yet they still had a line in the company handbook about how all "accrued PTO will be paid out upon termination." I imagine that semantic trick was a nasty surprise to many outgoing employees who'd been saying their vacation time for the holidays, especially the few who had actually read the policies.
What about California? (Score:2)
In CA, accrued vacation has a value at hourly rate. Is MS going to pay that to CA employees when this new deal starts? If not, CA employees should book and start that vacation now before the changeover date because it is their entitlement.
Re: What about California? (Score:2)
Yes. I worked at a CA company that transitioned from traditional PTO to unlimited time off. Everyone got a payout at the time of transition to pay for all the accrued PTO hours.
Re: What about California? (Score:2)
If you had bothered to read the summary, you would have noticed that employees will get a payout for PTO on the books in April.
Secret, Just Like Salaries (Score:2)
1. Most probably read "unlimited" as no maximum, but I suspect it more likely means there's no minimum anymore.
2. If you're not accruing vacation anymore, there'll be nothing to "payout" when you're terminated.
Re: Secret, Just Like Salaries (Score:2)
How secret is vacation time? I know when all my coworkers are taking vacation and sick days. It's on the schedule or in Slack so we know not to bother people while they're out.
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I guess the raw data is there if you want to add it up yourself. But it's different from simply knowing up front that everyone gets the same amount of PTO (barring an extra week or two for people who've been there for years).
Re:Nice (Score:5, Insightful)
In practice it's not really unlimited and people often end up being pressured into taking less time off.
Can I fuck off to a tropical island for three months over the winter? Not without getting laid off at the closest opportunity eh? Then I'd rather have my 25 days that everyone understands I will take off.
Re: Nice (Score:2)
I have a buddy who asked for a couple months off so he could bike ride from Canada to Mexico. His employer approved it. If the requests are generally reasonable and you have any value as an employee, most employers will want to work with you to keep you happy.
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In my area we don't have distinct releases, there are always some ongoing concurrent projects that people are working on.
In the last few years there was maybe one month where nothing much was actually happening inbetween some organizational changes where this could've worked. Otherwise you always have to take it at the expense of delaying some work.
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Most likely, we all work with at least one person who seems to be impervious to the anxieties that so many of us experience on a daily basis.
A significant percentage of the time, said person is also among the least productive people on the team, but no matter how much time off they take, or how little they get done, they ever seem to be in jeopardy. It's a mystery for which I have much envy.
So far in my two years of experience with "unlimited vacation", it's this person on each team who always seem
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In practice, usually "unlimited" is unlimited but requires manager approval, and they can refuse your request if they think it will negatively impact the project, is excessive, etc... Also there's no protections for employees getting penalized for taking too much vaca
Re: Nice (Score:2)
Unlimited time off where I work. I generally take a day off every two weeks just to chill and handle personal stuff. Then a two week vacation to go do something. Then a few five day weekends to visit family or what-not.
Works out to about 6 weeks a year. Which is the rate my PTO was accruing before we switched to unlimited.
Seems fair.
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I thought it might be, I just couldn't figure out how they were going to make people's lives worse.
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I'm trying to see how this makes me hate Microsoft more than before, but it seems like a great thing. I'm obviously missing something.
Yeah the fact that on the other side of the Atlantic there are half a billion people in Europe with a legal entitlement to a minimum 20 days paid leave mandated in law in the EU Working Time Directive. Every employee in the EU is entitled to a minimum 20 days, many member states have even more. Here in the UK the statutory minimum paid annual leave as mandated in law is 28 days and both in the UK and EU if you don't take any leave an employer has to force you to take a minimum 20 days.
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I believe that the numbers you give have different meanings, in that the EU one is 20 days plus public holidays, whereas the UK one is 28 days including public holidays (which works out to about the same).
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"Unlimited" goes both ways. No upper limit but no lower limit either.
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Vacation is going from something you earned that the company owes to you to something you have to go ask and beg for each time at the discretion of management. Use too much and you might get canned for it under At-Will employment laws. Your boss will be heavily pressured by his productivity metrics to have employee butts in seats as much as possible.
Everyone I know who has had this despised it.
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I hope it's not like what happened when I was there.
They announced an initiative to encourage employees to pursue work-life balance.
Most didn't believe them but some did. All those who balanced their lives got fired.
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Ah well, I suppose it's just a part of the pursuit of endless profit growth.
borderline scam (Score:2)
My employer did the same and it was to save money. I still use the same vacation time at most (3-4 weeks plus holidays), but now I don't get a month's pay when I leave the company (or whatever days I have remaining).
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You're right -- it's all about the financial liability of accrued, paid time off.
This Old Chestnut (Score:4, Interesting)
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Cashed out 300 hours of unused PTO (part of conditions of acquisitions), which was made for a VERY nice first paycheck for 2023!
Would have been bupkis if the previous PTO policy had been unlimited.
10 Corporate holidays? (Score:3)
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No, that's typically in addition to your discretionary PTO. Also, some of them maybe be multi-day holidays breaks, like a holiday break between Christmas and New Years, or Thanksgiving, which is always on a Thursday, but the company may also give Friday off.
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Umm, that's 10 days that the whole company closes. It's in addition to sick time and vacation time.
We've got this now.... (Score:3)
With unlimited time off, when my manager agrees to a day off, but needs to contact me...well...there's no penalty to anyone but me. I don't get money (indirectly in the form of an unused sick day) if they call me...and I risk annoying my reporting hierarchy if I ask for another day in compensation of having to work on my day off.
I greatly prefer it when explicit monetary value is placed on my time off. I get it that emergencies happen and they may have to contact you, but with a monetary value system, at least I can get paid for my troubles. With unlimited time off, I need to ask permission for both the time period and the amount. With a pool of days off, I am owed the time off...I just need to schedule it responsibly with my team.
Its not as nice as it sounds (Score:3)
I had that benefit at my previous company. And yeah, you can take as much time as you want. And yeah, if you cross some invisible line in the sand they can fire you. And no, that is not why I am no longer there, although that would be amusing.
What this came down to was accounting. You see, when employees accumulate time off, that counts as DEBT on the accounting books because it has to be paid out even if an employee leaves. By doing this, the company effectively wipes that slate clean. Now, they will likely make a payout to all employees for this time, so it is not like they are cheating them in any way (at least that is what happened at my previous company).
The real kicker here is that in the future, that accounting DEBT will no longer accrue, thus making the books look better on their quarterly SEC reports.
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Yup. I work for a company (in the USA) where I currently have 30 PTO days a year, plus a week of dedicate wellness days, plus corporate holidays (we get a decent amount of those). I very regularly take1 day a week off every week of summer (think about it, that's only 12-15 PTO days and still gives alot to use the rest of the year). I love that I get to spend an extra day with my family not working during the summer.
I interviewed at a position at a company with "unlimited time off" and I asked them if tha
How does this work in practice? (Score:2)
So you go to your boss and say: "thanks for hiring me last week, I'll see you in 2024 because I'm taking 12 month off of my unlimited time off right now"?
Life can't work like this. How does this work in practice?
Not a benefit - it's a pay cut (Score:2)
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Another M$ history?! (Score:2)
So like can I take 260 days off? (Score:2)
Or better say 2600 (10 years) before they can fire me?
Following in Twitter's footsteps (Score:2)
just ask Elon is about to reverse that Twitter perk.
This means more layoffs are coming (Score:2)
Practically, 'Unlimited' is worse than fixed (Score:2)
First, you can't actually take unlimited time off. You will be slaughtered in your reviews and the manager will have words with you before that if you cross an invisible threshold (which is about as many days off as you had before, or fewer). Even if you get your assigned work done, Protestant work ethic will get you.
Second, if you saw that you have 200 unused hours under the old regime, you might actually feel that you should use some of that and take a vacation (yes, I know this is a very American Probl
They just shifted to the latest HR scam (Score:2)
Unlimited time off also carries a policy of "it doesn't accrue"
Don't use it, you don't walk out the door and get paid for it either.
It's a really cute con
Deeply unfair to employees and managers (Score:2)
"Unlimited" really means "some secret amount we won't tell you and may vary by manager". For the employee there is a constant worry that their vacation time will be seen as negativ
Nobody buys this (Score:2)
Everyone understands that 'unlimited time off' means nothing, and generally turns out to be very limited time off because of self- and peer-pressure.
I guarantee you if someone took 300 days off, they would no longer be working for Microsoft.
Its actually "Undefined Time Off".. (Score:3)
Its actually "Undefined Time Off".. What this actually means is that vacation no longer accrues and therefore is not owed to you (and more importantly) no longer needs to be paid off by the company when you leave (or more likely these days, when they lay you off) as it no longer "accrues" legally as a liability to you.
Renaming "Undefined" to "Unlimited" is just a weasel word change to make it sound like something its not. The purpose of this change is for companies to legally avoid paying you for your owed vacation when you leave as it is legally now "no longer owed". Oh, and BTW, it is certainly not "unlimited" in any way in case anyone was wondering.
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perhaps the state should have mandatory minimum requirements...
Won't be a noticeable difference (Score:2)
Dilbert reference (Score:2)
didn't miss you (Score:2)
Hourly workers actually do necessary work and can't be spared.
Management and staff are deadwood and won't be missed.
If the wheels don't fall off, it's an easy way to tell if a position is redundant.
I Hate Unlimited Time Off (Score:3)
Personally, it is not something I have benefitted from having.
Now, I am entitled to nothing, and typically that is what I take. In the last 18 months, I took one vacation day, and when I leave my job, I will cash out with nothing,
Itâ(TM)s not like you just get to leave whenever you want. We still have sprints to meet and the time off must be approved before it can be taken. And they still track every hour of PTO and I guarantee they make fancy graphs and hold dick-measuring contests over it. They like to remind us that Washington is a right to work state, so in an economy like this, everyone competes to see who can take the least. I miss my use it or lose it excuse to take vacation days.
Now I have nothing to lose and therefore nothing to gain.
Everyone used to have the same amount of vacation. Now 20% of people take 60% of the vacation, those with trust funds and no families to provide for (where unemployment is less scary) get it all, with the rest of us left holding our nutsacks and getting up when the alarm sounds.
It is very hard to take just the right amount of vacation, so if you have to err, it will surely be to the low side.
Fuck unlimited vacation with a sharp stick. After 2 years with it, Iâ(TM)ve never had fewer days off, and I also will not get the payout when I leave.
Not a fan.
The first big one to go (Score:2)
Not what it seems (Score:2)
This is *NOT* offering employees "unlimited time off". My company has this, we call it "balanced time away". Instead this is a flexible policy where managers work with their underlings to decide what is an appropriate time off and when.
Ideally, it could be quite beneficial, for instance, if you work really extra hard for a few weeks to make a delivery, and the manager can recognize that and reward it by agreeing to some additional time off to celebrate and recover. Or if family stress outside of work mou
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By that definition... (Score:2)
... every employee in Germany already has that. Sick days are not vacation therefore they are not part of the contract. They are regulated by laws not contracts. Companies have to fully pay during the first 6 weeks of any sickness, after that the health insurance company has to pay. This is per illness not per year. Also obviously you cannot be fired for being ill.
Days off are vacation days, and by law you have to get at least 20 of them per year (for a full time job). Most companies have 30 days, and they
Don't Have To Pay Out Unused PTO When They Leave (Score:2)
Its a trap! (Score:3)
My company offers the same thing, but last year, when I took 3 separate vacations totaling 4 weeks in one year period, my manager said that i was taking too much time.
I reminded her that before the "unlimited" moniker was used, I already had 5 weeks per year due to the time I have been working at the company.
Havent heard a bit from her.
Unlimited time off means no time off. (Score:2)