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8/31/07
Vacation, All I Ever Wanted
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Friday, August 31, 2007
8:18:00 PM EDT
Hearing Nothing at the moment
Here's a really interesting story from the New York Times on how IBM has stopped keeping track of vacation days -- everyone technically has a set amount, but the company doesn't actually track them. You take them when you want them, or don't:
employees at all levels have made informal arrangements with their direct supervisors, guided mainly by their ability to get their work done on time. Many people post their vacation plans on electronic calendars that colleagues can view online, and they leave word about how they can be reached in a pinch.
“It’s like when you went to college and you didn’t have high school teachers nagging you anymore,” said Mark L. Hanny, I.B.M.’s vice president of independent software vendor alliances. “Employees like that we put more accountability on them.”
But the flip side of flexibility, at least at I.B.M., is peer pressure. Mr. Hanny and other I.B.M. employees, including his assistant, Shari Chiara, say that they frequently check their e-mail and voice mail messages while on vacation. Bosses sometimes ask subordinates to cancel days off to meet deadlines.
I think that last paragraph is important -- not tracking days probably doesn't mean people are taking more days; it probably means they take fewer. Because, you know. I don't track my vacation days, either, and I know I take fewer vacation days than when I was working in an office and had to use them or lose them.
Would you want to work in a place that didn't track your vacation days?
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8:18:00 PM EDT
Hearing Nothing at the moment
Vacation, All I Ever Wanted
Here's a really interesting story from the New York Times on how IBM has stopped keeping track of vacation days -- everyone technically has a set amount, but the company doesn't actually track them. You take them when you want them, or don't:
employees at all levels have made informal arrangements with their direct supervisors, guided mainly by their ability to get their work done on time. Many people post their vacation plans on electronic calendars that colleagues can view online, and they leave word about how they can be reached in a pinch.
“It’s like when you went to college and you didn’t have high school teachers nagging you anymore,” said Mark L. Hanny, I.B.M.’s vice president of independent software vendor alliances. “Employees like that we put more accountability on them.”
But the flip side of flexibility, at least at I.B.M., is peer pressure. Mr. Hanny and other I.B.M. employees, including his assistant, Shari Chiara, say that they frequently check their e-mail and voice mail messages while on vacation. Bosses sometimes ask subordinates to cancel days off to meet deadlines.
I think that last paragraph is important -- not tracking days probably doesn't mean people are taking more days; it probably means they take fewer. Because, you know. I don't track my vacation days, either, and I know I take fewer vacation days than when I was working in an office and had to use them or lose them.
Would you want to work in a place that didn't track your vacation days?
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
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9/1/07 3:18 PM
No, no, no. I have worked for 22 years at my company and am at the point where I get 4 weeks of vacation/year. However, there was a year when I lost vacation time because I was just too busy to take it. I want the "points" with my boss for giving up some vacation days.
Also, there are people in my group who would take advantage of that. Shoot, they already take advantage of the flex time we have and I just can imagine what would happen if they we didn't track vac. days.