Do you ever feel like you need a vacation? Probably—but you can’t, because your boss wont let you. Unless you work at Virgin or Netflix, that is. Yeah, I’m about to say it. Netflix and Virgin offer great vacation flexibility. But it’s not just great, it’s as good as it gets. Netflix and Virgin offer employees unlimited vacation days. Meaning (in theory) you could take off as many days as you want, whenever you want.
At Virgin, Richard Branson proposed this new vacation policy which gives their employees the flexibility to create their own vacation schedule, and have the vacation they really want. Branson got the idea from Netflix, who previously created a similar program. It gets better, too. Employee vacation days are not tracked by the company, so you won’t be discriminated against if you take a week here and there. You don’t even have to ask your boss.
Despite what you might think, Branson is hopeful that employees will exercise good judgement before they take time off. Netflix and Virgin are highly team-oriented employers, and employees know not to take off time at the expense of a project. Think of it as positive peer pressure—it’s enormously effective. The move was made by the companies in an attempt to increase productivity, employee morale, and reduce burn-out.
Think back to the previous point about peer pressure. Believe it or not, many employees are now too afraid to take vacation days, in fear of chastisement from fellow employees. Before, when workers were offered a set number of vacation days, it was commonplace to use them. Why not? Oftentimes they don’t accumulate over time, so it made sense.
To compound doubts, there’s a sizable body of information that suggests that it won’t even matter at all. In the U.S., millions of vacation days go unused as it is. Now, whatever vacation an employee might have taken can be prevented by peer pressure and the desire to look productive to peers. Who knows, maybe this new vacation policy will do more harm than good. It’s new, so its too early to know. Either way, it is an incredible (potential) advancement in the slow-changing landscape of the workforce.
What do you think? Do you want your employer to adapt the limitless vacation days policy? Or do you think it’s better the way it is?
Source: (Yahoo)