I thought that when it came to vacations I knew about all the trends. Giving flights away for free to test your Klout, sending someone to look after an Australian island and calling it \u201cwork,\u201d and even the dreaded buzz word \u201cstaycation\u201d that was born out of the recession. But yesterday local entrepreneur Maggie Fox opened my eyes to something new: the concept of unlimited vacation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, you read that right. Some companies are doing away with set amounts of vacation time – usually a paltry two weeks annually for new hires in North America – and instead letting employees dictate when they should take off for some R&R. Maggie\u2019s company, online marketing agency Social Media Group, announced yesterday that they\u2019re following in the footsteps of companies like Netflix and offering unlimited paid time off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It sounds exciting, right? Taking off whenever you want, not having to plan your trips around how many vacation days you have left – pretty ideal for an employee, especially one who likes to set their out-of-office and forget it. And in the age of social media the 9-5 workday has evolved into 24\/7 availability – it makes sense that vacation policies should change along with workload expectations. I think it\u2019s a smart idea on the part of the employer, trusting employees to take vacation when they need it so they\u2019re rested and always working at their optimum levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, not so fast, eager travelers. Netflix offered the following reasoning for offering unlimited vacation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe 400 salaried employees are evaluated on their individual performances, not face time. Still, they must be able to balance work and vacation responsibly to get their work done. And they must be able to work without constant supervision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Maggie says that there are guidelines in place for the program, and that each employee is \u201cresponsible for your own mental health, your clients and your colleagues.\u201d If you\u2019ve ever worked at an agency, and if you can read between the lines, then you know what Netflix and Maggie are saying is \u201csure, you can have unlimited vacation. As long as all your work is done and you\u2019re not imposing on other employees to pick up your slack while you\u2019re away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously that\u2019s fair to a point – employees can\u2019t expect to just pick up and leave in the middle of a big project, or to leave their colleagues with a pile of their work. But at the same time, is it really ever a good time to take a vacation? In my year at a PR agency I took two trips, both over long weekends. Before each trip I felt guilty for asking my colleagues to cover my daily work, and I felt inundated by e-mail and requests when I returned. And now at Sprouter I\u2019m 25% of the company and the entire communications team – it seems impossible that there will ever be a time when my work subsides long enough to get away without worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We kind of work with an unofficial \u2018unlimited vacation\u2019 policy at Sprouter. I\u2019ve never entered my days off into a book, or submitted a proposal. In fact I honestly couldn\u2019t tell you how many days I\u2019ve taken in the past two years – but I would guess it\u2019s under the two weeks per year I was promised. But Sarah is awesome about giving us days when we need them\/ask for them, as long as I make sure work is covered off – she doesn\u2019t care about the number of days we\u2019re away, just that we\u2019re taking time to relax occasionally and still getting our work done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since Social Media Group just implemented the policy last month it\u2019s yet to be seen if it\u2019s going to revolutionize the way they do business. Maggie says she\u2019s already seen a difference: \u201cI feel like it\u2019s really lightened the load in our high-pressure, high-quality, top-notch delivery environment: no more worrying if you have enough vacation time saved to keep yourself healthy. Take time when you and your family need it; you have earned it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether employees take advantage of this program or not, I think it\u2019s a positive step towards empowering employees to balance their work with their personal time. As anyone who works at an agency or at a startup knows, there\u2019s not much downtime – you have to take advantage of it when you can. I\u2019m sure there will be the occasional bad apple who takes advantage of the program, but they weren\u2019t meant for agency life anyway. But my real question is with no maximum in place, will there be a minimum number of days you\u2019re required to take? Because that\u2019s a policy I\u2019d be interested in hearing about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more about the trend in this article from Boston.com (photo credit Boston.com).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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