Back in the 90s, Trilogy had an open vacation policy. Sometimes, people joked that the "no vacation policy" was really the "no vacation" policy.

Having an open vacation policy saves HR overhead and counting days doesn't make sense when people are putting in more hours than they care to count.

But I believe this type of policy also requires a high level of maturity in the organization to avoid a feeling of guilt when taking time off.

Do you see this as a trend or a fad? Does it scale?

Well, since I believe more and more individuals are going to be working for themselves in project-based manner or for small companies, then yes, they will be master of their own vacation schedule.

Any public sector or unionized company obv can't do this under current labor agreements. So by that definition it can't scale.

Personally I value trust & flexibility, more so in how I spend my time w/in a day and over the course of my career. No vacation policies have never appealed to me.

"No vacation policies have never appealed to me."

In that you prefer that there is a vacation policy wit ha set number of days in place?

And yes, let's constrain this to technology companies. Netflix is probably the largest organization I know of that has an open vacation policy. Would it work at Google scale?

I suspect (and anecdotally notice) that the no-policy vacation policy is getting more popular. It's an easy thing to give, because it sounds very appealing to employees and probably doesn't cost anything. (If you count employees taking vacations as cost.) In fact, as Kevin points out, in some cultures, it may result in people taking less vacation days.

I'm of the opinion that the company (and employees) are better off if people actually do take vacations, though. R&R is key to optimal performance.

And it's probably best if people take approximately the same amount of time off—to reduce resentment or perceived inequality.

We do have a no-policy policy at Obvious. But I've been wondering lately if instead we should have a *mandatory* vacation policy.

It's interesting that you say it doesn't cost anything. I think the cost is hidden. No-policy requires every employee to create a feeling that it's ok (or encouraged) to take vacation. The moment someone makes a joke about another being away during "an important period" or asks if someone can "come back sooner", you introduce guilt and the policy becomes strained.

I think it's surprisingly difficult to create a vacation-encouraging environment—so much so that I'm considering writing guidelines.

Agreed. I was purposely using a simplistic definition of "cost" there. I should have said, "it doesn't seem to cost anything."

As you indicate, it's more about the environment/culture than policy though. How does one encourage sufficient rest/recuperation/personal balance *and* hard work and dedication? In sports and other worlds that require top performance, these aren't contradictory notions, which evidence supports.

This applies to much more than vacations, of course. Sleep, for instance.

Actually, no policy saves up to 4% in labor costs. It is very likely a net savings. I eliminated vacation policy for half of Xobni as a test and will do it for the rest of the company. Here's why:
- the paperwork for vacations suck;
- much if not most of people's vacation time was incorrectly recorded (ie, not recorded), so when they left we paid them for weeks of vacation time they had wrongly accrued
- a no policy means no accrual, saving you 2-3 weeks of labor costs per employee per year

Also, I encourage executives and managers to set a good example by vacationing. No guilt or pressure. Vacations have a purpose, as Ev points out. We even push employees to vacation a minimum of a week at a time (1-2 week vacations are better for rest that five 1-2 days off). And we use mini-bonuses of airfare and hotels to encourage quality vacationing.

Agree w sentiment that culture needs to head towards getting people to sustainable lives (taking vacation) rather than just offering the perk.

Not to be a stickler on the specific question of whether we see more of this in large companies, but this no policy policy on vacation also won't work internationally as I believe countries like Germany have work councils where things like vacation are mandated.

Thanks everyone for your input. It seems that open vacation policies do save on costs both implicit and explicit, though they may not be possible in some industries/countries. But the policy should be the outcome of a healthy, balanced culture from the top-down, not a solution on its own.

And one more article from Fast Company last month on this topic: fastcompany.com

I think a good compromise is to have a "n vacation day" policy, but leave it untracked.

1) It sets expectations with employees about how many days they should be taking, so they're not going to feel guilty about using it (leading to "no-vacation" style situations)
2) Employees can take an extra day here or there as needed
3) Less bookkeeping

My first job (Sapient) ran that way for a while, and I think it worked well for everyone.

(Then they got a new CFO, implemented Oracle financials, started doing time-tracking for everyone's hours, and it all went a bit to shit. But for a while it was glorious!)

Rod: As the founder of a new company, a former startup guy (Slide) who was then acquired by Google, and a former Sapient, I'd be curious to hear the differences in these and whether you feel policies need to change with scale.

I think, more than size, the question that forces policy changes of this sort are senior management saying to themselves "Am I comfortable that every employee in the company is doing what's best for the company." (Where "what's best" is one of those personal viewpoints that vary from person to person)

SAPE was a 3,000+ person publicly-traded company and still had untracked vacation time, because there was trust that everyone was smart, passionate, and pulling in the same direction.

Rod, there's a big issue with having a policy, accruing hours, but then not tracking it. Basically it leads to a massive liability on the books that needs to be paid out if an employee leaves.

At SimpleGeo we ended up implementing a standard X days per year policy after having an "open" policy because there was some question as to the legality. Now after consulting with some HR folks, at Circa (my newest company) we've got an open policy and it's already so much less of a headache.