Want to Trust Your Employees? Give Them All Unlimited Vacation Days

8 thoughts on “Want to Trust Your Employees? Give Them All Unlimited Vacation Days”

  1. I agree. I worked for a company in the early 90s and we had unlimited vacation. Mentally it was great knowing that you could take time if you needed it. No one abused it as everyone wanted to work there forever.

  2. Hey Luis, thank you for your warm words – and we have found exactly as Joe has, that there has been zero abuse of our program. Frankly, it’s a no-brainer, I’d never go back.

    I also had the good fortune to have a conversation just yesterday with a friend who is an experienced CEO. She’s planning to implement this plan at her new startup, so the idea is taking root!

  3. Luis –

    What an exciting concept! After working several years in large organizations, having no limit on vacation seems foreign to me but I like it.

    Another possible benefit of offering unlimited vacation time is building a fire under the organization to keep cultivating a healthy culture. If I was a boss in this environment, I would think more carefully about implementing new, clunky policy and be all ears on other decisions/systems needing repair.

    Best regards,
    Mike

  4. Totally agree. I’ve always been of the mindset; put the tools in the toolbox, let me know why we’re doing this, how we need to do it, and what constraints/deadlines to bear in mind, and then get out of my way.

    Why “attract and retain top talent,” only to not trust/empower them to perform at their best? We are here to do something, reward those who accomplish more with more freedom.

    Preach it, Luis.

  5. So what stops this in organizations? Are they not obsessed with control and process?

    So they end up being childish – no wonder everyone is so busy going nowhere – for they almost never work out what is really going on and then what should we do.

    People then game the system. But freelancers don’t live this this.

    As a self employed person, my clients and I contract to do something. The WHY and the WHAT have to be spelled out.

    There is often a deadline but never a schedule of how or when within that timeline I work. I am hired because I also know how to do the work. No one is going to tell me how.

    So inside this container – I am free to work or not when I want to. The reality today even in organizations is that most real work has to take place after office hours.

    So like all of us – I work when it suits me – it only matters that I do a good job in the time that I have agreed with the person who pays.

    Simple? but not for organizations because they are designed to be infantile – why more and more people with real talent cannot work in them.

    Why organizations that want real talent will have to learn how to operate a network

    1. Absolutely, Rob! Vision has been reduced to little more than financial planning and meaningless, buzzword-addled mission statements.

      Infantile is the best word choice I’ve seen in some time. The future of work is looking increasingly consultive and piecemeal. The industrial revolution has become the oppressor. Intrinsically motivated talent is waking up to how much power they truly possess.

      Queue “Freebird.”

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