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Unlimited Vacation Time Is No Prize - Here's Why

This article is more than 8 years old.

It's become a trend to offer employees 'unlimited vacation time' with the understanding that unlike traditional vacation time that is allocated to employees, 'unlimited' vacation time isn't tracked as a liability for the company.

If you store up some of your 'unlimited' vacation time to use next year and then you leave your job,  you're not getting paid for that vacation time.

Traditional vacation time is tracked. You have to get paid for your unused vacation time when you leave the company, whether you quit or get fired.

As a long-time HR leader I'm not a fan of 'unlimited' vacation time.

Traditional vacation time is set by policy and by law, you're entitled to it. 'Unlimited' vacation time is a cultural thing rather than a real benefit. You can take some of your 'unlimited' vacation time when your boss finds it convenient.

Maybe that day comes, and maybe it doesn't. Working people shouldn't be in the position of having to wheedle and beg for vacation time.

People need time off work for the health of their brain and body. Yet many company cultures look down on time off. I've seen it in large and small organizations, where taking time off is a sign of weakness.

People roll their eyes when you say "I'm going to be out next week."

People get irritated with you -- "What, you're going to be gone three weeks before our launch?" Your absence is an inconvenience for them.

Nearly every working person has run into the situation where their planned vacation had to be rescheduled or they got interrupted on vacation because of a workplace emergency.

When your vacation time is tracked, you know you've got x  number of weeks coming to you. When it's 'unlimited' and fake, you don't. Most Americans don't use their allocated vacation time as it is -- the culture of fear and constant anxiety makes it too hard.

How does it get easier to use your vacation time when it isn't even on the books?

I got pulled out of the shower when I was on my honeymoon because a co-worker of mine didn't feel he could answer a certain question without me. We are drugged in the working world, and the drug is 'urgency.'

We convince ourselves that everything is urgent, and that makes a relaxing vacation very tough.

It's tough to schedule your vacation, tough to prepare for it and tough to actually relax once you get there. Coming back from vacation is no picnic, either!

I like the vacation arrangement they use at the grocery store where my teenaged son works. At the start of every year, they get out a big calendar and let the employees choose their vacation weeks during the year, based on seniority.

Once each employee's vacation schedule is set, it's set in stone. No one is going to say "Move your vacation time."

At the grocery store and at other organizations with the same mindset, people earn their vacation time and it's their right to use it.

They don't talk about 'unlimited vacation time' that no one really takes because the culture and the cult of urgency don't allow it. Vacation time is as real as a can of peas on the shelf in the grocery store. People need it as badly as they need protein and other nutrients.

We don't help working people by making lofty pronouncements about 'unlimited vacation time' that exists on paper in a slick recruiting brochure but not in real life, where real people operate.

If you care about your culture, give your employees their solid, accounted-for, scheduled and committed-to three or four weeks of vacation time every year and then tell them "Take the extra days you need for personal stuff that crop up during the year."

If you can't commit, on the books, to real vacation time that people can use without fear and get paid for if they don't use it, don't call yourself a forward-looking employer. You haven't earned that right.