People are strange animals. I read an interesting article about “vacations.” A new start-up company decided that their vacation policy would be no vacation policy. It meant that anyone could take a vacation any time they wished. And they were not restricted to time. If they wanted two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, the company didn’t care. Their thought was that a “refreshed” group of employees would be worth the money they paid them to take time off.
Well, guess what? It didn’t work. I think it is somehow related to the “Doctor Spock” syndrome of some years ago. Spock urged parents not to use discipline, and certainly not to physically discipline, their children and therefore their kids would grow up well adjusted and terrific. We know how well that worked don’t we? The kids of the sixties rioting in the streets, smoking pot, overdosing on heroin, shooting up meth, getting into law-breaking trouble. It is still going on. Thanks a lot, Spock. As it turned out, children really need discipline. Oh, sure, they complain about it, but it gives them guide lines, some kind of structure they can depend on. Something similar happened in the company I referred to. Here is a quote from one of the owners.
“When people are uncertain about how many days it’s okay to take off, you’ll see curious things happen. People will hesitate to take a vacation as they don’t want to seem like that person who’s taking the most vacation days. It’s a race to the bottom instead of a race towards a well rested and happy team.” (Italics mine.)
They also found that with no policy in place some people would not take ANY time off. And the result was that they lost some valuable employees due to “burn out.” Also, those who did take time off would make sure they took their computers and phones with them and reassured everyone that they could be reached at any time, therefore negating any real “rest and relaxation” from work.
They learned their lesson from that. They still give their employees four weeks off each year, but they are required to post their time off. Any they are not allowed to “stay in touch.” You can read the whole article at the link listed below. It was a case of a company being “too kind” to their employees, and it back fired.
http://www.paperplanes.de/2014/12/10/from-open-to-minimum-vacation-policy.html
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