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You'll most likely not get a definite answer because it can range from very bad to very good depending on both company and team. I don't want to mention my cur

You'll most likely not get a definite answer because it can range from very bad to very good depending on both company and team. I don't want to mention my current company to keep my anonymity but we currently have unlimited vacation and at least for my team it's going great but it's mostly because of our direct manager who encourages us to: a) track and document our work so that when someone leaves on vacation the sky doesn't fall b) take as much time as needed to unwind I personally took about 6 weeks of vacation (double the amount of policy based vacation I got at my previous company) in the past year and things at work have been stellar. We delivered, kicked ass, whatever you want to call it and with zero guilt. But my company is well known for great work-life balance. However, I can't say the same about other teams where peer pressure keeps people in their seats. I am personally very cautious about 'unlimited vacation' plans because if you do a game matrix you'll realize that it's skewed against the employee and you'll end up in a better place only if the stars align just right. If they don't you'll end up working way more and either you'll never have 'approved' vacation by your manager or you'll never ask for it because passive-aggressively the culture frowns on 'slackers' who take time off. If vacation time matters to you (and It definitely should) before accepting an offer I would ask the hiring manager for the actual number of business days the team members use for vacation. If he/she brushes it off or is handwavy like 'nobody keeps track' (somebody ALWAYS keeps track) then stay away.

apohn 9y ago
>>You'll most likely not get a definite answer because it can range from very bad to very good depending on both company and team. This matches my experience. I disliked unlimited vacation because my manager at the time was a massive workaholic overachiever and I felt guilty taking any vacation. I usually ended up at ~2.5 weeks a year because I traveled overseas and traveling to the other side of the world for a week was not feasible. I felt like 2 - 3 weeks was typical for most of the people in the company. Some people would do that by just taking multiple very short vacations throughout the year, which seemed like an awful idea to me. Even in the groups with good managers, you were one re-org away from a bad manager and vacation time going away. If you have a good manager and work in a place that has accrued PTO, I seriously doubt the manger is going to care if you take some extra personal days throughout the year and don't record them. So you get something like unlimited vacation with the nice guarantees of accrued vacation.

apohn 9y ago

>>You'll most likely not get a definite answer because it can range from very bad to very good depending on both company and team. This matches my experience. I disliked unlimited vacation because my manager at the time was a massive workaholic overachiever and I felt guilty taking any vacation. I usually ended up at ~2.5 weeks a year because I traveled overseas and traveling to the other side of the world for a week was not feasible. I felt like 2 - 3 weeks was typical for most of the people in the company. Some people would do that by just taking multiple very short vacations throughout the year, which seemed like an awful idea to me. Even in the groups with good managers, you were one re-org away from a bad manager and vacation time going away. If you have a good manager and work in a place that has accrued PTO, I seriously doubt the manger is going to care if you take some extra personal days throughout the year and don't record them. So you get something like unlimited vacation with the nice guarantees of accrued vacation.