4 ms·

I know the tech community likes to hate on company policies and bureaucracy, but this is exactly why you need SOME rules - to protect employees from bad manager

I know the tech community likes to hate on company policies and bureaucracy, but this is exactly why you need SOME rules - to protect employees from bad managers. If you have a process in place that managers must follow in order to terminate an employee, employees don't have to be afraid of tasteless jokes about firing. If there is a process that involves the employee (like a PIP), you also don't have to be afraid that you'll be blindsided with a termination. Same thing applies to "unlimited" vacation. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but when you get rid of your vacation policy, you are transferring all handling of time-off to your front line managers. My experience with unlimited vacation at Netflix was poor because I had a manager that made little comments here and there that made me feel guilty about taking time off. If I had days off that I accrued then I would know exactly what I'm entitled to take. I wrote a blog post about why we got rid of our unlimited vacation policy at our company. https://www.facetdev.com/blog/posts/why-we-ditched-our-unlimited-vacation-plan/ https://www.facetdev.com/blog/posts/why-we-ditched-our-unlim...

MAGZine 6y ago
Pardon me saying so, though the base vacation policy seems middling in generosity. It strikes me that maybe the unlimited policy didn't work for facet because of that. essentially: including company holidays in PTO calculation is lame. It's essentially forced PTO, not vacation. I'd consider your vacation policy to be about three weeks, not five, which is "just ok." It's enough for a two-week vacation and some time off for christmas. If your unlimited vacation policy expectation was actually three weeks of vacation, then I could see why it didn't really work for you. Overall, I think metered is better than unmetered if enough volume is given. I don't know how hard Facet negotiates on extra PTO, but from the baseline offering, I think I could take more in unlimited systems.
- rsweeney21 6y ago
  I agree that 3 weeks of vacation isn't leading the industry by any means. Like I mention in the blog post, we are a small bootstrapped company. It's the best we think we can offer right now because we aren't subsidized by VC money.
amznthrowaway5 6y ago
These policies and processes like PIPs are for protecting the company and managers, not the managed employees. Most of the stuff on these PIP documents are usually just for leaving a paper trail and avoiding lawsuits, anything can be exaggerated to make the employee look bad. Employees should still be very afraid of poor management.
- rsweeney21 6y ago
  You are missing the point. A PIP isn't going to help you keep your job, but it will prevent you from being blindsided as an employee. So when you are put on a performance plan, you can start looking for your next job.

MAGZine 6y ago

Pardon me saying so, though the base vacation policy seems middling in generosity. It strikes me that maybe the unlimited policy didn't work for facet because of that. essentially: including company holidays in PTO calculation is lame. It's essentially forced PTO, not vacation. I'd consider your vacation policy to be about three weeks, not five, which is "just ok." It's enough for a two-week vacation and some time off for christmas. If your unlimited vacation policy expectation was actually three weeks of vacation, then I could see why it didn't really work for you. Overall, I think metered is better than unmetered if enough volume is given. I don't know how hard Facet negotiates on extra PTO, but from the baseline offering, I think I could take more in unlimited systems.

rsweeney21 6y ago
I agree that 3 weeks of vacation isn't leading the industry by any means. Like I mention in the blog post, we are a small bootstrapped company. It's the best we think we can offer right now because we aren't subsidized by VC money.

amznthrowaway5 6y ago

These policies and processes like PIPs are for protecting the company and managers, not the managed employees. Most of the stuff on these PIP documents are usually just for leaving a paper trail and avoiding lawsuits, anything can be exaggerated to make the employee look bad. Employees should still be very afraid of poor management.

rsweeney21 6y ago
You are missing the point. A PIP isn't going to help you keep your job, but it will prevent you from being blindsided as an employee. So when you are put on a performance plan, you can start looking for your next job.