5 ms·
Adobe does two of these every year, one in winter around the holidays and one in July. From my perspective as an individual contributor, there are a few advanta
by dharmab 5y ago
Adobe does two of these every year, one in winter around the holidays and one in July. From my perspective as an individual contributor, there are a few advantages:
- With no feature/project work that week, there is zero pressure to check email or slack.
- Teams are forced to build systems that are automated, resilient and documented enough that most of the staff won't need to be contacted during the shutdown week.
- The business has to prove it can run with just the necessary amount of staff for operations and customer support. (These staff generally work with their managers to take an equal amount of time off.)
Personally I use that week in summer to disconnect from work and do something theraputic for myself- go for a 7+ day motorcycle ride, preferably through places where internet connections are poor.
- tolbish 5y agoI wonder if it would be substantially more effective to prevent burnout by having shorter work days or work weeks.
- dec0dedab0de 5y agoI think it would be but I also would like forced time off as well. As well as forced socializing with team mates. And a sabbatical every 5 years or so. But if I can find a job with full health benefits that lets me work three days a week, I'm going for it. Heck, that is the best argument in favor of universal healthcare. It would help unemployment, because way more people would be working part time.
- dharmab 5y agoAdobe also does a sabbatical every 5 years!
- StevePerkins 5y ago> As well as forced socializing with team mates. One of these things is not like the other... I can tolerate the occasional "mandatory fun" corporate event, but only within reason (e.g. I have kids, so don't give me grief for leaving early). And I think the entire "work hard play hard" office culture, where you're expected to do happy hour everyday and build your social life around co-workers in order to prove you're a teammate, is ageist and absolutely toxic. To be blunt, if you have to FORCE people to socialize with you, then maybe you need some self-reflection on why that's necessary.
- dec0dedab0de 5y agoI was thinking along the lines of a fun day during working hours, where everyone who lives near by should come in. Holiday party, Icecream Social, Even just a day of meetings with breakfast and lunch included. Basically give people a few work days a year where they are expected to be there, but not really get anything done.
- MakersF 5y agoBloomberg let you do philanthropy work during working hours, and they assign you some amount of money depending on the hours you do that you can donate to charity. I met a few people during such events, which is more or less what you say: you are with people from the company (not necessarily teammates, we did it as a team only once) and you might be helping public parks clean, or take trash from canal on a canoe, or sort food in a food shelter. It's a nice way to take a break, meet people from other areas, feel good about something you do, and managers have been very supportive of that, and they do it too. I think that is a good balance of what you are talking about
- ducharmdev 5y agoJust the mention of "mandatory fun" sends shivers through my socially anxious spine
- skeeter2020 5y agoYou are part of a very small, very skilled minority that voluntariliy wants to work part time and lack of health care is all that's stopping you. In Canada where we have universal health care, the vast majority of people working part time are in low skill jobs because that's all they can schedule with another primary focus, or that's all they can get but really want FT.
- ericbarrett 5y agoDoes it draw your vacation time? Mandatory vacations (especially around Christmas) were started in the early 2000s among Bay Area tech companies in order to reduce collective accrued PTO, reducing liability on the balance sheet—had nothing to do with worker health. Although that regime is certainly preferable to so-called "unlimited" PTO.
- dharmab 5y agoAt Adobe, we have unlimited flexible PTO. In my personal experience I have never heard of PTO being turned down by a manager.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- taurath 5y agoUnlimited PTO means they don’t have to pay out anything. It’s effectively 0 on the balance sheet.
- Scoundreller 5y agoDoesn’t the “P” mean paid?
- dharmab 5y agoPTO can also mean Personal Time Off. e.g. contractors usually aren't paid during their time off. I've also worked at places that didn't pay out accrued time when you left.
- kritiko 5y agoif you leave your job, the company has to pay for your unused vacation days as part of your severance if you have a set number of vacation days.
- 5y ago
- nickjj 5y agoI'd be curious how much different it would be if you got the same 1 week off twice a year but it was for a company trip, as in the company would pay for everything to take all employees (and a +1) skiing or some other activity. This would be independent of personal time off and these 2 weeks off would still be paid. I've never been on such a thing but I wonder if it ends up being a real vacation or if everyone is still mainly talking about work except not in front of a computer. Does anyone want to share a few stories on how their company trips went?
- akiselev 5y agoThat wouldn't be a real vacation, full stop.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mfkdksksi 5y agoBy definition I go on vacation to get a break from my coworkers and spend time with friends and family. I also generally get to decide the activities on vacation. Many things the company might fund that are fun for some people, like skiing, aren't activities that I'm interested in but would be obligated to participate in. What you described is a work retreat, not a vacation. I have been on such a trip. It was good for work relationships. It definitely wasn't a vacation.
- nickjj 5y ago> What you described is a work retreat, not a vacation. I have been on such a trip. It was good for work relationships. It definitely wasn't a vacation. Would you mind sharing the details of what you did during the trip?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 6t6t6t6 5y agoYou guys check work email and work Slack when on holidays?
- dharmab 5y agoSome people do. My team within Adobe discourages it. There are some really great hobby slack channels that I personally check on vacation. Can be hard to ignore the random work questions while doing that. Once another team investigating an outage tried to contact me on vacation... I sent them a photo of my bike in an empty field in the mountains of Oregon and said "Sorry, bad internet out here!"
- nicbou 5y agoIn Germany it's expected that vacationing workers are as good as dead until they return.