I think this is a good thing provided it doesn’t take from people’s annual leave allowance.
Many people feel pressure to always be “on” and are tied endlessly to programs like Slack. Many people also aren’t good at managing their own time in a remote setting or properly stepping away from work when it ends. This will likely be a welcome break for those people.
> I think this is a good thing provided it doesn’t take from people’s annual leave allowance.
They switched to discretionary time off (no formal accounting of paid time off) a few years ago. They also have a one week company shutdown in July and another one week shutdown in December.
> I think this is a good thing provided it doesn’t take from people’s annual leave allowance.
I work at a place that, while not academia, is heavily linked to it via research, and so given that many of our external collaborators at educational institutions have a 'winter break', the company has been giving us between Christmas and New Year's off—in addition to our vacation time.
It's "ad hoc" in that the time off is not officially in any one's contracts, and is announced in Q4 sometime, but I've been here several years and everyone just expects it. Us IT folks do still need to be vigilant of alarms and such.
Vacation is nice, but if you do truly go offline, one tends to have to dig out of one's INBOX when getting back. If everyone is off at once, that's less of an ordeal.
I’m not sure, but I’d love to share an important story with you. Yesterday I was walking to an interview. There was a starving dog on the road. I stopped to feed him & missed the interview. The next day I got a call asking to come in to do the interview. I was surprised, but I went. Then the interviewer came in. He was the dog.
(Kidding aside, I’d love some way to filter out low effort connection requests.)
I'd be curious to know how much time off they give their staff normally? I hear that 2 weeks is standard in the US and if so no wonder everyone's burned out. In the UK we get 6 weeks minimum and I honestly can't imagine going without that, particularly during covid.
Tech tends to be more friendly with vacation time in the US than most other industries. It still varies a lot, but it’s not uncommon for a tech company to start you with 3-5 weeks of vacation time plus 8-12 paid holidays throughout the year. It still could be a lot better though, and I agree that it contributes greatly to burn out.
Iit is more and more common for tech companies in Bay Area to have "unlimited" PTO. For me, this translated to 5-6 weeks vacation a year at my last 3 companies.
I very rarely go on linkedin now as it's just a shell of its former self with very little value compared to when I first joined up. In past years I got headhunted twice through linkedin and landed some good roles and built up a really good network of other engineers, but now its just like a quasi mix of instagram and facebook. It's full of these annoying fuckers who call themselves 'influencers' and post cheesy inspiration / motivation crap all day like a video of some Indian construction worker who found a way to optimise how they pick up bricks or someone rescuing a puppy from the side of river.
The only contact I get now, is not around job opportunities, but people wanting to sell me some product or service 'hey, let's have a 5 minute call to talk about how our companies can help accelerate growth in exciting new ways, let me know when you're available. Let's talk!'.
I live in the UK - London too, in a flat in a nice part but no garden. We’ve been in lockdown since forever (feels like it at least...) and this particular one since December. I’ve been avoiding taking leave until after now as was waiting for things to open up. It was my birthday yesterday, as well as Good Friday bank holiday thus a long weekend. When I woke up I was so crushingly exhausted I could barely move. I haven’t stopped since mid December, and also had covid over NY.
I think this is a good thing because it forces people to stop. People need breaks and if pushed too hard something will give eventually. I’m ok now, got through yesterday. But it was a wake-up call.
I'm in a very similar situation - I basically just slept through almost all of Good Friday. I really regret not spending a bit more for a flat with a garden or terrace - I used to mock my friends in London for being so proud of their pathetic little gardens, but since the lockdowns it doesn't seem so silly at all.
Plus ça change... in some European countries, back in the mid-1900s, most factories would just shut down for a month in Summer (in Italy it was August). This was loosely coordinated, but it worked - everyone, up and down the chain, knew that in August nothing would get done, and in turn they would take the month off.
Then the 80s happened - with the rise of toyotism and "greed is good". Now they'll barely shut a week around mid-August, if they do at all.
Why do these website keep forcing autoplay vids on you ffs.
Who decided that was a good idea, whose brainwave was that. That;s exactly what I want is to be greeted by a loud, unexpected screeching voice when i visit your shitty website.
The novelty here is that (almost) the entire company is getting time off, but it doesn't justify why. The closest thing to a reason is
> Since everyone is off at the same time, that means workers aren't inundated by emails, meeting notes and project requests piling up in their absence.
Which seems weak, at best.
Also, it's not clear if this week consumes days out of the PTO allowance. If it does, then it's basically the company telling you when to take your time off, which is a worse deal than having the flexibility of taking PTO whenever.
They aren't the first to be doing this, just the largest so far. I'm aware of a few companies that have done this multiple times over the past year, with similar lines of thought.
I'm not sure why you think justification is required or why it needs to be strong. They are humans, getting some time off, it's as simple as that.
Seems like they have no discipline. In the org I worked mailing or otherwise contacting someone while on holiday was one of the biggest sins. Both ways contact was forbidden. That was really good for recharging as you could switch your mind completely.
Why does that seem weak? One of the annoying things about taking time off is coming back and having to catch up on what you missed. Without that issue, your time off will be less stressful, and you will be less likely to try and check in on what's going on at work.
Everyone? Hmm... that‘s going to be a fascinating week if a bug appears on Monday morning and nobody is in the office to first detect it and second fix it.
So, no, many people will still be at work just because a plattform requires work to stay online.
Because it’s easier than telling people individually to take time off if they need it, because doing so often results in being more stressed because the work piled up and you missed important things when you were away.
[+] [-] supert56|5 years ago|reply
Many people feel pressure to always be “on” and are tied endlessly to programs like Slack. Many people also aren’t good at managing their own time in a remote setting or properly stepping away from work when it ends. This will likely be a welcome break for those people.
[+] [-] jfim|5 years ago|reply
They switched to discretionary time off (no formal accounting of paid time off) a few years ago. They also have a one week company shutdown in July and another one week shutdown in December.
[+] [-] throw0101a|5 years ago|reply
I work at a place that, while not academia, is heavily linked to it via research, and so given that many of our external collaborators at educational institutions have a 'winter break', the company has been giving us between Christmas and New Year's off—in addition to our vacation time.
It's "ad hoc" in that the time off is not officially in any one's contracts, and is announced in Q4 sometime, but I've been here several years and everyone just expects it. Us IT folks do still need to be vigilant of alarms and such.
Vacation is nice, but if you do truly go offline, one tends to have to dig out of one's INBOX when getting back. If everyone is off at once, that's less of an ordeal.
[+] [-] stevesimmons|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] j4yav|5 years ago|reply
(Kidding aside, I’d love some way to filter out low effort connection requests.)
[+] [-] ck425|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] courtewing|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jusob|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hyperpower|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsiepkes|5 years ago|reply
Don't use social media (like LinkedIn) for a week.
[+] [-] giantandroids|5 years ago|reply
The only contact I get now, is not around job opportunities, but people wanting to sell me some product or service 'hey, let's have a 5 minute call to talk about how our companies can help accelerate growth in exciting new ways, let me know when you're available. Let's talk!'.
[+] [-] te_chris|5 years ago|reply
I think this is a good thing because it forces people to stop. People need breaks and if pushed too hard something will give eventually. I’m ok now, got through yesterday. But it was a wake-up call.
[+] [-] ali_m|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] giantandroids|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toyg|5 years ago|reply
Then the 80s happened - with the rise of toyotism and "greed is good". Now they'll barely shut a week around mid-August, if they do at all.
[+] [-] wideareanetwork|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] azeirah|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michaelcampbell|5 years ago|reply
Where are you getting that from?
[+] [-] jeffrallen|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Proven|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mouzogu|5 years ago|reply
Who decided that was a good idea, whose brainwave was that. That;s exactly what I want is to be greeted by a loud, unexpected screeching voice when i visit your shitty website.
[+] [-] ancarda|5 years ago|reply
Not sure about Chrome, but it may have a similar option.
[+] [-] michaelcampbell|5 years ago|reply
Money. It's always money.
[+] [-] tjpnz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maest|5 years ago|reply
> Since everyone is off at the same time, that means workers aren't inundated by emails, meeting notes and project requests piling up in their absence.
Which seems weak, at best.
Also, it's not clear if this week consumes days out of the PTO allowance. If it does, then it's basically the company telling you when to take your time off, which is a worse deal than having the flexibility of taking PTO whenever.
[+] [-] politelemon|5 years ago|reply
I'm not sure why you think justification is required or why it needs to be strong. They are humans, getting some time off, it's as simple as that.
[+] [-] intricatedetail|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GhostVII|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chrisandchris|5 years ago|reply
So, no, many people will still be at work just because a plattform requires work to stay online.
[+] [-] j4yav|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kgwgk|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] redis_mlc|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]