[astolarz]

To be fair, that's sorta wrong. Only >4 consecutive weeks of vacation need manager and GM approval. Less than that consecutively is still technically at the manager's discretion, but at least on my team the culture has been "you've earned it, and there's never a good time from the business standpoint to take it so you might as well take it when you feel like". Granted I get the feeling that my team/org is much better culturally than most of the rest of the company.

[itronitron]

I can't think of a worse approach for dealing with paid time off than 'not keeping track of it.' Companies that take this approach are enabling the amplification of coercion and personal bias into people's work lives, and the worst part is that it impacts the time when employees can take a break from their work. Waste, fraud, and abuse, plain and simple.