General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRichard Branson: Why we’re letting Virgin staff take as much holiday (vacation) as they want
Hopefully the beginning of a new paradigm shift in the workplace...
I first learned of what Netflix was up to when my daughter Holly read a Daily Telegraph article and immediately forwarded the piece to me with a clearly excited email saying, Dad, check this out. Its something I have been talking about for a while and I believe it would be a very Virgin thing to do to not track peoples holidays. She then went on to say, I have a friend whose company has done the same thing and theyve apparently experienced a marked upward spike in everything morale, creativity and productivity have all gone through the roof. Needless to say I was instantly intrigued and wanted to learn more.
The Telegraph article talked about the new vacation policy that has been adopted by Netflix, which might actually be more accurately described as being, well, no policy! Its a little bit like when you read that someone is offering a zero per cent interest rate. If theres no interest can it really be called an interest rate?
Anyway, simply stated, the policy-that-isnt permits all salaried staff to take off whenever they want for as long as they want. There is no need to ask for prior approval and neither the employees themselves nor their managers are asked or expected to keep track of their days away from the office. It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off, the assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel a hundred per cent comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business or, for that matter, their careers!
The Netflix initiative had been driven by a growing groundswell of employees asking about how their new technology-controlled time on the job (working at all kinds of hours at home and/or everywhere they receive a business text or email) could be reconciled with the companys old-fashioned time-off policy. That is to say, if Netflix was no longer able to accurately track employees total time on the job, why should it apply a different and outmoded standard to their time away from it? The company agreed, and as its Reference Guide on our Freedom and Responsibility Culture explains, We should focus on what people get done, not on how many hours or days worked. Just as we dont have a nine-to-five policy, we dont need a vacation policy.
http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/why-were-letting-virgin-staff-take-as-much-holiday-as-they-want
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)That's important. That threat has to stay so a worker doesn't skip town indefinitely in the midst of an important project. The company has to keep running, even when parts of it aren't there.
On the other hand, if a worker is replacable for a certain amount of time, why shouldn't he take some time off?
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)But seriously, this is wonderful.
Workers in corporate workplaces are so often treated like cogs or children and micromanaged from offices way above that have no concept of what they are dealing with.
It's way past time for corporations to respect and recognize employees as adults who know their own jobs best and are capable of making good decisions about when they can best take a leave. Not to mention that employees who are respected to make good decisions in the company have more reason to make those decisions with company interests in mind.
Corporate American seriously needs to rethink its treatment of employees, the whole concept. At some point they decided that they would rather screw people over for the last possible penny than build a loyal and mutually respected workforce with incentives to do their best for the company.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)not just salary staff.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)I missed that. Damn.
CaptainTruth
(6,588 posts)I understand & support the concept, but when it's only applied to salaried staff (ie management) & not ALL workers, including those making minimum wage, it looks like just another perk for the highly paid upper class.
mountain grammy
(26,619 posts)but it's a start. Meantime, in the trenches:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-13/virgin-america-is-no-longer-a-union-virgin
daleanime
(17,796 posts)Turborama
(22,109 posts)TBF
(32,047 posts)CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)so far, not the whole company.
Turborama
(22,109 posts)catbyte
(34,373 posts)break. They're usually the ones doing all the really awful work. Salaried employees come & go as they please anyway. Meh.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)who can't afford to take time off.
RedCappedBandit
(5,514 posts)but it is pretty misleading.
It's nice to be able to take time off when needed. But it isn't "vacation" time. You're just not working. And getting paid (or not) accordingly. Which is fair of course, I just think the title they give the policy is somewhat off.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)If it's important to them, they can bargain for it.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Engineering, Tier2 Tier3 support, development/developers, are all going to be salary
The aren't making Big Mac's there LOL, it's technology company
vanlassie
(5,670 posts)Brickbat
(19,339 posts)It's awesome. ETA: It's awesome in that it works. We're focused on results -- projects finished on time and under budget -- instead of how many hours a butt is in a chair throughout the day. If you get your work done early in a day, you can either work ahead or be done. If you want time off, you put it on the calendar and it's approved. We're small enough that we manage ourselves so as not to all go on vacation at once.
Diremoon
(86 posts)As long as their work is done. I worked for an engineering manager who had this policy. It really didn't make any difference. You usually had 80 or 90 hours of work to do every week. You really didn't even have time to take weekends off.
Dreamer Tatum
(10,926 posts)...that this is just part of the payoff package for their silence.