My strange aversion to vacations

I have to say this article really annoyed me.<p>Maybe I read too much into it, but he seems to be snubbing people who take vacation. I'm glad not vacationing works for him, and it's his life to live, but that's not for everybody. I wouldn't write an article snubbing people who work all the time, and I don't see why he needs to snub people who take vacation.<p>Second, he seems incredibly proud to be working all the time. A good portion of the article is basically, "Hey, check me out! I'm working all the time! How cool am I?". Get over it.<p>Third, the author has a hugely exaggerated sense of self-importance. Reading the article, you'd think he's curing cancer and AIDs and cleaning up the environment all at once. Take this, for example: "But startups are different. Startups are a mission; a belief that something impossible is actually possible. It’s being part of a team that is working toward some distant horizon. It’s this competing against the impossible that makes it so much fun."<p>And what is the distant horizon he's working toward? From the 42 Floors home page, it's "The best place to find office space." That's the impossible he's making possible? That's why he's working 100% of the time? What a joke.

"Your coworkers are your friends. It’s so much closer to a life style than a job that taking a vacation from your startup doesn’t have the same connotation."<p>This guy does not get what vacations are about. I know what it feels like to work hard with people you like at a job you enjoy, but I also know what it's like to kill two weeks lounging around southern Europe and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea every day. Both things are good but they are not the same thing. If you think satisfying work is a substitute for a good vacation you are doing it wrong.

People mimic their management chain. If the CEO/managers don't take vacations, neither will their directs.<p>One of the most balanced (and productive) teams I've worked on was under a general manager who had 8 kids and made it a point to attend _every_ event they had and go on regular vacations. Since everybody ran into his policy at some point (reviews scheduled at 5pm canceled or him out of town for a week or two), the whole org was pretty good about doing the same. And it was very different from other orgs in the company, many of which had the usual long hours + weekends culture.

I feel like startups that have no vacation policy at all (as in, take as much as you want) run into the problem where employees might feel guilty about taking vacation or forget to take all their days because they're busy. However if the norm is 7 days or 10 days or 14 days per year, it's more concrete and you don't feel guilty for taking them. I think it's psychological.<p>Personally I don't really ever feel the need for a vacation more than one day every few months, but that's just me now in a particular time and place. I think that'll change as the demands on my life change.

As a european it feels equally strange every time I read about "unlimited" vacation. IMHO, it's just as bad as unlimited bandwidth, or whatever. It's just not unlimited.<p>Where I work I have 30 days paid vacation (in adition to big holidays). If I don't use them, I get to push 5-10 of the unused days to the next year (and can save them for up to five years, after which I get their worth in salary; I guess about $150-200 per day).<p>Currently I have ~20 days saved, so theoretically I could take 50 days vacation this year (work permitting).<p>This system sets both a lower and upper limit to how much vacation is expected. Much fairer for the employee - no more guessing when it becomes too much vacation.<p>I'm guessing most employers in USA would consider 30 days to be too many?<p>And yes, even though I don't work for a startup I still consider my team mates my friends.

My wife and I come from two different continents and live in a third. That results in a whole lot of traveling just to visit family, and basically no time left for "vacations". It feels rather unsustainable. Would love an unlimited vacation policy, but in the end probably feel guilty to be taking way more than the average person at the company. In less than a year though, we'll move to my home country which has minimum 5 weeks vacation, with many people having 6-7 weeks. Not only does that mean we can cut our "family visit" traveling in half, but also increase vacation by roughly 70%. It'll mean taking a pay cut, but honestly it's worth it.

Unlimited vacation policies are mainly a way for the employer to avoid the accounting and financial burden that occurs when providing defined vacation benefits. Vacation benefits are not required, but if a company offers them, most states require the employer to track employee absences and leave accrual. Unused vacation must be paid out when the employee leaves the company. Unlimited vacation policies remove the need for tracking and payouts for unused vacation time.

I end up only using about 5 days for a week-long trip each year. Then November rolls around, and I try to schedule all my remaining days before I lose them at the end of the year.<p>I can't get anything done at the office because nobody else is there. Sure I can work on things and enjoy peace but without graphic artists or designers there I can only go so far, I'll end up throwing stuff out because it's not what they wanted.<p>But if I stay home, I'm stuck doing holiday stuff or running around to the homes of friends and family. When I get back to work after New Years I need a vacation.

I've felt the same way for my whole life, and the idea of a pre-cation is how I have to trick myself into taking time off too.<p>My first jobs were "in my spare time", and instead of taking a vacation from school to go party in Cancun for Spring Break (spend time AND money), I'd work. Mostly to pay for more school OR for that sweet computer I wanted.<p>Since having a "real job", my brain still considers vacation as "time I'm not earning money", even though it's Paid Time Off. Even when I do manage to trick myself into vacation, they're usually "active" trips, where I feel like every minute needs to be spent doing something "productive" like snorkeling or feeding sharks. You won't find me laying out on the beach anywhere!<p>The ironic thing is that I work in the travel industry and I know how important this stuff is! I think our problem is that we want to create value with our limited time on this planet, so maybe we need to consider it to be an investment that will pay us back in inspiration later down the road.

I really liked their idea of a "precation", two weeks of paid vacation <i>before</i> you start:<p><i>"At 42floors, we heavily, heavily recommend that all new people take two weeks of vacation starting exactly on their first official day. What this means is that when you get a job offer from us, you’ll pick a start date. And that’s the day we start your payroll. And that’s the day you leave for vacation.<p>And you get to take that time to transition from one chapter of your life to the next. If your startup just failed or you hated your last job, you get a couple weeks of mental and physical recovery. If you have a significant other that’s been dying to get away with you, you can go away someplace nice knowing that your first paycheck will be waiting for you when you return."</i>

As a fellow entrepreneur, your challenges with vacation resonates with me. We offer hefty vacation plans in our company but no one actually takes advantage of them because they're motivated, self starters that love to work.<p>The precation concept is interesting.

I understand the precation.<p>One of the best trips I had was after getting laid off from a large dysfunctional corporation that was under going a re-org and having few years of accumulated salary in the bank due to never having a chance to take a "real" break from work in several years.<p>HR was shocked when they realized that I hadn't taken more than few days off in my tenure. I had over 6 months of "combined" time that had rolled over year after year.<p>But I was the chump that got things done, covered during the holidays, for installs, moves, covered Y2K, and when everyone else had a life and babies.<p>Never again.

I've never worked for a startup, but I've always had an aversion to vacation.<p>It's not that I don't like going places or enjoying myself, but I hate being away and I hate not being involved and getting things done.<p>A good vacation for me is a day off to relax here and there, or a weekend away. Taking more than 3 days at a time always seems like too much and I end up wanting to get back. I still need to take that week long vacation every year for the enjoyment of my wife and kids, but it seems too long.

In India, the concept of a long vacation is still alien. This year we are going to experiment with 5 day shutdown during xmas.<p>Most people here don't have a sense of holidaying. So they end up too bored that they turn back to work!

As an effective manager you should make sure you're leaving your developers time to go do something. Makes them better developers and keeps burnout at bay.

whats the point of life if you are working all the time? Life is about balance and not taking a vacation - ever - sounds like your balance is off kilter.

Have you tried work holidays, where the team takes off to work for a couple of weeks at a vacation spot? Works like a charm.

This post makes me want to work at 42floors. Mission accomplished Jason ;)