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Ask HN: What is your company's maximum vacation (at one time) policy?

38 points by danesparza ↗ HN
My company (which shall remain nameless for obvious legal reasons) has recently implemented a policy that limits the "maximum amount of vacation time you can take at once" to 2 weeks at a time.

This hasn't affected me (I tend to take vacations shorter than 2 weeks at a time). The policy really seems to disproportionately affect my Indian co-workers -- who save up vacation and tend to take it in 3-4 week increments to visit family overseas.

I started to wonder: Is this a common practice to limit the maximum vacation time that can be taken at once? What is your company's policy on the subject?

80 comments

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elmerfud
I don't know what my current company's policy is, but my last company had a two week at a time maximum. Although, all policies were flexible at managements discretion. Just by asking I was able to take 3.5 weeks off.
maxxxxx
We have people going away for 4-6 weeks to visit family. Limiting it to 2 weeks as a policy seems a red flag to me.
sarreph
If you want to increase burnout (and its inevitable resultant churn) in an organisation, capping vacation length sounds like a surefire way to achieve that.
itake
I think its better to take 1 week off 4x per year instead of 4 weeks off once per year. Working 11 months without a single vacation would cause me to burn out.
garyfirestorm
It takes about 36 hours one way to reach India. If I am going to spend so much time and money on flight, I would rather stay for 3 weeks and make best out of the vacation. Yeah, so this policy is a little strange imo.
sarreph
Good point — I guess it's akin to the effect of napping on a macro scale. However, if I only ever take a week out, I find that I don't get the mental rest I need to come back to my work fully energised. So, perhaps a mixture of both is ideal? :)
haraball
For me it's the opposite. With ~3 weeks I manage to properly disconnect from work and recharge myself to get back. First week is winding down, second week is enjoying the time off, third week is looking forward to get started again.

I do take long weekends and the occational day off beside that though.

dangerboysteve
One of my staff members needs 1 month off to visit family in India. Our company does not limit Vacation time use.
sssilver
I'd rather take 2 months off once every 2 years and go on an offroad motorcycle journey through Mongolia, than do small things a week at a time.
mnm1
I think that's purely a matter of opinion and certainly doesn't apply universally. I'd rather spend three to four weeks visiting my family once a year than flying to Europe and back four times a year and maybe setting them for about a day each time.
ivanhoe
I'm against any such limits, but one could argue that a week of vacation twice a year will be more helpful against the burnout than a single two weeks vacation...
thebigspacefuck
People should be able to do what they want and companies shouldn't be so reliant on one person that they can't take a month or two away, but taking 3-4 spaced out 1-2 week vacations is better for preventing burnout than a single 6 week vacation. According to this article, maximum benefit is achieved at 8 days of vacation https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/opinion/sunday/vacatio... Would you rather have your employees recharging their batteries multiple times a year, once a year, or one every two years?
TomMarius
None, a limit like this would be illegal in my country.
pbhjpbhj
Where?
TomMarius
The Czech Republic and basically anywhere else in the EU.
pbhjpbhj
I can't readily find anything to confirm this for UK. Sources like Gov.uk and the TUC say employers can say when you take your leave.

Eg https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/booking-time-o...

https://worksmart.org.uk/work-rights/hours-and-holidays/holi...

TomMarius
I meant continental EU, I'm not sure about the UK. While these websites says nothing about forbidding the employer from setting a limit, they also don't say that it's allowed.
pbhjpbhj
Frustratingly silent on this point, all the examples I saw are 2 week holidays too.
atwebb
I don't know of a set in stone amount, it's not uncommon for people to save up a month to go stay with family in Asia. US based company. The team plans accordingly, I think it's a good idea, though I tend to not take as much time as I should sometimes.
carlmr
No limit, except the 6 weeks vacation a year. This is in Germany though so YMMV. I usually take a long 3-4 week vacation, 1-2 weeks over Christmas, and the rest of the days I use to make weekends longer going camping, skiing, climbing and hiking.
randomdata
The internet suggests that in Germany it is up to the employer when employee holidays are taken. For example, if the business wants to shutdown over Christmas, it is well within its rights of that business to have its employees take holidays at this time. The minimum number of holiday days must be taken by the employees over the course of the year, but when the employer says it is acceptable to. As such, there seems to be nothing stopping them from allowing no more than two weeks at a time, just like the business in question here.

Is this information outdated/incorrect?

carlmr
I don't think it's incorrect, but from my experience it applies more to factory jobs. They'll have a 2 week shutdown in summer, and a 1-2 week shutdown over Christmas. Everybody has to take vacation then, which sucks in terms of traffic and flight prices.

My employer does officially close on some days on Christmas, but you are allowed to work from home (if you have a job where home office is possible).

hellweaver666
We advise 3 weeks but you can take longer if you have it available and discuss with your manager first.
tjridesbikes
No limits here. In the US with 4-5 weeks (depending on length of employment) of vacation per year. We have people who say "see ya" at the end of November and we don't see them again until mid-January.
the-dude
I believe in NL, there is also a minimum : each employee should at least have a 2 week vacation, uninterrupted, each year.
tszymczyszyn
Same in Poland, although it is often not enforced in practice.
the-dude
I forgot to mention : this is also a very effective policy to uncover fraudsters.
zschuessler
I'm from the US, and I've never worked for a company that regulated a limit. You only had to check with HR first & ensure you weren't negatively impacting your projects.

Sounds to me like your company got burned by someone taking advantage of their PTO, then overcompensated with this rule.

If your other coworkers aren't happy about it either, band together and bring it up as something to talk about. Explore other solutions together as a company.

orangehour
All the coworkers bargaining for benefits with management like a group? That sounds like a union (not that it would be a bad thing).
gwbas1c
Do they define a longer vacation as a sabbatical? Or is there a specific business reason why someone would be limited to just two weeks? Is your employer in the US or another country? What state is your employer in, if it's in the US?
baq
sounds illegal where i'm from.
maaaats
I live in Norway. State mandated 25 days off / 4 weeks + 1 day (paid). Can demand 3 of those weeks at once during summer, and 1 whole week at once any other time.

Most companies more lax than that. I have two extra weeks over the mandated, and can take them basically how I want as long I ask in advance.

eli
I think many US companies especially small companies have some version of "check with your manager first"
hoistbypetard
I've never worked at a company that capped the maximum vacation that could be taken at once as a blanket policy. Though time off generally needs to be approved by a manager in advance, and I could imagine challenges getting some managers to approve very long vacations, people have always been able to work it out with advance planning.

I did work one place that mandated you needed to be out of the office for at least 5 consecutive days each calendar year. I'm not sure if it's still required, but there was a banking regulation that mandated it. The rationale was that if you were out of the office for at least a week, it would be harder to commit and easier to discover fraud.

LandR
Don't think we have a limit, but it's probably reasonable.

I took 3 weeks over xmas.

The most annoying thing here is they say they want 4 weeks notice for any vacation, even just a day, however I've not really seen it enforced.

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seattle_spring
Would you mind sharing the name of the company? This is a despicable policy and I think people looking for jobs should know who to steer clear from.
jaymzcampbell
Places I've worked previously (am independently contracting these days) had similar policies in theory but they were really more guidelines to try and keep continuity in place. If you planned in advance and had cleared it with your colleagues then a 1-month or longer break was completely do-able. I should add I'm speaking from a UK point of view.
baxtr
This is ridiculous. What reason did they give?
pbhjpbhj
I don't agree with the policy but surely it makes it harder to manage staffing levels and re-engagement will take longer for longer absences. I'd call it mean rather than ridiculous.
bri3d
I work at a medium-large US company. We have a standard "soft unlimited" vacation policy where the questionable policies like this would get farmed down to the individual management level. Up to 6 weeks is no questions asked at the corporate level.

In my division many people take one calendar month off, especially those with family overseas.

onion2k
Current company - don't know. Previous company - 12 weeks (approx. 4 weeks annual leave that would carry over for a year, so it was possible to take 3 years worth consecutively.)
jtwaleson
A team member is currently on a 7-week vacation. No questions asked whatsoever. This is in NL.
goshx
10 days per year after 5 years of employment, maximum of 10 days at once. Great, isn't it?
6DM
In my personal experience, traveling from the US to another country for a two week vacation isn't worth it. One week's worth of time is literally consumed by travel and jet lag. So the cap should impact more than just your Indian co-workers, assuming other people want to get out and see the world.