How many vacation days is enough?

Today I thought about….how many vacation days is enough? 

I read in a book (The Best Place to Work) that during his first four years in office, Barrack Obama took 131 vacation days. Playing out to just over a month of vacation a year. This is while doing one of the most stressful jobs in the world. 

Now, one side may look at this and say, since most jobs aren’t as stressful as being the President of the U.S. most people should need less vacation. Another side can say, even the president takes a month off, and given most jobs aren’t nearly as important people should be taking more time off. 

This then took me back to Netflix’s documentary on Bill Gates and how in the early years, Bill did not believe in vacation and said something along the lines of “...people can work part-time at Microsoft, just pick a 12-hour shit that works for you.” 

One can say that Microsoft would not have been able to become the behemoth it is today without the insane work ethic Bill had. Though it seems that Bill too evolved as he started taking weeks off to isolate in a cabin to read and think by the late 1990s. 

It brings forth the question of how do companies think about vacation policies? How do I think about vacation policies? 

Netflix was the first company I learned had instituted the unlimited vacation day policy. This was hotly debated back then but it’s still a point of contention it seems. I’d meet folks from the U.K. who ask how I was expected to go anywhere with only three weeks of vacation (the national standard there is five weeks). 

But I’ve also worked for a company that emphasized how generous a 13-day vacation policy (where sick days were considered vacation days too) was. I guess it is generous when some countries don’t have a national minimum for vacation days? By such standards, I guess shitting in a porter potty is better than shitting in the woods.

Well, what is the point of vacation? One is to recharge oneself. We all know that when people disconnect, experience something completely anew, and come back that they tend to have a flush of motivation and renewed perspectives. It also creates sustainability in performance instead of burning out in a year. 

So, if a company cared for the longevity of its employees (and itself as a business) it should constantly push people to take a vacation. Just like how athletes stress themselves in training and only reap the fruits of their labour from the rest period after training. 

There are also other factors like enjoying life etc… But for simplicity’s sake… I’m going to assume the company only hired people that want to do the work they were hired for. Big overreach here but that should really be the focus of hiring anyway. 

In such a scenario, if you hired someone you think has the makings of a great employee/person (i.e. ethical, integrity, honest, diligent, curious) who is driven to achieve a kind of mastery in the craft they were hired for….then you’d be mental not to trust them no? 

What you’ve hired should be a responsible and driven adult. So… someone you’d trust to make their own decisions like when to do their work when to go to the bathroom, what to eat for lunch… and when to take a vacation. 

The most sensible approach seems to be to set something similar to an unlimited vacation policy…. But I would be curious to set something for 8-10 weeks. 

I’ve been striving to take two weeks off every quarter but I can’t seem to let go and I feel awful taking any time off from this pursuit of mine. So many employers want their employees to think like owners… well then give them the freedom to contemplate that and see. 

If an unlimited vacation policy is set… I feel that will become another stressor for employees. I think if you’ve hired the ‘right’ people… they will still feel like someone is watching them over their back. Constraints are not a bad thing. Such laws stop someone from stealing from me, killing someone on the street, etc… it creates sensibility and guides actions. 

I think setting an 8-10 week vacation policy will create that safe space for people to take enough time they need to recharge. Some can even accrue this and take a year off entirely. I think this is what the designer Sagmeister does…he takes a year off completely every seven years. 

Now, I would also make being in the office optional. Something similar to the consulting model where you convene at the office on Fridays just to socialize and connect with colleagues while you spent four days of the week focused on project work. But that’s a thought for another day. 

As things stand… I’d suggest an 8-10 week vacation policies for most companies. Assuming they’ve actually put in proper processes in hiring…..which most companies haven’t.