by Kate Freeman on Mashable
Netflix employees have one less thing to keep track of: the amount of vacation days they take. Co-founder Reed Hastings recently told Bloomberg Businessweek that Netflix has an unlimited vacation policy.
In an effort to separate itself from bureaucratic corporations, Netflix, with its 900 employees, abandoned the typical vacation allotment to opt for a sky’s-the-limit plan. Keeping vacation unlimited, said Hastings, requires mature, responsible employees who care about high-quality work.
Netflix has a “freedom and responsibility culture,” Hastings told the publication in an article entitled, “How To Set Your Employees Free.” Hastings said Netflix gauges success by focusing on what employees get done, not on how many days they worked. The CEO does make sure to be a good role model and takes vacations, where he can do some creative thinking.
Hasting explained how the idea evolved: “My first company, Pure Software, was exciting and innovative in the first few years and bureaucratic and painful in the last few before it got acquired. The problem was we tried to systemize everything and set up perfect procedures. We thought that was a good thing, but it killed freedom and responsibility. After the company was acquired, I reflected on what went wrong.”
The pressure to hang onto one’s job in a bad economy, and smaller staffs at some organizations, have caused many workers to push themselves to burnout mode. Now, it seems, there may be a growing focus on employees regaining a work-life balance.
Netflix isn’t the only company that has jumped on the all-you-want vacation bandwagon. IBM has a famously flexible time-off policy — letting employees leave early and take a day off on short notice, just so long as they have a handle on their workloads. Numerous startups and innovative companies working in the tech space are beginning to see the benefits of ditching vacation limits and promoting personal responsibility.
What do you think about unlimited vacation policies? Does your employer offer a flexible or unlimited vacation policy? Tell us in the comments.
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Crisma
