US corporation
Why Microsoft is now giving its employees unlimited paid vacations — and it’s not as great as it sounds
All Microsoft employees – here hardware boss Panos Panay – now have unlimited vacation days
© JAMES ATOA/ / Picture Alliance
In the USA, employees have significantly less vacation time than in Germany. That’s changing at Microsoft: Employees can take as much time off as they want. But it is probably not quite as paradisiacal as it sounds at first.
From an American’s perspective, Germany’s vacation policy is a dream. While employees in this country are legally entitled to 20 days of vacation every year for a full-time job, in the country of turbo-capitalism there is simply no entitlement to paid vacation – or only to so-called sick days. Few people in this country have as much free time as Microsoft does: the company now gives every employee as much paid vacation as they want.
The company announced this on Wednesday in an internal announcement that is available to several media. The measure is referred to as “Discretionary Time Off” (roughly: free time at one’s own discretion). “How, when and where we work has changed dramatically,” the memo says, according to The Verge. “And as we change, modernizing our vacation policy to a more flexible model is a natural progression.”
Holiday without borders
Then it gets more concrete: From January 16, all permanent employees of the company in the USA can take unlimited paid vacation. In addition, there are ten Group-wide public holidays, parental leave and sick days for both physical and mental illnesses. If you still have classic vacation days left over from last year, you will receive a one-off payment in April. The only exception: Those who are only paid by the hour are not entitled to the days off.
The decision is remarkable in several respects. Employees in the United States not only do not have a nationally regulated vacation entitlement, they also do not have the right to sick pay. Both are negotiated with the employer. On average, Americans get paid just ten days a year off — and if they’re sick, they have to take vacation time to continue getting their salary. In view of this, Microsoft’s new holiday policy is even more spectacular than it would be compared to the German legal situation.
What is Microsoft hoping for from the move?
Of course, Mircosoft isn’t so generous out of sheer altruism. There has been a bitter struggle for the best talent among US tech companies for years. With numerous advantages in addition to the salary, companies try to make themselves attractive to sought-after specialists. At Microsoft, unlike many other tech companies not based in California’s Silicon Valley but in the much colder Redmond near Seattle, the flexibility of working from home had already proven to be an attractive incentive. Now that almost all software companies are making it possible to work from home, you have to think about new offers for employees.
Microsoft is not the first US tech company to rely on unlimited vacation. Netflix or Oracle already have corresponding offers. Banks like Goldman Sachs also offer them to particularly loyal employees.
Holiday with Crux
For employees, however, the theoretically unlimited free time rarely turns out to be the paradisiacal state it initially sounds like. You have to continue to coordinate your free time with the needs of the team, and there is also a personal responsibility to work enough to be able to do your job.
What that can mean in practice was reported by the “BBC” last year. Although there is no official restriction, companies quickly adopt a norm on vacation days from which only very few deviate. Because the pressure on the American labor market is high due to the possibility of termination without notice at any time, many employees are very cautious. And often even take less vacation time. And: A third of those surveyed with unlimited vacation simply continued to work on the actual days off.
At some point, the emergency brake was pulled at the software company Facet. It was about “fraud” on the employee, scolded the boss Robert Sweeney on Linked.in. After the introduction, his employees simply took even less vacation time than before. “The companies know that their employees take less time off,” he complained. “And they like that.” not him. That’s why he abolished unlimited vacation – and gave every employee 32 paid days off. Without anyone having to justify it.
Sources: The Verge, BBC, Linked.in
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