Kool Aid Served Daily

After the dotcom meltdown, tech companies started looking at ways to save money and a fat low hanging saver was employee vacation time. One way to encourage employees to take vacations was a mandatory shutdown of offices in the US (legal ramifications at overseas sites). The two prime periods were the 4th of July week and Christmas week. It gave the illusion that the employee was getting more bang for their buck.

I went through this at my last company. It wasn't nice, but we all understood it was either that or lay more people off. The directors at the time all stopped accruing vacation time as a sign of support. Things got better and we stopped having to do this trick. By the way, one of the resistances of employees is that they accrue time off as a sort of severance package. If you get laid off and have 6 weeks of vacation time, you have a cushion to help you land a new job.

When I left that company, I left the highest vacation accrual rate and started over at Sun at the bottom. I knew that they had just done a week off at Christmas, but I had no idea if it was paid or a shutdown. When June rolled around and I found out that there was a July 4th shutdown, I was bummed out. It wiped out my balance and it kept me from going anywhere over the Christmas holidays. It turned out that the Christmas week time was however a paid time off and not a shutdown.

You can imagine the joy I felt when it was announced this year that we would not be having a July 4th shutdown. What it told me was that the company was doing well and this OpenSolaris thing was a step in the right direction. I'm not sure if management realized how big of an employee morale boost this was for us.

I actually took the week off and went to Maui. I had the time saved up, I was confident in the company, and I wanted to help reduce the overall vacation balance - I want us to make the numbers in the quarter and the tear. Plus, I wanted to try Maui in the summer as opposed to the winter. I still have time left over in case we want to do something around Christmas.

In contrast, I found out a week before the break that my last company had to have a shutdown the week of the 4th of July. And my guess is that caused a morale problem in their ranks. I'll go back to my mood last year at this time versus that I have right now - I'm mellow from a well deserved vacation and not steamed from being forced to take time off. I know both events play an important part in a company's well being - if the only way to make the quarter or fiscal year is a shutdown, then you have to do it. But I have to wonder if taking a voluntary week off is better for a company's morale (which can lead to an impact to its bottom line) over the savings of a shutdown.