Why We Don’t Offer Unlimited Vacation

At Fog Creek we’ve always tried to be generous with our time off policies. From parental leave to sick days to vacation, we believe in work life balance and we encourage our employees to take time off when they need it. But we don’t have unlimited vacation days.

Here’s why: the unlimited vacation day policy feels like a scam…and that’s because it is. Studies show it can lead to employees taking less time off because of the social pressure to work and the uncertainty about what’s appropriate.

The main issue with the unlimited vacation day policy is it puts the onus on the employees to decide how much time is appropriate to take off. It’s a loaded decision, one that comes with unspoken bias and judgements, especially if expectations aren’t clearly communicated. When people don’t know an exact policy, they’ll err on the side of trying not to get in trouble. For employees it can make taking vacation feel like a trap, rather than the stress relieving experience it should be. No good.

Instead, at Fog Creek, our vacation days accrue. All of our full time employees with anywhere up to 3 years of tenure get 20 vacation days, which is well above the national average. After the 3 year mark, we bump our employees up to 25 days.

Giving our employees a concrete and generous number of vacation days sends a clear message — we know you need time off! Your work life balance and mental health is as important to us as it is to you.

Not only do our vacation days roll over, we’re lenient about an employee going over by an extra day or two. Another important point: We don’t count our sick days towards vacation — if you’re sick, you’re sick, and you should stay home because you’re sick! Nobody should have to take a vacation day because a toddler in your kid’s preschool decided to share Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease with the class.

The goal of our vacation policy is straightforward, and it’s the same as ever benefit we offer our employees: we want to make sure unnecessary stressors don’t keep our team from living well. If that sounds like something you want to get from your employer, maybe you should come join us at Fog Creek.