

Who is hiring AND offers 4+ weeks of vacation? - utefan001

I would "never" work for a company that only offers 10 days of vacation.  Please post links of companies offering 4+ weeks of vacation each year.  Here are two that I know of.<p>https://careers.blackbirdtech.com<p>http://woti.com/benefits.cfm
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byoung2
_I would "never" work for a company that only offers 10 days of vacation_

That drastically reduces the number of companies you could work for. I have
never had a problem with the number of vacation days. If you need more, just
take unpaid days. If company A offers 4 weeks of vacation and company B offers
2 weeks, assuming everything else is equal, try to negotiate 4% more in pay to
compensate for 1 paycheck's worth of unpaid vacation. I have always been able
to negotiate at least 10% more than the initial offer for every job I took.
This more than makes up for any lack of vacation days. I vacation a lot (e.g.
1 week Caribbean cruise, 4 days in Cancun, 5 days in Puerto Rico, 1 month in
Philippines, 1 week Caribbean cruise again, Vegas for New Years, and a 3rd 1
week Caribbean Cruise within a 365 day period at a company that just offered 2
weeks paid vacation) and I just take unpaid days.

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utefan001
I agree with you. I created this thread because I keep hearing about companies
that offer "unlimited vacation time" that ends up being under 15 days per year
because of employee fear. Also, I am not looking for a job.

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wladh
In most of the EU 4 weeks is quite on the lower end. I have 28 days and I have
friends who have 32-35 days/year (working days). This is one of the great
benefits about living in Europe :).

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joshmoz
Mozilla Corporation. We're global, we're hiring, we offer four weeks PTO plus
your birthday.

<http://www.mozilla.org/careers>

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jri
How does someone without any experience with web technologies, but with
several years of experience with embedded systems programming, transition to a
position that requires the array of skills listed in those job postings? This
isn't directed only at mozilla, but all job postings that look for candidates
with a very specific skill set.

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joshmoz
The first answer that comes to mind is that our products are open source, and
nothing gets our attention like fixing real bugs in our products. You can
start with easy ones and learn at your own pace, with the help of other
Mozilla developers as you need it. That also gives you a chance to evaluate
the work you'd be doing as well as our community before you apply.

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cal5k
To be honest going into job interviews with a sense of entitlement about paid
vacation time would probably reflect poorly with potential employers.

We offer 3 weeks (fairly generous for Canada), but I would be extremely put
off by a candidate who wanted to discuss vacation time first and foremost.

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latch
I would say that's _extremely common_ in Canada. Not sure what's worse, having
a sense of entitlement as an employee, or thinking what you offer is above
average as an employer.

Snarkiness aside..I have mixed feelings about your first point. Entitlement
sucks, 100% agree with you there. Flip side, vacation is awesome on so many
levels, I feel that there genuinely should be a push for more vacation time.

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cal5k
I'm actually a pretty big fan of the Netflix model - take as much as you need
so long as you can get the job done. We just haven't worked out the logistics
of that kind of thing yet.

Let's be honest, though. Technology work is highly team-based... it's not the
company so much as your team that will be aggravated by excessive vacation
time. I suspect that if we offered that type of model people would actually
take LESS vacation - I don't have data to support this hypothesis, but I
already know that most people don't actually use up their full allotment in a
given year (in general, not just at our company).

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mattm
I applied recently to Server Density (but was rejected). What attracted me was
their job description offering "unlimited" vacation. But you actually get a
bonus if you take _more_ than 5 weeks. I thought that was a good way to make
sure people actually use their vacation time.

[http://blog.boxedice.com/2011/08/19/our-holiday-vacation-
pol...](http://blog.boxedice.com/2011/08/19/our-holiday-vacation-policy-
unlimited-with-bonuses/)

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aspir
I know Netflix has instated a flex vacation policy -- take as long as you
need, but you have to get the job done first.

It depends on where you are looking to work? If you're looking to sign on with
a startup hiring their first 5 employees, then you're against the odds. Most
big American companies are the same way.

In all, it will depend on how good you are and how essential you are to the
company. For the first year of employment at a 150 person firm, you may have
to make do with 10 days. However, if your role is crucial to the company,
negotiating 4 weeks of vacation should be easy.

As it stands right now, unless you're a god among men in your trade, you are
replaceable, simply because they haven't hired you or even fallen in love with
you in the interview process. I'd apply to a mid sized company you want to
work for, and negotiate up for vacation. Everything's negotiable in hiring.

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wladh
Flexible vacation sounds a lot like flexible salary, in my opinion. How do I
know how much is reasonable? Also, how do you determine when the job is done,
unless you have a very detailed to do list for the year? My job is never done,
otherwise I'd be fired. Also, I hear people mentioning "taking 4 weeks in a
row" as something quite rare.

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morganls
from friends who have "unlimited" vacation situations I think it can turn into
a bit of a guilt trip. Like, if you want to look good, you take very little.
That being said, not sure if that's company culture or just workaholic
friends.

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bigsassy
The American Legacy Foundation in DC. Excellent pay, excellent benefits, and
an excellent cause. Among other things, they are responsible for "The Truth"
anti-smoking ad campaign.

I'm pretty sure they're looking for a python developer right now.

<http://www.legacyforhealth.org/>

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plugger
Australia. Our economy is booming and unemployment is arguably the lowest in
the developed world. Plus the USD is on parity with the Aussie dollar. If you
can get down here, do it.

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latch
Pretty sure most large banks start at 4 weeks. But I just quit one, and I'd
take 0 vacation days not to work there again (aka, surely this can't be the
only thing you care about).

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gfaremil
This will be the shortest thread in HN history...

On serious note, I'm really not aware of a single one. I heard some

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aspir
A similar point: I've never actually met someone who has 4 weeks of vacation
to actually use all 4. Generally, when you work up to the point at a BigCo
where you can command a larger vacation, it's hard to remove yourself from the
day-to-day practices of work.

Plus, America has an embedded culture of trying to "outwork the competition"
in everything we do, from sports, to academics, to the workplace.

It stems from the postwar era of growth where human hours logged in an office
were the only drivers of progress. Obviously the world is different now, with
the advent of the internet, but old habits die hard.

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latch
From what I understand, a company which allows employees to accumulate large
pools of timeoff tend to have very unpleasant liabilities on their balance
sheet. It is, I believe, a very serious liability (regardless of where you
live, all places have very strict rules about it).

It's a lot like reward points. The initial programs didn't have expiry...after
years, auditors warned them that they had billions in liabilities in unclaimed
points.

In my experience, any company that gets a serious CFO or some outside
accounting/auditing, is going to rectify their vacation problem pretty quickly

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crazy_startup
This happened at my previous job. They forced everyone to burn down the
vacation time from their previous limit of 280 hours to 120. After that they
instituted policies with a maximum of 180.

The issue is that it was _impossible_ to take vacation time. Even on vacation
I was working 3 hours every day and during the normal workweek was 60-75 hours
without overtime or rewarding the extra time.

Frankly, I think that the company should just have a bucket for PTO and put it
in the bank and earn interest on it. The liability should be backed by actual
dollars so it's not a serious financial risk.

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mtogo
Every company in every country in Europe.

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dlikhten
Mount Sinai Hospital/School of Medicine -- NYC

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twz
poor workaholics ... get help!

