I just noticed that my son’s spring break dates next March are just two weeks before I plan to start my early retirement. An awkward time to take a week off of work I guess, but that won’t stop me from taking my vacation time accrued and enjoying a sunny trip to a warm weather destination.
Part of my motivation is to ‘protest’ the antiquated vacation & time off policies rigidity enforced at Megacorp that really irritates me. I’ve worked for three different companies in my career and in my opinion – my current Megacorp has the worst approach and culture around time off of any of the three.
It feels like they believe they are still managing a 1960s workforce — with employees, managers, directors, and executives tracking their vacation time, holiday or sick leave in an ancient software system. Each month there are calendar reminders (and reminders from the boss’s assistant) sent out for employees to dutifully log hours in the system. Previous Megacorps I’ve worked for respectfully expected salaried professionals to simply keep track of your own vacation time on the honor system. Adults treated like adults.
Although business management journals warn of a “crippling talent shortage across the world”“, and companies are increasingly competing for the best & brightest, our Megacorp even struggles with implementing limited basic workplace flexibility. The announcement of a new ‘flextime’ initiative saw many managers putting restrictions on the benefit or telling employees that it wasn’t supported in their group. Our VP was frustrated last year when people reported family & school conflicts for the strategic planning offsite he planned for Good Friday. Our SVP shared with me that he expects his team to be available for him “at all times” to show their commitment to the company. In fact, he frowned upon one of our top employees for taking two days off to travel to Los Angeles for an aging parent that was having surgery. The employee quit several months later.
At the same time, our HR professionals expect that the company should be on the Fortune “Best Places To Work” list. I’ve worked for a company on that list. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, “Megacorp, you are not a ‘best place to work’. I’ve worked at ‘best places to work’ companies, and you sir, are not one of them.”
One of our peer companies, General Electric, has been doing a number of progressive things to better position themselves as an employer of choice. First, they did away with the concept of fixed vacation time completely. It sounds radical, but they now offer “unlimited vacation time” flexibility for many salaried employees. Their approach is, as long as you get your job done – you decide how and when you work. That sounds a lot like treating adults like adults, so it probably won’t catch on. Additionally, they have overhauled their performance review process and are saving over 80K hours of non-value added “administrivia”. I for one hope they succeed.
So, while taking a sunny spring break just a week before I plan to early retire from Megacorp might seem like odd timing, I will be happy to do it for no other reason than to make a point that my time will be mine. Not theirs, or their rules. Mine to do with, what I wish. Now and forever.
Image Credit: Pixabay
MrFireStation 
I Love that you get to take a vacation so close to early retirement. It will make that last week the best one yet! Mr. T’s work is very rigid as far as time tracking by the hour, but they are very generous in that field and he has 6 weeks a year. It’s nice, but as you say, the rest of the time is not his (but they are not crazy demanding… very loose compared to the “being available all the time” mentality – that’s crazy!).
LikeLike
I imagine I will come back from vacation (with about 1 week left) and they’ll say “Oh, you’re still here?” 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
All I could think about thru this post was…what can they do…fire you? (Pun intended)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well put!
LikeLike
I’ve worked in a corporate, antiquated environment like you describe above and I’ve also worked in an environment where employees
LikeLike
had control over their time through unlimited sick/personal time. I’ve noticed that in the environment where people were given freedom, there was a sense of obligation to be reasonable about your time off and to be honest. However, in the company where employees were given little control over their time, people were always finding ways to cheat the system and gain more control. Based on this, I think you’re totally correct in not only supporting a more flexible environment, but also taking the time off on your terms no matter the situation at work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I work in an environment (BigLaw) where vacations are frowned upon. And if you do take one, you had better be in contact. A few years back I took two weeks off and went to the Great Bear Rainforest, where I had no connectivity. Other lawyers were aghast. One told me he hadn’t taken a vacation in five years. He was proud of this. I’m with you: I’ll be taking lots of time off over the next year or two. I’ve certainly earned it. And as a previous commenter said, what are they going to do, fire me? Put me out of my misery, is more like it.
I am really enjoying your countdown. What an exciting time!
LikeLike
Your Megacorp sounds absolutely identical to my company. I’m lucky that when we had flextime introduced my management explained we could use it but not abuse it. However many of my coworkers cannot use it. Why implement something and then not let your employees use it?!?!
Steve’s company on the other hand has an unlimited vacation time policy and we love it. Having his company be so accommodating to their employees, it really shows how mine is so rigidly set in the past.
But at least we’ll all be done with all of this very soon 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Unlimited vacation is really catching on – isn’t it? I’m not sure how far it will go.
LikeLiked by 1 person