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Raleigh, NC
Rebecca Fernandez is a Principal Program Manager at Red Hat, leading projects to help the company scale its open culture. She's an Open Organization Ambassador, contributed to The Open Organization book, and maintains the Open Decision Framework. She is interested in the intersection of open source principles and practices, and how they can transform organizations for the better.
Authored Comments
I just can't quite see the same happening in American cities, but I guess you never know unless you try it. I'm just thinking that my neighborhood and street have no speed limit signs (the limit is 25mph) and people fly through here like maniacs. :)
But in practice, I wonder if this leaves people working under workaholics or other negative personality types in a bind. Any time you try to arrange a vacation, you could get The Look that tells you're not a "team player." And taking a real, two week vacation creates a big burden on your co-workers, which people generally deal with because they know they will receive a two-week break of their own. But if you work with people who would only do long weekend getaways under this policy, there is pressure not to take the kind of vacation you'd prefer.
I guess I just suspect that for many underlings, no vacation policy would quickly turn into an informal "no vacations" policy. Or you'd have people like my husband, who would never take more than a day or two off, because he would be far too anxious about whether his boss or other coworkers would think he was slacking off. These kinds of unpolicies often work better for managers and those working under easygoing managers than they do for the average worker.
I'd rather see a policy that requires workers to take x days per year off work specifically for vacation, and allows them to take time off the rest of the year as they see fit.
Or at least have some anonymous recourse for workers who can't seem to get away.