Microsoft grants its employees in the USA unlimited vacation. In the future, employees will also receive an additional ten holidays and various time off. How vacation is adapting to New Work.
Microsoft allow its employees in the US to take unlimited vacation. As first reported by The Verge, this comes from an internal memo to employees.
In it, Chief People Officer Kathleen Hogan announced that the new so-called “discretionary time off” applies to all permanent employees in the US.
Microsoft vacation adapts to new work schedule
Microsoft’s new vacation policy goes into effect Jan. 16, 2023. For employees, this means they will no longer have to wait to accrue vacation days. They will also receive ten additional holidays, leaves of absence and time off for illness and mental illness.
In addition, they can take time off for jury duty or bereavement. Meanwhile, employees:who have unused vacation days remaining will receive a one-time payout.
How, when and where Microsoft employees work has changed dramatically, Hogan explains in the memo. As the company has transformed, modernizing the vacation policy to a more flexible model is a natural next step, he says.
Unlimited vacation not for everyone
Not all of the tech company’s employees will enjoy the new policy, however. Hourly employees, for example, can’t take unlimited time off.
Team members who work outside the U.S. also don’t benefit from the new vacation policy. This is mainly due to the different wage and working time laws of the states and countries.
Unlimited vacation at Microsoft: are appearances deceiving?
Microsoft is not the first tech company to offer unlimited vacation days. Salesforce, LinkedIn, Oracle and Netflix also implemented similar policies in the past.
Although the company’s new vacation policy is a big concession by U.S. standards, the theory might sound better than the practice actually ends up being.
After all, tech companies have always worked long hours. Despite unlimited vacation days, deadlines have to be met and results achieved.
As NTV reports, employees ended up taking even less vacation than before. Some companies in the industry have therefore already withdrawn the regulations on self-determined vacation days.
