What Is Your Startup Vacation Policy?

I have been pondering on this issue for quite some time. For the last two companies that I have managed I have always followed a “no vacation policy” policy.

The reasons are simple. We trust our team members to be responsible for their work productivity. Since they know themselves best, and they should know when they need a break to recharge themselves. I also seriously hate micro-managing. So far, I don’t recall myself rejecting any team members who applied for leave. I also don’t bother asking the reason for their absence.

As the team grows, operations within the company get messier and sometimes chaotic. There will be more comparison between team members. Like “who has taken how many days off” or perhaps someone feels it’s not fair and thus opts to take more time off (why not?!). That would, I believe, spiral down to a very negative culture within the company. But that could be solved by placing a firm policy within the company. Say you get X number of days off for example and anything beyond that would be considered unpaid leave.

As we try to hire more people, potential new candidates ask about our vacation policy. Having an unstructured vacation policy sometimes turns people off as they might think that the company is very unprofessionally structured. Plus, as our team works virtually across the region, we don’t really have a physical office. Our unstructured working model may come as a disadvantage when hiring new members.

For a moment, I thought it would be good to have some sort of a policy or structure in place. But eventually I gave that thought up as I didn’t want that to affect our culture and also put additional workload to track such minor matters. If any, our effort should be focused on producing great content and conferences. Folks who are put off by our fluid work structure may not fit well in our team anyway.

I also stumbled upon this Quora discussion that discusses the same question. It’s an interesting read though with no real definite answer. There really shouldn’t be – because every company works differently with unique cultures. The discussion thread also suggests that policy should be made according to the size of the company.

Anyway, I would love to hear from any fellow entrepreneurs on your startup vacation policy, especially if you’re in Asia.

[Image credit: blog.maxandmittens.com]