See you then, beardy!

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Branson offers his employees "unlimited" leave

This goes a long way to explaining what happens when you ring one of his customer service centres.

[Janik]

See you then, beardy!

"The assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel 100% comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business - or, for that matter, their careers!"

What message is everyone getting here? Take time off and thereby demonstrate that your presence is non-essential to the functioning of the company, right? So anyone taking any holiday at all is putting their job at risk...

[Toby Gymshorts]

See you then, beardy!

My department head already seems to subscribe to this theory, judging by the fact he's never here.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

See you then, beardy!

Janik's comment reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon where the pointy haired boss announces that non-essential staff may leave an hour early today.

[Toby Gymshorts]

See you then, beardy!

This one?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

See you then, beardy!

nothing ;ike an old hagiography to give you a giggle

[Jah Womble]

See you then, beardy!

All very canny stuff. Publicly denounce standard company holiday policy as 'draconian', then hold your staff to a carefully-disguised ransom by making it look as though you're the generous guy.

Yep, sounds like Branson.

[Tubby Isaacs]

See you then, beardy!

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote: nothing ;ike an old hagiography to give you a giggle

I once read the whole book

[Levin]

See you then, beardy!

This is pretty standard in the US I understand. I once had a US company's UK office as a client in a building I ran. They were all traders and they had unlimited leave. No one took any though as it meant showing that you weren't really committed.

[EIM]

See you then, beardy!

I'd never go in. Fuck "commitment". Mug's game.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

See you then, beardy!

I'd be sending the HR Director postcards from whatever beach I was lying on this week.

[Toby Gymshorts]

See you then, beardy!

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

nothing ;ike an old hagiography to give you a giggle

I once read the whole book

Time you'll never get back, Tubbs.

[WOM]

See you then, beardy!

Our company is dead slow in the summer months (June/July/August over here) so we allow people to take as much unpaid time off as they want, with full guarantee of their job of course. It mainly appeals to long-time / older workers who can afford the unpaid time, and who have cottages/trailers they can fuck off to for four to six weeks. It's actually pretty sweet as an ease-in to retirement.

[Fussbudget]

See you then, beardy!

La Racaille de Rochdale Road wrote: I'd never go in. Fuck "commitment". Mug's game.

Well indeed. Surely the first thing most sane people would do when offered this deal is to check the small print to see how many years they can get away with not setting foot in the office while still being paid.

[Jimski]

See you then, beardy!

Janik is right on the money here. You'll probably find employees take fewer holidays than they would have when they had a specified quota.

[Tubby Isaacs]

See you then, beardy!

Toby Gymshorts wrote:

nothing ;ike an old hagiography to give you a giggle

I once read the whole book

Time you'll never get back, Tubbs.

Yep.
I regret that more than the time I spent listening to my friend's Whitesnake albums.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

See you then, beardy!

Jimski wrote: Janik is right on the money here. You'll probably find employees take fewer holidays than they would have when they had a specified quota.

Devilishly smart from the donkey-tooothed one. I always thought right-on moguls like Branson are sneakier and more dangerous than your cliche top-hat-and-cigar types.

[Ginger Yellow]

See you then, beardy!

And now it's the LA Times (and Tribune generally). Even on its face, the reasoning is nonsense. If the problem is excessive banked vacation days leading to liabilities on the books, just don't let people carry them over year to year.

[WOM]

See you then, beardy!

Not the most nuanced of articles I've ever read, though. Clearly written by someone who believes that 'management' exists to grind everyone down into a fine powder.

[ursus arctos]

See you then, beardy!

That's not as effective in transferring the benefit from the workforce to the employer.

The parallels between life in these United States and that of the "Gilded Age" are increasingly striking. We just need the dismantling of the antitrust laws and presidents with facial hair.

[Ginger Yellow]

See you then, beardy!

Clearly written by someone who believes that 'management' exists to grind everyone down into a fine powder.

From what I understand, at Tribune that's pretty much been the case since Zell bought it and drove it into bankruptcy.

[Gangster Octopus]

See you then, beardy!

WOM wrote: Clearly written by someone who believes that 'management' exists to grind everyone down into a fine powder.

You say that as though you believe that some other type of management exists.

[WOM]

See you then, beardy!

Fortunately, as a manager, I know it does.