Californian company Netflix lets staff take as much holiday as they want when they want
Last updated 8/17/2010 8:52:54 AM
Netflix lets staff take as much holiday as they want when they want
It sounds like an employee's dream – taking as much holiday as they like, whenever they like. It's become a reality at a Californian company.
Netflix in Silicon Valley enables its salaried employees to manage their own leave periods. Nobody tracks vacation days in a policy that some observers say is more attuned to the nature of 21st century work and the values of self-discipline.
The company, which streams video and operates a DVD-by-mail service, is pioneering its alternative approach. And the venture seems to be yielding good business – it has fifteen million subscribers.
Netflix used to operate a more regular holiday policy, allotting a set number of days per year. But its employees realised that this arrangement was at odds with how they really did their jobs. They were responding to emails in their own time, they were solving problems online at home so if the company wasn't tracking how many hours people were logging each work day, why should it track how many holidays people were taking each work year?
The company agreed. "We should focus on what people get done, not how many hours or days worked," it said. "Just as we don't have a nine to five day policy, we don't need a vacation policy."
Steve Swasey, Netflix's vice-president for corporate communication, explained: "Rules and policies and regulations and stipulations are innovation killers. People do their best work when they're unencumbered. If you're spending a lot of time accounting for the time you're spending, that's time you're not innovating."
Now, Netflix's 600 staff can vacation any time they desire for as long as they want, so long as their managers know where they are and their work is covered.