I found an interesting article a few weeks ago over at Expat Software discussing how 2 weeks vacation time is simply what your employer will pay you for, but not what you are limited to. If you’re willing, taking an unpaid vacation is always an option. If you play it right.

As a business owner, I want someone to LOVE working for me. I’d give (do give) my employees every benefit possible. Making that extra $200 or $2000 dollars just so my employee is miserable is no way to go. So that said, I’d completely respect someone taking time to pursue something they felt is worthwhile, so long as they don’t leave the company at a major loss. There’s simply a balance to be made — one that larger companies without a startup mentality might never come to see.

But that luxury comes at a price. You have to be respectful of the company you work for. Time away isn’t simply time you aren’t being productive on whatever project it was you were working on. Even if it’s unpaid, you’re still receiving health, dental, vision, 401k, and other benefits. That’s when things start becoming a little less fair to your employer, so be mindful and respectful of the costs of simply having an employee — we’re not just paying your salary.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 10:27 am and is filed under Employment, Ethics, Fusion Bay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.