[dagw]

People take time off when they want to (one of the guys on my team is on a 2-week vacation

What if I wanted a 2 month vacation instead of a 2 week vacation? I've yet to hear of a place that would forbid you taking two weeks off once in a while. Using the word "unlimited" and then talking about days and weeks seems kind of counter-intuitive.

[ghshephard]

We actually did have on employee take a full month. He was one of our rock start developer/architects who had basically built the foundation for our current generation of product. There was a natural, "division" line for him to take some time off.

In general, though, your managers have a target that they manage to - and they negotiate you to that number. In our company, "Unlimited Vacation" means two weeks a years.

[Udo]

> In our company, "Unlimited Vacation" means two weeks a years.

So, that's significantly less than the minimum you're getting by law in, say, a European country. And it sounds like you have to negotiate (or be perceived as a prodigy) to even get that. Am I missing something here? Because it sounds just awful.

[seldo]

Shhh! Americans are blissfully unaware that everyone in Europe is legally entitled to 2-3x more vacation than Americans get.

25 days of vacation is the biggest thing I miss about working in London :-p

[ghshephard]

Most people can get the two weeks if they put minimal effort into arranging projects to create an opening. Maybe one in 25 takes 3 weeks. I only know of two people ( in 500) who took a months vacation.