Member-only story
I run a small business. As a result, we have fairly straightforward vacation policies — run your time by me, make sure things aren’t going to happen during those dates (launches, media trainings, and so on), and then let me know how it goes. I do not need a reason you are taking time off, nor to know where you’re going, though I will always be happy to hear one of my people going somewhere or doing something nice for themselves. We have unlimited vacation time in the sense that I have never said someone took too much, and in seven years — as a lesser man — I declined one vacation because things were spicy. I regret it to this day, as vacation is important.
If someone is sick, they do not work. If they try to work while sick, I chide them for doing so, and if they continue to, I am prepared to yank their Slack access, and eventually their Gmail access, until they can assure me they are feeling better. A large part of my philosophy is that if they are sick, I will simply do their job until they are not.
This is an ideal situation in a small company with defined goals and outputs, but a crucial part of it is that there are no jobs that are “beneath” me. While there are things my colleagues take off my plates that I would much rather not do, I do not look down at their work, and I am prepared to pick it up if there is too much of it, or they are sick. When they do an especially good job, I thank them profusely, and at times give them money, because they made my life easier.
