I am not sure its all positive though. I only heard bad things about Netflix and the atmosphere. I stay away from it and their recruiters proactively because of that. Just like the "there is no limit on vacation" scam that they pull over their employees got implemented in many startups, I am sure a lot of that "culture" spilled into the startup world as well.
Just like the "there is no limit on vacation" scam that they pull over their employees...
Why do you call it a scam? It certainly can be, but it doesn't have to be. We used to have a fixed-PTO policy (3 weeks per year) at my company, and moved to an unlimited policy sometime in 2012. In the 2013 calendar year I've taken about 4 weeks off. I'm actually not sure of the exact number of days I've taken off, as we don't really track it so closely. I'm perfectly happy with this arrangement.
Do you have any evidence that it's a "scam" at a large number or majority of companies?
From what I hear (from the few people I know at Netflix) since there is a lot of fear that you can be fired at will, no one takes a vacation at all. It actually makes sense too, if one member of the team does not take a vacation but you do then you will come across as the one "slacking off". On the other hand if you are a set number of time off days you can take them without feeling guilty about it. Of course it depends on the culture in the group as well but I am very skeptical about it working in a company the size of netflix.
Result of a shit culture, then. Taking a reasonable amount of vacation means you're taking care of yourself, not that you're slacking off. Burned-out employees are certainly not a plus to a company's bottom line.
