At IBM
oprac AMI 2007-09-10, ostatnia aktualizacja 2007-09-10 11:10:37.0
It's every worker's dream: take as much vacation time as you want, on short notice, and don't worry about your boss calling you on it. Cut out early, make it a long weekend, string two weeks together - as you like. No need to call in sick on a Friday so you can disappear for a fishing trip. Just go; nobody's keeping track.
That is essentially what goes on at IBM, writes Ken Belson in the International Herald Tribune. Each of the 355,000 workers is entitled to three or more weeks of vacation. The company does not keep track of who takes how much time or when, does not dole out choice vacation times by seniority and does not let people carry days off from year to year.
Instead, for the past few years, employees at all levels have made informal arrangements with their direct supervisors, guided mainly by their ability to get their work done on time. Many people post their vacation plans on electronic calendars that colleagues can view online, and they leave word about how they can be reached in a pinch.
But the flip side of flexibility, at least at IBM, is peer pressure. IBM employees say that they frequently check their e-mail and voice mail messages while on vacation. Bosses sometimes ask subordinates to cancel days off to meet deadlines.
Some workplace experts say such continued blurring of the boundaries between work and play can overtax employees and lead to health problems, particularly at companies where there is an expectation that everyone is always on call.
"It isn't seven days a week, but people end up putting in longer hours because of all the flexibility, without really thinking about it," said one of the employees. "Although you have this wonderful freedom to take days when you want, you really can't. IBM tends to be a group of workaholics."
The hands-off approach to vacation time, which gradually took hold over the past decade, has come amid IBM's shift from engineering and manufacturing into services like consulting and is part of a broader demise of old notions of eight hours' pay for eight hours' work at a fixed location.
Aided by broadband connections, cellphones and video conferencing software, 40 percent of IBM's employees have no dedicated offices, working instead at home, at a client's site, or at one of the company's hundreds of "e-mobility centers" around the world, where workers drop in to use phones, Internet connections and other resources.
Long a trendsetter in human resources - it began offering family leave in the 1950s - IBM is probably the largest company to do away so completely with tracking vacation, although a number of newer, smaller firms have similar policies.
For most companies, keeping track of time worked and time off remains a critical and transparent benchmark for workers and bosses. It is also a necessity in factories, call centers, restaurants and other workplaces where business would grind to a halt if managers were unable to predictably have enough employees on hand.
Słownik
how they can be reached in a pinch - jak się z nimi skontaktować w razie nagłej potrzeby
the flip side - druga strona medalu
peer pressure - presja ze strony kolegów
can overtax employees and lead to health problems - może przeciążyć pracowników i prowadzić do problemów zdrowotnych
a broader demise of old notions of eight hours' pay for eight hours' work at a fixed location - powszechniejsze odejście od dawnych zasad płacy za osiem godzin pracy w stałym miejscu.
employees have no dedicated offices - pracownicy nie mają stałego biura
long a trendsetter in human resources - od dawna pionier w dziedzinie polityki HR
oprac AMI
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