Big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta announced this week that they’re all taking part in today’s Employee Appreciation Day festivities by providing a lucky 10 percent of their workers endless unpaid days off they must start taking off immediately.
“We felt it was a good idea to update our standard ‘unlimited vacation days’ policy into an immediate, mandatory ‘endless time off,’” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a company address. “We celebrate the unique and irreplaceable contributions each and every one of you give to Meta year-round. To avoid any confusion, the lucky chosen have already lost keycard and email access. Also: Though this time off is not paid, you will not be able to seek external employment while on vacation. Remember: Your time off is for you!”
Amanda Yeun, a project manager in Meta’s virtual reality research division and one of the 10% chosen for endless time off, was not expecting to have to take vacation so soon.
“It’s confusing because with the previous unlimited vacation policy I was usually ironically shamed out of using even a single day of it,” Yeun said. “So I guess ‘endless time off’ just means we can take actual, real vacations now without being on-call or anything? Finally!”
When asked for comment, a legal representative from the company quickly reminded us that this is “definitely not” the same as termination and that employees distressed by the sudden change are encouraged to seek out counseling services at their own discretion.
Meta’s legal team did not respond when asked if vacationing employees are able to access their previous health insurance plans.
