Skift Take

Beyond the faddiness of the word itself, the concept of actively helping employees take more vacations, for them to be better & happier at work and in life, is an admirable and much needed cultural change that is sorely needed in American work life.

Have you heard of “precations?” Well, you’re among the large majority who hasn’t, but apparently it is a thing now.

No, not a trend yet, but a thing some company — a startup, who else — came up with, and then a mainstream publication wrote a story about it, and now everyone is scrambling to find another company, and maybe another company after that. And then, voila, a trend! Or valid enough that New York Times will do a “trend piece” on it.

If you don’t know what it is, here’s the gist of it: a tech company in Silicon Valley started giving new employees paid time off to take a vacation before they join their new job, as a perk to rejuvenate before starting the new job.

On paper, sounds like a great idea, and considering how little vacation Americans are taking, a great perk to attract the best talent. Some others have been mocking the concept as a way to get employees to work even more, as in “Yeah, have a great time! And when you get back here, work your ass off.”

The larger issue of vacations points to the sorry state of overworked Americans, and a slightly more nuanced discussion of it happened earlier this week on HuffPost Live, where yours truly was a guest, along with the CEO of Atlassian, the Silicon Valley-based software company that has an “unlimited vacations” policy and is also offering “precations” to new employees, as a way to recruit the best talent and retain them.

Watch the 15 minute segment below:

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Tags: Travel Trends

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