While talking with friends the other day, I was reminded of the latest trend in corporate malfeasance. Corporations are moving to this new idea where any day is vacation day as long as you are caught up with your work. You are free to take any day off you want. It is all up to you. We will no longer be tracking vacation days because you are free to take any day off. The company doesn’t have to track, you don’t have to track. All you have to do is make sure your work is caught up. Isn’t this great?

As a matter of fact, it is not great. It is a horrible idea designed to screw employees out of paid time off. There are two mitigating factors to consider here. The first is corporations were having trouble with balancing their books at the end of the year because employees were carrying over paid time into the next year. This meant that the unused time which was budgeted for a specific year wasn’t being used in the that year. This played havoc with the bean counters. They want to balance the books at the end year. In the past, this usually resulted in a message from HR telling you to use your time off in the appropriate year. We want you to use your time off that is why we generously provided you with time off. Don’t you understand how much we care about you and your work/life balance? With this new policy, the company released from their responsibility to track time off, and more importantly their responsibility to pay for unused time, just shrugs their shoulders indifferently. It isn’t their problem any more.

Then the companies claim that they are no longer keeping track. Yeah. I can take off every day as long as I keep my work up-to-date. Don’t believe that for one minute. If you are taking too much time off — your boss will be aware. She will then say to herself either I need to give this person more work or why don’t I can cut this sucker’s job and move her tasks over to somebody else. The bottom line is someone will be aware if you are taking too much time.

On the other hand, they will be conveniently unaware of your time off if you are overloaded with work and don’t feel you can take the time off. Then they are definitely not tracking. Oh you haven’t had a day off in a year, sorry, we aren’t tracking, that’s up to you now. In the past, this was time you were owed. You may not have been able to take the time off when you should have but, at least, you got paid for your time when you left the company. No more. So they are selectively tracking or not tracking which ever is convenient for them. The point is you lose either way.

Finally, what galls me the most is the happy HR introduction of changes like these. HR makes it sound like the company has this wonderful idea that is going to make you so very happy. Nobody believes it. Most people know that when a company makes changes like this, it is acting in its own self-interest. I would rather have blunt honesty over saccharine lies.