The email thing is a great idea IMO, first.last is great until you grow and the second and third John Smith start working for your company. Then you run into the "Who is John.Smith3@example.com"? issue. Your email system has a directory, use it and let the employees determine their address.
The "just take vacation whenever" thing works great until it doesn't. What do you do when:
- You have burnt out people who won't take vacation.
- Employee X has a husband with a terrible medical condition who is taking off excessive amounts of time. When do you stop paying her for this time?
- Employee Y crosses the invisible line and becomes a "slacker" because he takes too much time.
- Supervisor Z makes it difficult for employees to take anything more than a long weekend.
- Employee ZZ takes on reconciling the credit cards that everyone has access to, and uses this position to embezzle from the company. He's always busy, so doesn't take time off, and nobody else looks at the statements.
IMO, the issue to the company is that you don't want to accrue lots of liability for paying out accrued time. So figure out another way to do that. Want to make people happy? Give them 6 weeks of PTO, minimize accruals, and do a year-end shutdown that forces them to burn a week. Start with some sort of written policy -- people need to understand what they can and cannot do.
The "just take vacation whenever" thing works great until it doesn't. What do you do when:
- You have burnt out people who won't take vacation.
- Employee X has a husband with a terrible medical condition who is taking off excessive amounts of time. When do you stop paying her for this time?
- Employee Y crosses the invisible line and becomes a "slacker" because he takes too much time.
- Supervisor Z makes it difficult for employees to take anything more than a long weekend.
- Employee ZZ takes on reconciling the credit cards that everyone has access to, and uses this position to embezzle from the company. He's always busy, so doesn't take time off, and nobody else looks at the statements.
IMO, the issue to the company is that you don't want to accrue lots of liability for paying out accrued time. So figure out another way to do that. Want to make people happy? Give them 6 weeks of PTO, minimize accruals, and do a year-end shutdown that forces them to burn a week. Start with some sort of written policy -- people need to understand what they can and cannot do.