Like all-you-can-eat shrimp or the right to consume candy and ice cream all day because your parents can’t stop you anymore, unlimited vacation time isn't quite as fabulous as you might think.
就像自助餐吃大蝦和隨意吃糖果冰淇淋而沒(méi)有父母嘮叨一樣，“無(wú)限假期”其實(shí)也沒(méi)有你想的那么光鮮。

LinkedIn is the latest employer to offer what's known as "discretionary time off," or "DTO" in corporate HR-speak. Starting on Nov. 1, the job networking site’s approximately 6,000 US employees will be able to take as much time off as they want every year.
領(lǐng)英公司成為提供“自主休假”或者“DTO”的又一位雇主，他們剛在人力資源部的講話中宣布此事。新政策自11月1日開(kāi)始實(shí)行。領(lǐng)英是一個(gè)聚焦工作人際關(guān)系的網(wǎng)站，在全美境內(nèi)約有6000名員工，他們今后將能按自己的意愿休年假。

Sort of.
差不多是這樣。

“The purpose is to empower managers and employees,” Pat Wadors, LinkedIn’s chief human resource officer, told The Huffington Post. Employees are adults who don’t need to be micromanaged or wait to accrue vacation days after a designated period, she said.
領(lǐng)英現(xiàn)任首席人力資源官帕特·沃多爾表示“其目的就是授予經(jīng)理和員工權(quán)力，”她向赫芬頓郵報(bào)如此說(shuō)道。她稱(chēng)，雇員是成年人，他們不再需要被從頭管到腳，也無(wú)需等到過(guò)完指定時(shí)間后再休年假。

But there are limits to the new policy. Workers can’t create an alternative work schedule, such as three-day weeks. They can’t take six months off. “That’s a leave of absence, not a vacation,” Wadors said. Employees need to work out their days off with their managers.
但新政策也有限制。員工們不能制定另類(lèi)的工作時(shí)間表，比如一周只工作三天。他們也不能休六個(gè)月的假。“那是曠工，而非休假，”沃爾多表示。雇員們得和他們的經(jīng)理協(xié)調(diào)好自己的假期。

It’s not really unlimited vacation, in other words. It's a tricky bit of push and pull, in which employees must figure out how much time to take off without overloading their own work schedules or those of their colleagues -- and still convince their bosses that they're devoted employees. Wadors said that LinkedIn managers know to offer feedback to employees so they don't feel insecure about what to do.
這并非實(shí)打?qū)嵉摹盁o(wú)限假期”，換句話說(shuō)，這就是場(chǎng)拉鋸戰(zhàn)，員工必須盤(pán)算出休假的最佳長(zhǎng)度，既要保證不讓自己和同事超負(fù)荷工作，又得讓上司相信自己是忠誠(chéng)上進(jìn)的員工。沃爾多透露道，領(lǐng)英的經(jīng)理們會(huì)為自己的員工提供反饋，確保他們不會(huì)對(duì)如何休假感到不安。

The company joins a number of white-collar employers who give their workers the power to decide how much vacation to take, including General Electric Co., Netflix and Virgin Group.
和領(lǐng)英一樣讓自己?jiǎn)T工“量體定假”的公司還有通用電氣，Netflix和維珍集團(tuán)。

The knock against unlimited vacation policies is that they may actually wind up pushing employees to take less vacation. Kickstarter last month dropped its unlimited vacation policy for this very reason. Now the crowdfunding company offers a generous 25 days of vacation a year.
無(wú)限假期的反效果就是到頭來(lái)員工休的假反而更少。Kickstarter上個(gè)月就因?yàn)檫@個(gè)原因而放棄了無(wú)限假期政策。現(xiàn)在這個(gè)眾籌公司每年為員工提供多達(dá)25天的假期。

Matt Yglesias even suggested in an article for Slate a few years ago that unlimited vacation is a sinister plot cooked up by the overlords to passive-aggressively force people to work more. Employees will feel too insecure to actually take a vacation, he said. That seems a bit overwrought -- these policies do seem fairly well-intentioned.
馬特·伊格雷西亞斯前幾年曾為Slate雜志撰文指出：無(wú)限假期就是一項(xiàng)邪惡計(jì)劃，目的就是為了變相偷偷強(qiáng)迫人們做更多的工作。他表示，員工們會(huì)對(duì)休假感到不安。這似乎有點(diǎn)想多了，因?yàn)檫@些政策的本意的確是好的。

The companies who put unlimited vacation policies in place say that they trust their workers. But in order for it to really work, employees must also trust their bosses.
踐行“無(wú)限假期”政策的公司表示，他們信任自己的員工。但是為了保證這能真正有效，員工們也必須要相信自己的老板。

Generally speaking, Americans don’t take enough vacation. So, it doesn't hurt when bosses remind workers to take time off -- and take time off themselves. Even when companies specify a set amount of time off, workers leave a lot of unused vacation days on the table. US workers don’t take about 40 percent of their available vacation time, according to one 2014 survey.
通常來(lái)說(shuō)，美國(guó)人休的假都不夠長(zhǎng)。所以，老板提醒員工和自己去休假也沒(méi)什么大不了。就算公司已經(jīng)給他們?cè)O(shè)定好了休假的時(shí)間，員工每年都有很多假?zèng)]休掉。2014年的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示，美國(guó)的員工們實(shí)際休假的時(shí)長(zhǎng)，連規(guī)定假期的40%都不到。

Some employers are getting more creative about forcing workers out of the office: One startup actually gives workers $7,500 to take vacation. Other bosses send out email reminders to people to tell them to take time off. Evernote gives a $1,000 bonus to workers who take at least one full week off in a year, according to an article from the Society for Human Resource Management.
有些雇主為了讓員工休假更是花樣百出：一家初創(chuàng)公司拿出7500美金鼓勵(lì)員工休假。有的老板則是給員工發(fā)郵件提醒他們?cè)撔菁倭恕?jù)人力資源管理協(xié)會(huì)的一篇文章報(bào)道，印象筆記公司給每位每年休假一周以上的員工1000美金的補(bǔ)貼。

Still, unlimited vacation is a pretty rare policy. Only about 1 percent of employers offer it, Society for Human Resource Management data shows. About 20 percent of workers in the private sector don’t have any paid vacation at all.
不過(guò)，人力資源管理協(xié)會(huì)數(shù)據(jù)顯示，“無(wú)限假期”還是一項(xiàng)比較少見(jiàn)的福利。只有約1%的雇主提供這類(lèi)政策。20%就職于私企的員工根本就沒(méi)有帶薪假期。

Vocabulary

discretionary: 自由決定的
accrue: 獲得；積累

英文來(lái)源：赫芬頓郵報(bào)
譯者：阿甘太達(dá)
審校&編輯：丹妮