Sorry, forgot to explain. 3+2 means "3 weeks accrued over the year and usable anytime, 2 weeks of company-wide break (specifically the weeks of thanksgiving and christmas)". The decision to do a company-wide break probably deserves a thread of its own. The short version is that it works great.
Yes, that's what it means, with the exception of support and on-call rotation.
Let's face it: american companies are not productive over thanksgiving and christmas. They just pretend to be. By making these 2 weeks vacation, we simply embrace reality.
So... First year folks are 2+1. So does that mean on the week or Thanksgiving (or Christmas) you guys are like "See 'ya newbies, we'll be back in a week."?
Or maybe the 2+1 was for the first year you were a company, as opposed to individual's tenure?
Yes, that's what it means :) We've put this in place for 2 reasons:
1) The 1st year at dotCloud is a big step for us, and a lot of people didn't make it in the past. Making it means that somebody has truly proven his worth (since he or she wasn't fired) and has adapted to our unusual culture (since he or she didn't resign). By attaching perks like this to the anniversary, we emphasize its importance.
2) We don't want people to join for the vacation. We take a lot of breaks because that's what intense, hard-working people need to avoid burnout. But the majority of people on the job market are not hard-working and intense enough for our standards - we're hoping this will help us filter for them.
Good question, there are special arrangements for support and 24/7 on-call rotation (eg. if you have to work during the company break you get vacation days). It's also very easy to trade on-call days with colleagues, and other ad-hoc arrangements.
I'm not 100% certain this would work in a bigger company where people think of it as "just a job". But in a small team where everybody is passionate and eager to make it successful, it works great.
