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有父母嘮叨一樣，“無限假期”其實也沒有你想的那么光鮮。

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日開始實行。領英是一個聚焦工作人際關系的網站，在全美境內約有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.
領英現任首席人力資源官帕特·沃多爾表示“其目的就是授予經理和員工權力，”她向赫芬頓郵報如此說道。她稱，雇員是成年人，他們不再需要被從頭管到腳，也無需等到過完指定時間后再休年假。

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的工作時間表，比如一周只工作三天。他們也不能休六個月的假。“那是曠工，而非休假，”沃爾多表示。雇員們得和他們的經理協調好自己的假期。

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.
這并非實打實的“無限假期”，換句話說，這就是場拉鋸戰，員工必須盤算出休假的最佳長度，既要保證不讓自己和同事超負荷工作，又得讓上司相信自己是忠誠上進的員工。沃爾多透露道，領英的經理們會為自己的員工提供反饋，確保他們不會對如何休假感到不安。

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.
和領英一樣讓自己員工“量體定假”的公司還有通用電氣，Netflix和維珍集團。

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.
無限假期的反效果就是到頭來員工休的假反而更少。Kickstarter上個月就因為這個原因而放棄了無限假期政策。現在這個眾籌公司每年為員工提供多達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：無限假期就是一項邪惡計劃，目的就是為了變相偷偷強迫人們做更多的工作。他表示，員工們會對休假感到不安。這似乎有點想多了，因為這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.
通常來說，美國人休的假都不夠長。所以，老板提醒員工和自己去休假也沒什么大不了。就算公司已經給他們設定好了休假的時間，員工每年都有很多假沒休掉。2014年的一項調查顯示，美國的員工們實際休假的時長，連規定假期的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：一家初創公司拿出7500美金鼓勵員工休假。有的老板則是給員工發郵件提醒他們該休假了。據人力資源管理協會的一篇文章報道，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，人力資源管理協會數據顯示，“無限假期”還是一項比較少見的福利。只有約1%的雇主提供這類政策。20%就職于私企的員工根本就沒有帶薪假期。

Vocabulary

discretionary: 自由決定的
accrue: 獲得；積累

英文來源：赫芬頓郵報
譯者：阿甘太達
審校&編輯：丹妮