At my last "real" full-time job, developers could accumulate vacation time that was not used in a given year. Sometimes it was on purpose, so as to take longer vacations later on, often it was required because of deadlines, staffing shortages, whatever.
Then one day the new company owner declares that vacation time could no longer be accrued. Use it or lose it. Some folks had many weeks of time saved up.
The owner said that people can use up what they've already saved, but added, Keep in mind that if your department can afford to do without you for several weeks then perhaps you're not so essential. He all but winked when he said it.
This was just one of the things that convinced me to just leave and work for myself.
I have a somewhat-related story about the last place I worked. During my first year there the company was in the process of replacing half a dozen consultants with a handful of full-time employees. We worked very hard with limited resources and weren't allowed to take a vacation. Even working on the end-of-year holidays to complete deadlines before the end of the calendar year. Our manager kept telling us that we could carry over our accrued vacation time and be "taken care of" next year. And there was a policy of carrying over vacation days to the next calendar year.
So the start of the next year comes and my team gets our first paycheck and for some reason we all have zero vacation time. We are all stunned and quickly talk to HR. It turns out that employees can carry over vacation days, but _NOT_ in your first year of tenure. So the team lost all of our vacation days and restarted at zero. Our manager looked into it and discovered that those were the rules. He went to his manager to see if we could get our vacations back but he couldn't get anyone from HR to change their mind as "that was the policy". Needless to say, we were pretty pissed off.
Then one day the new company owner declares that vacation time could no longer be accrued. Use it or lose it. Some folks had many weeks of time saved up.
The owner said that people can use up what they've already saved, but added, Keep in mind that if your department can afford to do without you for several weeks then perhaps you're not so essential. He all but winked when he said it.
This was just one of the things that convinced me to just leave and work for myself.