Sounds awesome, right?

聽起來不錯吧？

Only about 8% of employers offer this perk, according to a recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management,

根據人力資源管理協會最近的一項調查，只有大約 8% 的雇主提供這種福利。

That's up from 6% of employers compared to the same survey in 2022.

這相比於 2022 年的同一調查中的 6% 有所增加。

So did you find the Holy Grail of companies? Or is unlimited PTO too good to be true?

所以，你找到這些極少數的公司了嗎？還是無限的帶薪休假太美好而難以置信？

You could be pretty sure that if you decided to take six months off, they're going to stop you.

你可以很確定，如果你決定休息六個月，他們會制止你。

The idea of unlimited vacation is not a formal promise.

無限休假的概念並不是一個正式的承諾。

It is basically just a catchphrase.

它基本上只是一個口號。

This is Professor Peter Capelli. He teaches at the Wharton School.

這位是 Peter Capelli 教授。他在沃頓商學院任教學校。

I've been at the Wharton School for 38 years. I'm like a piece of furniture.

我在沃頓商學院已經工作了 38 年。我已經是這裡不可或缺的一份子。

Professor Capelli has been looking into trends like unlimited PTO and the push from pensions to employee-driven 401k plants, he found a common threat.

卡佩利教授一直在研究一些趨勢，如無限帶薪休假和由養老金轉向員工主導的401k計劃，他發現了一個共同的趨勢。

Most of these so called perks are ways for companies to reduce liabilities, simply put their accounting tricks.

這些所謂的福利大多是公司為了減少負債而採用的手段，簡單來說就是他們的會計手法。

I think my interest in it came by looking at various ways in which companies seem to be managing employees that didn't make a whole lot of business sense or even management scam now,

我對這個的興趣是通過觀察公司似乎在管理員工方面採取了一些在商業上甚至是管理上都沒有太多意義的方式，

and the issue of financial accounting drives a lot of that behavior.

財務會計問題推動了很多這種行為。

And is there things that maybe look cheaper from financial accounting perspective, but in the long run probably is not layoffs are one of them, right?

也許有些事情在財務會計的角度看起來更便宜，但從長遠來看可能並非如此，裁員就是其中之一，對吧？

The evidence seems to be the business actually is better if you can delay layoffs as long as possible,

證據似乎表明，如果你能盡可能地延遲裁員，實際上業務會更好，

because you might save money on the cutting side, but you lose capability on the rebound side when the economy picks up.

因為你可能在削減成本方面節省了錢，但在經濟復甦時卻失去了能力。

So I was interested in those kinds of questions.

因此，我對這些問題很感興趣。

And you know, the big thing about unlimited vacation, and the main motivation for doing it is that a lot of employee benefits vacation time, in particular, but also sick leave and things like that are accrued benefits.

而且你知道，無限休假的一個重要之處，以及採用這種制度的主要動機是，很多員工福利，特別是休假時間，還有病假等等，都是積累的福利。

And that means that you earn them basically by working and the employer effectively kind of owes them to you.

這意味著你基本上是通過工作來賺取這些福利，雇主實際上算是欠你這些福利。

And so they count as liabilities on the company's balance sheet.

因此，這些福利在公司的資產負債表上被視為負債。

So if you can dump those liabilities, and then suddenly the company is more valuable, and that is what unlimited vacation time does.

因此，如果你能擺脫這些負債，突然之間公司就更有價值，這就是無限休假的作用。

I don't think employees understand that, that basically by telling you, we're moving to this new model of dumping their obligations to you under the old model,

我不認為員工明白，公司基本上是通過告訴你，我們正在轉向這種新模式，在舊模式下將他們的義務轉嫁給你，而在舊模式下，

where you actually kind of had a right to some of that vacation time.

你實際上有權利享受一些休假。

Now in fairness, that's because they were working instead of taking their vacation time, and typically not by choice.

公平地說，這是因為他們在工作而不是度假，通常並不是出於自願。

So you probably know most Americans don't come anywhere near using all their vacation time.

所以你可能知道，大多數美國人根本沒有利用完他們所有的休假時間。

And the main reason they say they don't take it is because of work demands.

他們說不休假的主要原因是工作的需求。

You know, "The organization is running so lean, we can't get our work done if you take your vacation, so please stay and work."

公司會說：「組織的運作非常精簡，如果你休假，我們無法完成工作，所以請留下來工作。」

So it's not that, you know, the company is doing them a favor, it's the employees can't use their vacation time.

所以不是公司在幫他們一個忙，而是員工不能利用他們的休假時間。

So they end up getting paid for it at the end.

所以最終他們放到假，而是換成錢。

If you're an employer, employees are a huge part.

如果你是雇主，員工佔很大一部分。

They're typically the majority of your costs.

通常，他們是你成本的大部分。

And so it's not probably surprising that they are trying to find ways to cut those costs.

通常，他們是你成本的大部分。

They're also trying to find ways to look better on financial accounting terms.

所以他們試圖找到削減這些成本的方法也許不足為奇。

So as investors became more important, financial accounting became more important.

因此，隨著投資者變得更加重要，財務會計也變得更加重要。

And companies have pursued lots of efforts to cut those accounting costs.

公司已經付出了很多努力來削減這些會計成本。

And pensions are a big one. Those were big liabilities that companies owned.

養老金是一個重要的層面。這是公司擁有的巨大負債。

So we dumped in pension plans, we moved to our defined contribution plans, suddenly the company is more valuable because those liabilities disappear.

所以我們擺脫了養老金計劃，我們轉向了我們的定義貢獻計劃，突然之間公司變得更有價值，因為那些負債消失了。

Same thing happened with vacation time.

休假的福利也發生一樣的事情。

I imagine the same thing will happen with other things like sick leave and anything else the company owes to employees.

我想其他方面，比如病假和公司對員工的其他任何義務，可能也會發生類似的情況。

It's really driven by these financial accounting concerns.

這真的是由這些財務會計的擔憂所驅動的。