Neato

Netflix lets workers hold own leashes

'Los Gatos, Calif. - When it comes to vacation, Netflix has a simple policy: Take as much as you'd like.

Just make sure your work is done.

Employees at the online movie retailer often leave for three, four, even five weeks at a time and never clock in or out. Vacation limits and face-time requirements, says Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings, are "a relic of the industrial age."

Across America, executives are searching for ways to keep experienced baby boomers at their companies and attract younger workers, many of whom are used to controlling which songs they listen to and where they get their news.

Netflix's time-off rules - or lack thereof - are part of a broad culture of employee autonomy instilled in the company when Hastings founded it a decade ago.

The executives trust staffers to make their own decisions on everything - from whether to bring their dog to the office to how much of their salary they want in cash and how much in stock options.

"We want our employees to have great freedom - freedom to be brilliant or freedom to make mistakes," Hastings said.

Though cultural change is hard to measure, some of America's largest businesses are experimenting with unconventional time-off rules and benefits. New Brunswick, N.J., health-care giant Johnson & Johnson has an ever-expanding stable of work-life balance programs, including an extra week's paid vacation for new moms and dads, and for parents adopting.

"Companies are trying to give people more responsibility, more freedom and more flexibility," said Carol Sladek, a principal at Lincolnshire, Ill., human-resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates.

To be sure, Netflix's time-off policy is rare and only applies to its 300-plus salaried workers, not the much larger hourly workforce.

Experts said it's hard to imagine a bigger Fortune 500 company adopting the idea.'