There are a bunch of items on the bargaining table when shoppingfor a new job. Salary, stock options, relocation expenses,signing bonuses, parking expenses, and other perqs are all negotiateduntil a mutually acceptable balance is found (or not). One item rarely open to negotiation is vacation time. There are strict rules on how much you get, how much you can save up, and how you can use it.

Why is this? The simplest reason, and sadly the most common, is just that it's company policy. Mandated salary ranges, stock options, and signing bonuses aren't mentioned in the employee handbook, but "10 hours of vacation per pay period" might as well be the company's mission statement, considering how difficult a rule it is to bend.

Opening up vacation time to negotiation can be beneficial for both the employee and the employer. Consider the impact more vacation time would have on the company and the employee: Most employees are given 2 weeks (sometimes 3) a year, starting their first year. Some companies add a week by pooling vacation days and sick days in the same bucket, but this shouldn't be seen as an advantage, and can work against you, when an extended illness finds you pulling vacation days instead of disability pay.Most companies would soonergive someone 20% more in compensation before they would let them work4% less days per year.

So why fight the battle? Simple. The way we work has changed a great deal in the last twenty years, and fundamental workplace changes are only now starting to catch up. Concepts like telecommuting and flexible hours are starting to get the recognition they deserve, and the way we work is only making it easier to support longer vacations.

First and formost, it's important In many industries, the tech sector especially, employees are almost as modular as the cubicles they inhabit. Examine your own workflow for a moment. It's likely that you're part of a Redundant Array of Indispensible Employees (RAIE).There are a bunch of reasons, most of which aren't truly valid. But to start, I'll breifly mention two valid reasons. There are certainly some valid reasons:

• Many positionsrequire continuity. Having a point of client contact absent 'too' oftencould convey a lack of organization within the company, or a decreasein responsiveness to client needs.
• Consistant output. In workgroups where the aggregate outputcan't support a drop in productivity (managerspeak for Spring Fever),Two or more people taking time at once could cause schedules toslide.

Both of these can be overcome creatively, but while managements will sometimesgrant leaves of absence (without pay) on a case-by-case basis to employees who have proventhemselves, they are almost never open to negotiating vacation timeat the outset of an employment relationship, especially when thepotential employee is a fungiblecommodity.