I interviewed with such a place and started questioning them about what this really means. How much do people take on average? What would be unacceptable? The response was pretty much something like "You can take off when the workload and your projects allow it" and they didn't give any hard numbers. It made me wonder if people there actually take less vacation than the usual few weeks.
In my experience it leads to less vacation for most workers. But some people take advantage of it without raising suspicion.
The average worker has no baseline for what amount is appropriate. They think they are always too busy. Their boss thinks they are too busy.
But some people get more by being untransparent. If I’m going on a fishing trip, I don’t tell anyone. If something comes up, “I’m out of the office, I can meet when I get back or do a call.” Nobody knows if I’m traveling for work or vacation.
Ah, yes, the tyranny of structurelessness and shifting the burden of the answer on the employee.
By giving a vague answer the allow themselves the option of pretending like the workload and projects did not allow it at the time you were going to take your vacation.
It's dishonest at best and a devious dark pattern at worst.
