LinkedIn: Is Unlimited Vacation Too Good to Be True? (LNKD)

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The question of whether Americans work too much has been a hot topic for some time, and it’s become an even more pressing question as many employers begin to implement a “discretionary time off” policy.

LinkedIn: Is Unlimited Vacation Too Good to Be True? (LNKD)In other words, employees are being offered unlimited paid vacation time. Some companies that currently offer this benefit include General Electric (GE), Netflix (NFLX) and Groupon (GRPN).

But the latest company to join the list is LinkedIn (LNKD), which runs the world’s largest professional network on the Internet. (It’s basically Facebook for working professionals.)

The website currently has more than 380 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world, with new professionals signing up for the service at a rate of two members per second.

As of Nov. 1, LinkedIn will offer its more than 8,700 full-time employees (located in offices in 30 cities across the globe) as much time off as they would like.

But it does come with a few catches.

Unlimited Vacation May Not Be All It’s Cracked up to Be

First, employees cannot create alternative work schedules, such as a three-day week. Second, they can’t take off large chunks of time. LinkedIn’s Chief Human Resource Officer Pat Wadors says a six-month period of time off is a leave of absence, not a vacation. And finally, employees still need to work out their schedule with their managers.

So the trick is to take off as much time as possible without overloading either your schedule or your coworkers’ schedules, all while continuing to prove that you’re a hardworking and dedicated employee. Good luck.

In addition to unveiling its unlimited vacation policy, LinkedIn also announced that its U.S. employees will get to take the entire week of the Fourth of July holiday off. So in the end, LNKD is going from offering 15 days of accrued vacation time and 13 paid holidays to unlimited vacation and 17 paid holidays. I received a tweet from one of my followers saying to sign him up for a job at the company, and I can’t say I blame him.

LinkedIn’s announcement comes at a time when corporate America is being pressured by concerns of overworked employees. According to a 2014 U.S. Travel Association survey, U.S. workers leave about 40% of their available vacation time on the table.

But who says unlimited vacation will actually encourage employees to take the time off they’ve earned?

Some people think it will actually push workers to take less time off, which is exactly why crowd-funding company Kickstarter dropped its unlimited vacation policy. Instead, some employers are offering bonuses, more paid holidays or other incentives to keep their employees well rested and happy.

Bottom Line on LNKD Stock

OK, so what does all of this mean for LNKD stock? Well, let’s back up a moment.

LNKD stock got hammered back in May after drastically lowering full-year guidance in its first-quarter earnings report. In addition, the company also reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth since it went public in 2011. Nobody had been expecting such weak results, and the stock plummeted as much as 21% the following day.

LNKD-LinkedIn-Chart-Payne

Shares of LNKD have been stuck in a range ever since, trading mostly between $175 and $225 — it’s currently right in the middle of that range. And while the company’s new vacation policy has been getting a lot of attention lately, I’m not sure it’s the kind of attention or substance that can move the stock higher.

I’m not in here — I’m worried about execution, which is something I always pay close attention to. And we just haven’t seen this company live up to its potential, and certainly not the hype.

Instead, management seems too focused on things like unlimited vacations. Until we see a more fundamental shift at the company, I would stay away from LNKD stock.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/10/lnkd-lnkd-stock-linkedin/.

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