Re: For what it's worth...

[Keri Morgret <kerilists -at- morgret -dot- net>]

I've seen the forced time off many times when I was in Silicon Valley. My 
understanding is that there are actually two reasons behind this.

1) Save money by closing the plant and not using the electricity, etc. 
during the plant closure.

2) Reduce liability on the books. The employees often take vacation time, 
which the company still has to pay - but it reduces the company's 
liability.. someone else can probably explain this better than I, but 
vacation on the books that people have not taken is considered a liability. 
By having people use some of their vacation, it reduces liability and makes 
the books look better, even if the company ends up paying the exact same 
amount in vacation pay that they would for salary if the people had worked 
(and save money if people don't have enough vacation time to pay for all of 
the forced time off).

Keri Morgret

At 07:59 AM 12/17/2003, k k wrote: