Wow, so in Silicon Valley a week is an 'extended vacation'! I used to think that meant a month or more. How fast the world is changing.

I work for a Boulder tech startup with an unlimited vacation policy.

Last year I took a month in Japan and South Korea, I just returned from two weeks in Tokyo, Taipei and Hong Kong. I also spent two weeks in Europe earlier this year, plus some odd long weekends and a planned week away around Christmas. I think my total for 2014 comes to around six weeks.

We also have a policy of working one month a year remotely from anywhere and the company pays part of the expense. I'm heading to Hanoi next year to take advantage of that. Our CEO/co-founder took his family to Australia for a month.

An exception? Probably. But it works for us.

as an european, i'm envious.

It is compared to a "long weekend" as described in the parent comment. Although it would be nice, taking a month off every year would be grail-status vacation time for a US employee I think.

Also, I don't work in Silicon Valley.

Huh. My vacation started at a month when I joined. But I usually take it a week at a time. And I work in the US, for a Silicon Valley company.

which one?

Well, here in Uruguay, you have to take 10 days minimum, at least twice a year.

Plus you get close to a week off a few times a year (Easter and Carnival). So a week is nothing special here :)

It has a silver lining: it forces the company to plan for backups and make processes more explicit.

Color me envious. I currently get 10 paid vacation days total per year.

Twenty years ago, back in England, I had 5 weeks of vacation and standard public holidays. I moved to the United States and after twenty years I have "progressed" to zero vacation days and all public holidays as unpaid time off.

You won't stay envious for long if you get my paycheck :P .

I'm currently considering a move to the U.S. (the grass is always greener on the other side).

In large parts of Europe, 3+ weeks contiguously is the norm for summer vacations.