Vacation Factor

One of the phrases that are fairly heavily used in tech (as well as many other industries I’m sure) is “bus factor”. It basically describes the risk of information, knowledge, and other capabilities not shared amongst team members and therefore would be lost if the only person possessing those things would be “hit by a bus”.

I think that’s an absolutely awful thought and extremely cruel way to talk and think about other humans. So many years ago (I don’t remember when exactly but probably somewhere around 2014) I started to instead use the phrase “vacation factor” at work. With the definition of “what’s the risk of information, knowledge, or skills being inaccessible when a team member suddenly decides to go on vacation”. As a European, vacation to me means it’s impossible to contact them because they don’t have their laptop with them, don’t check slack or email, and otherwise don’t answer work calls. As it should be. So the person needs to be assumed completely inaccessible.

This way of thinking about it sounds a lot nicer to me. And it - in addition - normalizes taking frequent vacations as it also should be. It also helps team members think of the fact that coworkers go on vacation and plan for it. Hopefully making the “guilt of taking vacation” that definitely exists for some people also grow smaller.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of this. But I like the phrase and think it should be used more often.