Mike Duran may spend a day on Angel Island. It might just be the silver lining to the impending economic downturn. Several Bay Area companies have asked employees to take up to five days off this quarter, trying to cut costs without laying off employees. The days are unpaid unless employees use vacation time to cover them. National Semiconductor Corp. in Santa Clara confirmed Friday that it has asked its workers to take five days off by the end of May, following similar moves by Applied Materials Inc. of Santa Clara and Charles Schwab Corp. of San Francisco.
Workers appear to be taking the unexpected leave in stride.
Some say that's because this has happened before in the valley, as recently as 1998 and as far back as the 1970s. It's unclear where the practice started. Even if employees use accumulated vacation to get paid for the days off, companies still win, said Maureen McNichols, an accounting professor at Stanford University. As employees accrue vacation time, companies set aside vacation pay. It's as if the company has already paid the employees.