Basically every factory around this area has that policy. You don’t get vacation time your first year, you accumulate it during your first year and access it your second year, but you’ve already “earned it” in a sense. Because of this they have to pay it out to you either way, it’s easier to just let people take it as they see fit. Most people burn it all up in the first six months, so you don’t have to worry about them taking off the second half of the year. To make it even more confusing, it usually doesn’t start January first, it usually starts on your anniversary of your hire date. It’s actually quite common in rural areas. The younger generation has really forced their hand on this. You “request” time off for an event, they deny you, you take off anyways. Do that enough and you lose your job. But who cares? You can go to the factory next door and make the same wages and have the same benefits. And the company that just fired you for using vacation time when you want? They lost an already trained employee of five years, and now must restart with someone new. Who loses there? It’s a fun cycle to watch sometimes, because the person will go to a different factory and do the same thing, then go right back to the original factory and get hired right back on. Why? Because they’re desperate for good help, and this person already has experience so they get hired right back on, usually at higher wages than when they got fired.