Rising Star
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I joined KGS in feb 2022, we recently got a mail regarding timeline of appraisal and bonus payout from the partner. My reporting manager hasn't yet reached out to me regarding goal setting, not sure if that happens here. Can you pls help me to know what all things we need to do from our end for the appraisal cycle and bonus payout? Since I'm new to this company KPMG KPMG India
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I will probably end up hitting 8 weeks this year. Targeting 7-8 next year.
There's no tracker system, and it's definitely not based on seniority. Managers will check on people throughout the year to poke people to take vacation if we haven't taken any, and make sure we have enough coverage so we don't have entire engineering teams just gone for a month at the same time. Managers (as a soft requirement) encourage people to take a minimum of 5 weeks off a year. Of course, this is also to make sure people aren't abusing this generous policy, but I haven't heard of anyone having their PTO requests rejected, only shifted to avoid too much overlap.
We strive for a very healthy and balanced work culture that encourages good mental, physical, and emotional health. We openly talk about therapy, burnout, depression, mental health days, etc. and we all recognize that people do their best work when our home lives, families, and mental health are taken care of.
I feel like this actually encourages everyone to strive to do their best work more efficiently, because we recognize how privileged it is to have such amazing support and trust from our work and colleagues, and we're not constantly burnt out.
There are still times when we have crunch time, deadlines, all hands on deck, and such, where I feel overworked, but knowing that I can say "hey I worked a few late nights last week to meet this deadline, so I'm going to take a couple days off to recharge" balances things out. I feel very lucky for sure, and I hope more and more companies adopt this kind of balanced and trusting work environment :)
I’ve worked for 3 companies with discretionary PTO and each time it was legit. All cultures were great. I had one manager tell me that he expected for me to take at least 30 days a year.
Last year I must have taken 3-3.5 months off in total (including weekends), but 1 month was from bereavement. Still, says something about the org that you took a month off for bereavement and still got pto approved later in the year
5ish weeks on top of company holidays. Never had any pushback.
I take 2 weeks in a row + 5-8 days spread out across the year to make some long weekends. My company also closes from Christmas to New Years so total time away is about 4-5 weeks.
I honestly don’t see how people here take 8 weeks of PTO per year. Yes, I’m jealous. Yes, I have unlimited PTO. No, it’s simply not possible. Before you tell me that I didn’t build a good enough team, just remember than at young, growing companies, you are rarely fully staffed.
I just counted and have taken 16 days off so far this year so I think I'll land at a total of 4 weeks. My husband and I take two consecutive weeks each Summer. The rest are typically long weekends. If my company did not switch to unlimited 10 or so years ago, I'd be at 6 weeks with our old policy - No clue if I'd actually use that much if it was available to me. I've been with my company since 2008. This makes me think I should take more days off! :)
3-4 weeks but I would say most people in the company average more and I could take more, I just don't have anything going on right now. I also don't record any of the partial/half days I take for dr appointments, things with the kids etc.
I'm on track to take 23 days this year. But I started in Jan and didn't take any until mid-May bc I was new. I'll probably take about 25-30 days next year and feel pretty good about it. I'm fully remote so that doesn't count cutting out early or starting late for appts and such.
I work for a US based, unicorn start up and the mentality is very much, "get your work done and you can do what you want."
No nearly enough. Not by a long shot.
Rising Star
I'd say about 5-6 weeks. Vacations in the summer and around the holidays, and several long weekends or personal days.
I have the awkward honor of being the weirdo of the planet. I have open-PTO available, but I never use it. In the past 3 years I think I've taken...maybe 5 days off. And every one of them was for a priority reason, not recreation. I simply don't like taking time off, I don't enjoy vacations, and I find directionless time stressful and unwanted. And I honestly hate organizations that somehow think they know me better than I do and want to force me to take time anyway.
Out of curiosity, do you feel the same way about weekends?
Here’s my accrual rate at my current company…..
I’ve been at my company for several years now and in the beginning I definitely took fewer, maybe 2-3 weeks. But as of today I’ve taken 26 days and that doesn’t include the sick day I just took last Monday bc I was too sick to log in. I’m proud that I’ve taken this much time off and have been just as productive, if not more productive this year than others. It has shown me it is important to take time off. The culture on my team is no one questions it, and mostly respects the time you are off. Most of my career I never used up all my vacation days. That is not a badge of honor. Take off when you’re sick. Take the vacation you’ve earned.
My goal would be around 4-5 weeks, but there have definitely been many times I've had less than that.
At one company I worked at, the CTO informed us that although we technically had unlimited PTO, he would be watching to see who used it the most - which, of course, motivates everyone to use less.
Unlimited PTO isn't always great. I'd rather have a very generous accrued PTO policy than unlimited, but that's extremely rare. I'd rather have unlimited PTO than the typical accrued PTO.
I think companies with unlimited PTO should either set a fixed MINIMUM amount of PTO, or provide guidance on expectations - for example, "70% of employees take 20-30 days off each year"
10 weeks
Just put in my remaining requests and hit 30 days/6 weeks. Not sure if that’s too much or not but no one has said anything to me so I assume it’s fine 🤷🏻♀️
By the end of this year, I will have taken something like 25-30 days (5-6 weeks), not including official bereavement or company-sponsored days like recognized holidays. Some of those were kind of “extra bereavement” days, though, and I also had two international weddings.
At my last company, which did not have unlimited PTO, I was at 19 days per year but could roll over up to 5 days to use within the first quarter. I always rolled over the max, meaning I was only using 14, until I left. As long as those roll-over days were used within the first quarter, any days from that calendar year were paid out upon quitting. Doesn’t feel like I’ve nearly doubled my PTO because I tend to be so stressed about actually using it now!
I don't need it. I'm entitled to 25 days and I can buy or sell up to 5 days. I typically take the 5 weeks, this year I bought a couple of extra days.
The point is, I am entitled to it. No matter how tempting it might be for a manager to pressure me into not taking it, he has no power to do that. My contract states this.
Wow I really don’t envy the people with unlimited PTO. I see now how the gray area would give so much pressure. I have 23 days PTO & unlimited sick days (up to 5 consecutive), and it’s more than enough. I love knowing I can bank them and eventually be paid out if I leave & have left. I love knowing I’m entitled to them and there’s zero guilt. Everyone in the company regardless of title and seniority has the same amount which is also really nice and fair. And the unlimited sick days I’ve never had before - they make such a difference to my mental and physical health. People use them liberally, so I do too. A little headache or bad night of sleep and I take it easy, take the day off.
My first job I had only 2-3 weeks (can’t remember) but only 6 public holidays (instead of ~12) and was still expected to work through thanksgiving. Also zero sick days, you had to use PTO even if that was already allocated to a planned vacation. So I would work with fever. And then senior managers up had unlimited PTO so there was this huge imbalance and unfairness in the hierarchy.
Probably doesnt work for everybody but I don't have a set amount I try to take. If I have a family/holiday event planned, I'll take 1-3 weeks off at a time. Otherwise, I like taking occasional days here and there throughout each quarter for my own mental health. If I combine all of that time, the most I've done so far is 6-8 weeks in total, maybe a little more.
This year I will have used 3 weeks of unlimited PTO