Thoughts on unlimited PTO?
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should always be paired with a "minimum" pto policy to encourage the time off
Yes👏🏽👏🏽
Mentor
Expanding on the “it’s a trap” comment. unlimited PTO is a screening mechanism - super users get stuck in their career or managed out even in the best cultures. Yes there very rarely exceptions for absolute rockstars who are also very visible typically in the co, but that’s definitely not 98% of us. Good users “aka good culture” either don’t take PTO or take what would otherwise be a normal allotted amount, but are screwed for payout if they leave (often a month or more of pay). In a hybrid work world, leaving early / coming in late but getting your work done means no one says anything anyways. Unlimited PTO is a trap
You forgot to mention, at least in my experience, that your minimum vacation time is paid out yearly on top of the unlimited pto (mental health days, sick days are part of this). Your pay cheques will be slightly higher with this in consideration and this when you leave the company you don’t lose out on banked vacation.
Depends on the team/company. No “minimum” time or similar policy at my company, but my team is super chill, so I’ve taken maybe a month or so off in the last 10 months? So far I’m really liking not having to think about my PTO balance
PRO: if done correctly, its nice not to have to count how many days you've use/accrued, etc. Nothing is truly unlimited, but its nice to be locked into a specific number of days
CON: you dont have days that roll over to the next year. Many companies that dont have unlimited PTO will eventually pay you out for the unused days. Unlimited PTO gets rid of that, so if you dont use your days, you never get compensated for that
As others have stated - all depends on how its implemented. If your company says its unlimited, but then constantly deny PTO requests, thats bad and just a way for them to save money on paying out the days. If the company allows you to take time when needed (assuming you dont abuse it), and you plan around the same or more than what a fixed PTO schedule would look like, then its good.
I like it since I tend to take off a lot for personal events and travel lol. I was never worried about a payout since I was never afraid to take off when I wanted to, even back when I was with companies that had the traditional accrued time model.
I love it
It’s about time companies start letting humans live their lives. Employees are not slaves. They should be able to travel and rest
My company has unlimited PTO and I'm not a fan. It's hard to take PTO because they have us understaffed so I do so much extra work to prepare someone else for my PTO, usually when I come back my desk is still overflowing with work. The unlimited PTO is a way companies don't have to pay out PTO hours so I personally don't see it as a plus because I never used my full PTO in a year because of my teams issues.
Issa Trap! If you leave, you can’t cash out your PTO ( if you have any left over), and depending on the company, they’ll barely let you take time off when you want to
It’s an excuse for the company not to pay out vacation when you leave.
It’s one of the few things I enjoy about my job, I randomly take days off and weeks and no one really cares. It can be annoying if you have a lot of work on your plate. For example I took a week off and worked a bit harder then usual the week I got back just to catch up on some things. But it’s okay in the long run.
Sign me up!!
It can be good or bad, depending on the people. Because You might end up not taking any time off if you're working at a company where breaks are not encourage. I like the flexibility but I rarely take vacations haha
I think that might be the case at my org. I know some members of my wider team did not take that much PTO in the last year.
Does feel like a buzzword / must have for recruiting but how it works in real life is all culture driven anyway
Sound good on paper but you also want to fit in with your work culture (do people take PTO there?) It’s a nice idea to have but you also don’t want to seem like you’re abusing it.
Mandatory PTO on the other hand sounds better.
I took 1 week off on my first year out of college because I was scare to ask for time off. After that I realize I was being dumb so I started to take one week off every quarter even if I had nothing planned. If i want to do a long vacation I will often do a extra week too. So it end up being 4-5 weeks per year with unlimited PTO. I also ensure my work and performance are always way above industry stander as tbh paid marketing can run poorly and hard to notice. I just like to put in my honest effort and get great results while taking well earn time off regardless of the length.
Had a horrible experience with it
If employee objectives and metrics are clear, sure. Unlim PTO can be great.
Mentor
Honestly, paying out PTO hours is so trivial given all the other costs associated with employing someone. It’s chump change, and there are way easier ways to mitigate that. I call bullshit unless a CFO gets on here to confirm.
Watch out for state laws that mandate payout PTO at departure…
Greta option and good selling point however stringent KPIs need to be in place to off set that
We just added unlimited PTO as a new policy and I had been saving two weeks in the old policy for a Europe trip. I booked 3 weeks, and guess who got a talking to for "I just want to make sure our department isn't seen as taking advantage of the system"
I haven't been taking vacation so I could do this. Guess I'll be working a few days while I'm over there.
My manager told me they ran a Workday HR report if we took more than 20 days off. One colleague had a 3week trip to Europe planned and it got flagged since she had taken previous days off. Ultimately it got approved but yeah unlimited PTO is largely a myth. If you’re in sales you have limited windows to take it, (i.e., definitely not Qtr end etc)