The company my husband works for was bought out by another company earlier this year. The new company just announced it is moving to an unlimited PTO system. Unlimited vacation days?!?!?! Yes!!!
Unlimited PTO: Blessing, or Curse?
My initial reaction was excitement. Despite getting 3 weeks of PTO plus a few company shut down days over July 4th and Christmas/New Years, my husband always runs out of PTO for our desired travel plans. Next summer, we are traveling to Japan, and my husband didn’t have enough forecasted PTO days to add on an extra leg to Shanghai with me and my daughter. Now, with this new system, he could request those extra days off and join us in China.
However, it’s not that simple. Without a doubt, unlimited PTO policies benefit corporations. They don’t have to pay out vacation days when workers quit. And often times, workers don’t take as many vacation days.
In addition, managers still have to approve PTO. If you take too many days off, the company may think your job isn’t necessary. Plus, the company culture may inadvertently affect how many PTO days you are comfortable taking.
For now, my husband decided that he’s still going to track his vacation days on a spreadsheet to make sure he spaces them out and that he’s not taking more than 4 weeks a year. I am going to hold off on increasing our travel days until we see how this all plays out. 🙂
If you have unlimited PTO at your company, I’d love to hear how you and your co-workers like or dislike it.
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
With unlimited PTO no one wants to be the person who’s taking the most time off. The amount of time that one considers taking off will always be measured against everyone else.
If no one is taking 4 weeks off, you’ll convince yourself that you don’t want to be the one doing so either. Then comes the level of internal anger that folks have if you do decide to be the one that pushes the limit as they don’t have the courage to do the same so it’s easier to hate the person who does.
Nope, wouldn’t ever want unlimited PTO. I’m happy with the 36 days per year that I get and because we have a use it or lose it system, I take every single one of my days without much worry or thought.
@2808 Heavy 36 days per year sounds great!!
I worked for a company where managers and up had unlimited PTO provided approved and got job done. I was the Chief Technology Officer so basically on call 24/7 and worked 50-60 hours a week. Some years I took 4 weeks (still on call if a major issue arose obviously) and some couldn’t take 2. All depended on work requirements. Worked for us but have to have employees that put job responsibilities first (or at least on par w downtime). Some wouldn’t like not taking time under these conditions but we were well compensated and felt tremendous responsibility to the company
@Retired Gambler Thanks for sharing your experience. I hope my husband can take 4 weeks off with no issues.
It’s a mixed bag. As you rightly said, take to many days off and they might think your job isn’t necessary.
It’s one thing if you have an allotted number of days off and you can point to those as what you are supposed to get. But with “unlimited” PTO, it’s completly up to your boss to decide. Seems like employees are definitely getting the short end of the stick.
@Patrick Definitely seems like the employer has the advantage with this plan!