I get job listings from Indeed, and i rarely see unlimited PTO, but it seems too good to be true. You’ll just be measured against other people who take no days off.
So, unlimited PTO is actually a financial hack. There are laws on the books that say if you earn your PTO via accrual, then it’s legally compensation and if you leave without taking your PTO the company is required to pay you for those hours. So unlimited PTO allows them to say that PTO is not part of compensation and they don’t have to pay you for any accrued vacation time you didn’t take because there is no accrued vacation time.
In practice, it just means that you have to meet whatever expectations your boss puts on you, including if those are expectations are to not take PTO when you want, and if you take it anyway you’ll end up getting canned for “insubordination”
exactly this, it’s made mass layoffs easier.
It’s the illusion of freedom. In reality, unlimited PTO usage is policed crabs in a bucket style - you get pressured to not use it by your bosses and colleagues.
its also enforced more directly when you ask for time off and they say “no”
Unlimited PTO*
*pending pre-approval by HR and final approval by management. Must be submitted before January 4th each calendar year
Right HR is going to police that too.
I have had unlimited PTO. Basically if you took less than 3 weeks you were asked to take more, and if you took more than 5 weeks you were asked to take less.
So it’s 4 weeks vacation but it’s called unlimited. I guess.
4 weeks but we punish neuroatypical people who don’t clue into the vibes of their bosses, and keep everything vague so we can treat employees disparately
Basically comports with my experience, but I was around for the switch at my company so I kept a copy of the old PTO schedule so that’s been a helpful guide.
Yeah this has been my experience as well. It’s fine and not as nefarious as other are saying. I’m sure the org get some small upside on departures without needing to pay accrual, but I’ve never had an issue with PTO requests being denied.
I currently don’t have unlimited and there are scenarios where I’m missing it. I’m going through some unique life events and my manager is wanting to make it work, but HR doesn’t have a way to code more PTO than I’ve accrued. I’m just taking time off without reporting it and it’s fine, but leaves me out to dry of my manager turns on me.
It’s nefarious because it’s a benefit that most be paid out upon termination. Unlimited is not.
I get that, and agree that unlimited pto is not some benevolent policy. In my experience though, the flexibility it provided was useful, and there were no real downsides. Our company didn’t churn through employees, so losing a few days of vacation accrual when you left wasn’t that impactful when most people stayed 5+ years. Of course each place is going to have their own shit, I’m just saying that a fixed 20 days off isn’t necessarily better than unlimited pto.
that’s not very surprising. in that case, i would get 1 more week of PTO at best.
Yeah it’s still nice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not this magical hack to just free money without working either.
for sure, and i didnt think it like that. but id be trying to take two months off like i like in a not shitty country.
I used to work somewhere with “unlimited” and now my current job does a standard accrual system. Unlimited is a scam 100%. It makes it easier for requests to be denied, and you will absolutely be judged for using it too often (how much is too often? good question!). That added pressure means you’d typically end up taking off far fewer days than you would with accrued PTO, and that’s entirely by design.
As someone else mentioned too, it’s also a way for companies to get away with not having to pay out unused PTO days when they let someone go. It’s grimy as fuck.
Yeah I’m gonna have to take the next 24 years off, pto please, going on a long journey.
I would try this.
It’s generally a scam, yeah. That’s why it’s illegal in some places. It CAN be a really nice benefit, if your employer genuinely values their employees, but we all know how likely that is.
It’s like you say, you CAN take as much as you want, but anyone with a brain is gonna be afraid of taking too much, and being singled out as an “underperformer”. Plus, most people won’t make the effort to track how much they use, if they’re not forced to. So generally, people end up taking less than they would if there was just a firm limit.
Yes they use it to target those for layoffs (turnover) They don’t have to pay out accrued PTO at the end of employment because there is nothing to accrue. Companies that have this unlimited system end up with employees actually taking less days off (i wonder why if not fear of being targeted).
What if it was unlimited pho and you could eat your heart’s content of wodnerful noodles in broth
“no such thing as a free lunch” they said
Of course it’s horseshit, there are always unwritten rules about how much you’re actually supposed to take and it’s almost always less or equal than what people with well defined PTO limits have.
Its a scam to pressure you into taking less holiday
It’s basically an honor system. The employer is expecting you not to abuse it, but it you don’t abuse it you do get to take more PTO than most other jobs, if you do abuse it the employer will find some grounds to reprimand you for it.
Source: my sister is a pretty successful engineer and she’s had jobs with unlimited PTO, and yeah you can take pretty long vacations at random but there is an expectation you’ll schedule it in a way that doesn’t disrupt operations.
i’ve had unlimited pto in the last 5 jobs i’ve had. i take probably 2 weeks or so just like anyone else. it’s an easy way for the company to not have to ‘accrue’ the time off and then pay it out when they lay you off.
most people take about the same amount of time off as they would with regular pto, but you don’t have to think about it and worry if you take 1 day here and there that you only have x days left when you want to ACTUALLY go on a vacation
Does this exist in any place where you actually have some legal protection from being arbitrarily laid off?
I think most of those places also have reasonable amounts of mandatory time off so it isn’t really as ripe for the “unlimited” time off scam
Depends on the country you’re in
