I always felt uncertain how much PTO was "okay" to take. My manager kept saying I could take time off whenever I wanted to, but the hurried pace of the team le

I always felt uncertain how much PTO was "okay" to take. My manager kept saying I could take time off whenever I wanted to, but the hurried pace of the team left me feeling like that wasn't really true. And it's obvious there are limits in there somewhere. I probably couldn't take off every Friday, or take off a week every month. Where's the line? The uncertainty is what killed me. Leveraging unlimited PTO confidently requires being adept at understanding the social situation around you - how will your team and manager feel if you keep requesting more and more time off? I wound up taking as little time as I could because I couldn't tell what I was entitled to. I took my cue of what I could do from the people around me, and they weren't taking PTO very often. I felt better in workplaces where the PTO rules are clear. It makes me feel entitled to take a given amount of time off, and gives me the confidence to request what I need without worrying about whether it's within the unspecified bounds of appropriateness.