3 ms·

I fail to see how taking as much time as you want off with unlimited time off is abuse? If you don’t want people to take half the year off, set a limit on it.

Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
"Unlimited PTO" is a mind game. If you explicitly state "You get 6 weeks of PTO per year", the average amount of PTO taken per employee will likely be close to that 6 weeks. If you give "unlimited" PTO, then people will likely only take 2-3 weeks a year because they'll be afraid to be seen as abusing the policy. At the company I'm at, we have unlimited PTO, and we also have two "quiet weeks" where you're essentially FORCED to take it. The first is usually the first week of August, and the second is between Christmas and New Years. The week between Christmas and NY is fine, but having the other week being forced to be in the beginning of August kind of sucks, tbh. I don't take normally take vacations between mid-June and mid-August because that's prime tourism season and everything is crowded and more expensive, not to mention loud kids everywhere. Of course, I understand they chose that week because some employees are parents and that allows them to take a vacation while the kids are out of school. Still, I think it'd be better if the early-August company shutdown was changed to a policy that required people to take at least 1 full week off at least once per year. It would avoid the situation of me taking a week off in September and having management go "You just had a week off a month ago!". Not that that's happened, but I do wonder if they're thinking it.
- throwaway019254 4y ago
  > Not that that's happened, but I do wonder if they're thinking it. So the actual issue is that you are assuming that other people are thinking something negative about you?
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    Yeah, basically. But that's the story of my life, really.
  - samspenc 4y ago
    I'm just going to leave this here: https://lifehacker.com/why-unlimited-vacation-days-is-a-scam-1847255661 https://lifehacker.com/why-unlimited-vacation-days-is-a-scam... "A study by Namely found that employees with unlimited PTO took an average of 13 vacation days, compared to 15 days for their fixed PTO counterparts. Why would this be? Without clear guidance on what’s acceptable, most workers end up taking off less time to avoid appearing lazy or otherwise be seen as abusing the policy."

Sohcahtoa82 4y ago

"Unlimited PTO" is a mind game. If you explicitly state "You get 6 weeks of PTO per year", the average amount of PTO taken per employee will likely be close to that 6 weeks. If you give "unlimited" PTO, then people will likely only take 2-3 weeks a year because they'll be afraid to be seen as abusing the policy. At the company I'm at, we have unlimited PTO, and we also have two "quiet weeks" where you're essentially FORCED to take it. The first is usually the first week of August, and the second is between Christmas and New Years. The week between Christmas and NY is fine, but having the other week being forced to be in the beginning of August kind of sucks, tbh. I don't take normally take vacations between mid-June and mid-August because that's prime tourism season and everything is crowded and more expensive, not to mention loud kids everywhere. Of course, I understand they chose that week because some employees are parents and that allows them to take a vacation while the kids are out of school. Still, I think it'd be better if the early-August company shutdown was changed to a policy that required people to take at least 1 full week off at least once per year. It would avoid the situation of me taking a week off in September and having management go "You just had a week off a month ago!". Not that that's happened, but I do wonder if they're thinking it.

throwaway019254 4y ago
> Not that that's happened, but I do wonder if they're thinking it. So the actual issue is that you are assuming that other people are thinking something negative about you?
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  Yeah, basically. But that's the story of my life, really.
- samspenc 4y ago
  I'm just going to leave this here: https://lifehacker.com/why-unlimited-vacation-days-is-a-scam-1847255661 https://lifehacker.com/why-unlimited-vacation-days-is-a-scam... "A study by Namely found that employees with unlimited PTO took an average of 13 vacation days, compared to 15 days for their fixed PTO counterparts. Why would this be? Without clear guidance on what’s acceptable, most workers end up taking off less time to avoid appearing lazy or otherwise be seen as abusing the policy."