I've had "FTO" (Flexible Time Off) at 2 different companies now, including the one I'm at now. I personally like it but when I discuss it with friends I get mix

I've had "FTO" (Flexible Time Off) at 2 different companies now, including the one I'm at now. I personally like it but when I discuss it with friends I get mixed reactions. > Microsoft will no longer require US employees to formally record vacation I wish. I still need to track my days off because I work in the agency world and there's client billing involved The following are some negatives you'll hear people say about unlimited time off, some valid, some are just opinions/speculation without any evidence. - You no longer get paid for accrued and unused PTO days when you quit a job. Not all employers did this, but it's a definitely a thing. So some see switching to this system as benefiting more the company than the employees. - Rewarding people with more days off the longer you were at a company gets thrown out the window. A previous company I was at converted to FTO and some long-term employees were pissed because of this. They felt their commitment to the company was ignored and discarded. They felt there was no reason to stay at any company long-term anymore. - Depending on your manager, they can decline your vacation day requests without a second thought because they no longer feel they are limited and important. I have never personally experienced this, and I don't think I knew anyone that this happened to, but this is a valid concern I guess. I guess this is already an important thing in positions that require coverage while away. - Unlimited days does not mean you can take a month off (again, depending on your company). Both the companies I worked at (one currently at) have a limit of how many consecutive days I could take off. 14 days (not including weekend/holidays) is my max. - Depending on company and/or state (like CA), there's less urgency to "use it or lose it" and some people say that you actually take less days off than before. There will always be outliers of people who take more days than before. In 2022 I took 16 vacation and 4.5 sick days. So I averaged about the same amount of days off I had at non-unlimited-days companies. So there is some (anecdotal) validity to this. In 2023 I am going to try to take more vacation days off because I want to truly take advantage of unlimited days. - If there's an employee on a team that takes more days off than others, animosity can build towards that member by other's who feel they are doing more of the work. Again, this is speculation and I have yet to see this happen in real life, but I've heard friends say this before.