Paid Time Off (PTO)

[NewtonHawk11]

I use every last drop of vacation time. Sick I try to stash.

But I get 5 weeks and I use all 5 weeks to the max. My work area is a customer-focused area that requires a good amount of employees available, so we very rarely have multiple people gone at one time.

[jfish26]

The company I work for has 10 days no matter how long you work for them.
I negotiated 15 while in the hiring process. My peers have no idea how that got approved.
Previous company was unlimited. I think people actually take less when they have unlimited.

The studies I've seen certainly find this. It's also a huge boost for companies in states where unused time needs to be paid out at termination (like California). Unlimited PTO = no accrued PTO.

[NewtonHawk11]

I'm actually in the middle of a couple job interview processes and I have a feeling they may be a bit strict on PTO time. Fully prepared to ask for a start of 3 weeks of PTO. If not, well I'm happy enough at my current employer to stay there. You want me to work for you? Give me good PTO.

I don't need a ton. Weekends and 3 weeks of PTO are plenty enough for me.

[pdub]

My previous company went unlimited.
It worked exactly how you were talking about, most people felt guilty using too many days.
And then the company had the gall to schedule a meeting about misuse of the policy because a couple of employees doing exactly what they should have.

[CrimsonNBlue]

I have unlimited* PTO.

I found out this week that several of my paralegals and my secretary are going to end up eating a lot of PTO for 2021. That is a failure, and it is not theirs.

Actually, I've been crunching the numbers.

Even if your paralegals got 25 days of PTO per year, which is 0.1 X N, where N is the total number of working days in the year.

If instead they only took 2 hours off or 0.25 of one day, that'd be 0.001 X N.

According to randy there is no difference between 0.1 and 0.001 therefore, taking 25 days of leave is the same as taking 2 hours of leave.

So don't worry about it.

I better go check to see if randy infiltrated our HR.

[CrimsonNBlue]

I have unlimited* PTO.

I found out this week that several of my paralegals and my secretary are going to end up eating a lot of PTO for 2021. That is a failure, and it is not theirs.

Our staff has been excellent about using all available time.

Which is great! But I wish they'd coordinate a little better; too often we've had particular skillsets all be out.

Ours work more in groups/teams. And certain let's call them team leaders are an example of the downside of coordination. If one is off a week then the full team better be there for the next 3 weeks.

[Deleted User 863]

Cascadia definitely has the personality for business development.

[jfish26]

My previous company went unlimited.
It worked exactly how you were talking about, most people felt guilty using too many days.
And then the company had the gall to schedule a meeting about misuse of the policy because a couple of employees doing exactly what they should have.

It's just a foreign concept in my line of work, where if you're good at what you do, you really cannot truly be off for any length of time.

I take plenty of "vacations." But they're "laptop on the beach" or "wake up at 4am and move things around before anyone else gets up" vacations.

[Cascadia]

I always take at least my phone when I'm on vacation and usually take the work computer. I'd much rather do 30 minutes of work on a vacation day then come back to work and have a bunch of fire to put out.

I'm in Vegas this week at my friend's house. Both are with me, and I "worked" for 20-30 minutes today. I'm going to Italy for two weeks in May (hopefully) and I'll take the cell phone but not the computer.

[hasbeen]

My previous company went unlimited.
It worked exactly how you were talking about, most people felt guilty using too many days.
And then the company had the gall to schedule a meeting about misuse of the policy because a couple of employees doing exactly what they should have.

It's just a foreign concept in my line of work, where if you're good at what you do, you really cannot truly be off for any length of time.

I take plenty of "vacations." But they're "laptop on the beach" or "wake up at 4am and move things around before anyone else gets up" vacations.

Won't lie to you, brother. That sounds awful.

[nu_bronco]

To original post, I think 15 is right if it is vacation and sick. Also, think it should bump every 5 years until a cap is met.

The unlimited PTO is garbage in my opinion because like pdub said a lot of companies do it because they know employees either a. won't use it or b. the company will guilt people that do us it or c. fire people that they think abuse it.

I get to carry over pto if not used up to a max number. If I am above that max number at my anniversary date I would lose anything over the max. This means every year I have to take 4 or 5 days off so I don't lose it. It is a good problem to have. Would be nice if they would cut me a check for those 4 or 5 days.

[jfish26]

My previous company went unlimited.
It worked exactly how you were talking about, most people felt guilty using too many days.
And then the company had the gall to schedule a meeting about misuse of the policy because a couple of employees doing exactly what they should have.

It's just a foreign concept in my line of work, where if you're good at what you do, you really cannot truly be off for any length of time.

I take plenty of "vacations." But they're "laptop on the beach" or "wake up at 4am and move things around before anyone else gets up" vacations.

Won't lie to you, brother. That sounds awful.

Yep.

But I also have an incredible degree of flexibility. Even before all of this happened, no one ever really cared where I am or, for the most part, when exactly I work.

[zsn]

The company I work for has 10 days no matter how long you work for them.
I negotiated 15 while in the hiring process. My peers have no idea how that got approved.
Previous company was unlimited. I think people actually take less when they have unlimited.

The studies I've seen certainly find this. It's also a huge boost for companies in states where unused time needs to be paid out at termination (like California). Unlimited PTO = no accrued PTO.

The cynic in me thinks that’s why they do the unlimited* PTO thing. In CA you also have to set aside the pay equivalent to the accrued PTO and the company pays you for your PTO from that pool. As fish said anything unused is paid out on termination. It’s really funds tied up. My previous company was unlimited*

It’s common here in NorCal for 20 days upto 4 years, 25 days 5-9 years and 30 days >10 years. Don’t know too many people who stay 5 years, let alone 10. Sick days are additional, 10 days/year, no carry over. PTO can be carried over but total can never exceed double annual PTO. Then you just stop accruing.

[shindig]

I normally take my work laptop when out of town on vacation. Mostly just to keep up on emails and delete garbage and flag ones I need to respond to when back at work. I hate having to scroll through a weeks work of emails on a Monday and “hope” there are no fires that need put out asap. And I don’t get work emails through my phone, I refuse to download the app so you can. I figure, unless my company pays my cell phone bill (which they don’t), then why download an app to view work email and constantly feel a need to respond.