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Wait... Our firm is merging on Wednesday, going to unlimited... accounting firm??
My company switched to unlimited last year and I made sure to use all my days in 2020 since carryover went away. I took the same number of days (27) as I had before. I kept track through our HR software and I’ll do the same this year. I’m not going to fall into that trap.
If you're a good worker you'll take more and not notice - whether you plan or not is a you call. It's only a problem if you're not good at your job or your supervisors rig the game so you can't take as many days off.
That's the catch though. If you abuse it, your manager will clearly call you out on it and make it an issue, negative performance reviews, less bonus or raise to make up for the abuse of company time. But if you don't use as much as usual it's not thought twice about or rewarded.
Meh, I do my job well, and don’t really worry about evals. I get what you’re saying though.
there’s almost zero chance of my workplace going to unlimited PTO. But it’s consistently somewhat amazing to me how many people have a few weeks of use or lose at the end of every year which makes November - December hard to get anything done requiring collaboration. I don’t think that’s due to everyone planning for the holidays.
The other issue when this changed happen last year with our company, the veteran employees were PISSED. They work there for 20 yrs and as part of their tenure got more PTO. Now they lose all that and some 1st yr kid out of college essentially gets as much PTO as them.
That’s where the veterans (as others stated above) take whatever they would have been granted before the change.
For us a lot of people take comp time for over time that's why their use or lose bucket gets high
I do the same. Plus RDOs. But I’ll continue to take my time off in March, throughout the summer, and the fall.
Lol how is it petty that someone that earned their leave based on years of service and was loyal to a company for all those years is now basically "earning" the same leave as a new hire?? I mean I'd be "upset" that I had to start with one week vacation when I was a new hire and earned my right to 4 weeks. I'd be over it pretty quick but not sure it's petty.
it is kind of petty, which is a reason you’d be over it quick. The concern I’d have whether the expectations would change. Depending on the company, many employees just getting started are expected to take less time off than the senior employees. That may need to change now anyway, as it seems most 20 somethings put more value in their time off than we did. Generally they’ll work as hard when they’re there, give or take, as we did.
It's petty because we all should desire employment conditions to improve as time goes on. B!tching about junior employees getting stuff usually doesn’t improve one’s own situation. As long as the senior guys get the same benefits, they have nothing to complain about imo. Moreover, complaining about improvements can sometimes undermine the quality of everyone’s job.
Apologies if I misunderstood what you're asking to elaborate on. But when you accrue PTO, the company has to record all of that accrued time as a liability on the books because eventually they'll have to pay that out. Sounds like the good Judge Smails received $73k when he left the company. Obviously that's a lot of money. But with unlimited PTO, the employee doesn't accrue any time off so the company doesn't accrue liability either. The finance department loves it.
No and studies have shown that people take less time off under this scheme than a defined policy.
It is technically unlimited but you have to get approval first. I haven’t heard many people getting to abuse it by taking 8-10 weeks off. It’s simply an accounting thing
To a point.. "Managers discretion ".. Can't imagine taking 10 weeks off..
not sure this would be super effective if your boss can simply respond with something about your efficiency and effectiveness if others are getting their work done and take more time off. Depends on the workplace most likely.
That and it sheds the liability of needing X amount of money in reserve to pay out employees during separation
We have a department of 5 who all handle the largest of the large companies, each of whom has specific requirements for custom equipment. It would take a while for my coworkers to learn the intricacies of my customer, as it would for me to learn theirs. It is a bad situation, and I have been screaming it to management for quite some time. Either they disagree with me or aren’t concerned. And I am the youngest in our group at 51. There is a reckoning coming.
Yes - and the data also indicates employees actually take less time off if it's unlimited rather than chasing a number. I'm transparent with my team about all of this. As long as we have office coverage, you have trained backups for your tasks, and everyone's work gets done timely and accurately I pretty much don't care who takes time off and when.
Agreed. But PTO used to be a part of monetary/salary benefits package regardless of efficiency. So, you'll always have a perspective of part of your "salary" was taken away without discussion....now you are not using all of your originally allotted PTO and now giving more time to the company. It can't hurt anything anyways, to plant that seed a bit.
Basically. When we were banking time, and had a hard number we couldn't go above, we had the "have to use it or I lose it" .. Without that hard limit the feeling that I have to take time off is gone, and employers for the most part won't remind you.
Great posting, and IMO, the real reason employers offer it. If you leave, or they lay you off, no banked vacation to pay you.
Some companies have addressed the liablity by only allowing employees to carry over a certain amount of hours into the new calendar year. About a decade ago my company switched to a policy of only allowing folks to carry over 40 hours of PTO into the new year. They frame it as "you need time away from work to recharge" but I assume they're addressing the issue you laid out.
