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Running an SMB and wondering about unlimited PTO, the positives and negatives. Also, how do workers feel about it? Is it better for attracting top talent?
Seems like a way to play favorites. Everyone should be given a fixed number of hours per year to avoid problems where some people get special treatment, for example hot women who sleep with the boss, etc.
From what I've heard, many companies that offer unlimited vacation also make it difficult to take it, and people end up taking less time off than defined plans. I don't think it's something I would want. I know how much PTO I get and feel zero guilt about using it all, because it's a part of my compensation.
It depends on how much you can realistically take and rollover policies.
I have heard that these places generally approve PTO only if all projects are current and the time off won't bust a deadline. The trick is that if the company structures a workload in such a way that it isn't possible to be current on projects and there is a never ending barrage of inflexible deadlines, unlimited PTO is the functional equivalent of little/no PTO.
Unlimited PTO also means that they don't track PTO, which means if you take none, you still don't have a leave bank
I am suspicious of this as a standard, but I say that from the viewpoint of a person who gets substantial amounts of vacation leave.
Seems like a way to play favorites. Everyone should be given a fixed number of hours per year to avoid problems where some people get special treatment, for example hot women who sleep with the boss, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LizfromtheBronx
From what I've heard, many companies that offer unlimited vacation also make it difficult to take it, and people end up taking less time off than defined plans. I don't think it's something I would want. I know how much PTO I get and feel zero guilt about using it all, because it's a part of my compensation.
Just because you have a policy doesn't mean abuse will not happen. In both the examples above, these things can happen if you had unlimited PTO or not.
I've worked for companies that had unlimited vacation. I didn't notice any more people that abused it than those that had vacation accruals. Nor did I feel more pressure to not take them compared to the traditional vacation policy. Anecdotally - it really depends on the company culture, or even down to your specific manager. I know folks that are much more lenient on their staff than others within the same company.
At the end of the day - you have to hire the right people from a culture perspective. There are people who work wonders if you give them the freedom to come and go as they please, while others will flourish as long as you provide them a specific structure to work within. And both will be unproductive in each other's desired environments. Some like to leave work at work while others have no problem interspersing work within their personal lives (and vice versa).
I've worked for companies that had unlimited vacation. I didn't notice any more people that abused it than those that had vacation accruals. Nor did I feel more pressure to not take them compared to the traditional vacation policy. Anecdotally - it really depends on the company culture, or even down to your specific manager. I know folks that are much more lenient on their staff than others within the same company.
When my company first instituted unlimited PTO, we had that one person who took advantage right out of the gates. She was getting married and took a total of 6 weeks off in a 2 month period. After that, our director required that we be on schedule to meet our individual quarterly goals to be approved to take more than 3 days off. There will always be someone who pushes the limits. Having guidelines is never a bad idea.
I take about 2 weeks off per quarter and long weekends at least once a month. I've never had a request rejected.
I have unlimited PTO and it works well. But my company really cares about people who work here, their concern for company culture is not just empty words. I know in a lot of places it really means "no or very little PTO".
When done right, it is a good way to attract people, especially, in high paying fields. Those workers tend to value extra free time more than extra money.
I would not like it personally. My company offers 20 days PTO to start and then increases you every 5 years, capping out eventually.. You can also buy/sell PTO days every year.
That's the kind of flexibility I like. Unlimited seems fake and I could not see myself ever taking advantage of it
That's because one of the perks of working at VMware (VMW, +0.44%) is that the Palo Alto-based maker of cloud and virtualization software offers unlimited vacation to its 7,785 employees.
It's one of only three companies on this year's 100 Best Companies to Work For list—which includes Workday and Riot Games—to let employees take as much time off as they want. In recent years, companies like Netflix (NFLX, -1.29%), LinkedIn (LNKD) and Virgin have abandoned the traditional policy of defined, accrued time off, and have let their staff manage their own schedule with no strings attached.
Despite more big companies choosing to adopt this trend, it's still a relatively rare occurrence: roughly 1% of companies in the U.S. have an unlimited paid-time-off policy,
So only 1% of companies in the US have unlimited PTO. If it was such a good concept, why don't more companies offer it? Many companies simply don't have that kind of staffing luxury to allow those who usually take advantage of these things to truly take unlimited time off, while shifting the work load onto their co-workers without any ounce of shame.
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