First year with unlimited time off nearly complete

[jackers]

My company called it FTO: Flexible Time Off, and it was only for salaried employees. Basically, those roles where you had the flexibility to not work traditional hours. Take the time you need/want off (with manager’s approva) but there is still the expectation to get your job done, so working over, late, etc. when it’s needed. Hourly employees had the typical “set number of days available based on tenure“ model. We’ve had it for about 5 years and I find I take LESS days because of it. This year I’ve taken 16 days with another 6 still scheduled. Definitely think it was a recruitment tool to attract talent.

Now a moot point for me as my company was acquired and I’m moving back to a traditional PTO model January 1. Based on my tenure I’ll get 35 days. I can’t imagine using all of that.

 

[slo]

Great benefit. And to be honest never heard of a job offering it.

I’ve never heard of this too.

This is great for all of you with this - I’m not gonna lie - I’m kinda jealous - LOL!
I get 7 paid vacation days and that’s it.
Since I manage a doctor’s office, and it’s just me and the doctor, I only take a day off if it’s really necessary. When I had my hysterectomy, I was back to work in 5 days, because I felt so bad not being there. I love my job though, so it’s ok.

 

[Christine]

My son's got it where he works. Way back in the 1980s I worked in a corporate office of a large bank. They corporate employees had it (not the admin staff which was me). There's apparently some "mentality" thing going on when they give you unlimited time. Generally responsible employees are judicious with it, feel empowered and valued, and often times end up using less time off then when they are given a set amount.

And yes, they can fire you if they consider you to be abusing that policy.

 

[soccerdad72]

Wow.
Thanks for the info - my DH & I had no idea this was happening,
now or in the past.
So, conceivably, a new employee could immediately put in for several weeks vacation,
or take off one week per month all year?
If the PTO is tracked, then it's not really unlimited - am I understanding?
He cannot imagine it working in his field of work (electronics).

As others mentioned, in certain industries (like accounting), where you have clients and specific deadlines, while you may have unlimited PTO, technically, if you’re not being fully utilized (e.g. not charging enough hours) or you’re missing reporting deadlines, you won’t be around very long.

 

[Colleen27]

Great benefit. And to be honest never heard of a job offering it.

It isn't really all it is cracked up to be, and as with many changes in workplace benefit, it is generally more favorable to the employer than the employee. They shed the costs of tracking vacation and sick hours and any obligation they had (based on state law or company policy) to pay out for unused hours, and studies show that employees with unlimited PTO take less time off on average than those with a fixed amount of time. Turns out, giving an employee 2 weeks off per year sends a signal that it is acceptable to take 2 weeks off every year, but without the clear signal of how much is okay, people err on the side of working more and vacationing less.

 

[mjkacmom]

It isn't really all it is cracked up to be, and as with many changes in workplace benefit, it is generally more favorable to the employer than the employee. They shed the costs of tracking vacation and sick hours and any obligation they had (based on state law or company policy) to pay out for unused hours, and studies show that employees with unlimited PTO take less time off on average than those with a fixed amount of time. Turns out, giving an employee 2 weeks off per year sends a signal that it is acceptable to take 2 weeks off every year, but without the clear signal of how much is okay, people err on the side of working more and vacationing less.

My husband went from 6 weeks vacation and unlimited sick days to unlimited vacation. His company didn’t pay out for unused days and he certainly didn’t use them all. I think he takes even less now, and still does work when he’s off, because it’s still there (he’s in financial services at a director level and spends most of his days in meetings).

 

[amylevan]

It isn't really all it is cracked up to be, and as with many changes in workplace benefit, it is generally more favorable to the employer than the employee. They shed the costs of tracking vacation and sick hours and any obligation they had (based on state law or company policy) to pay out for unused hours, and studies show that employees with unlimited PTO take less time off on average than those with a fixed amount of time. Turns out, giving an employee 2 weeks off per year sends a signal that it is acceptable to take 2 weeks off every year, but without the clear signal of how much is okay, people err on the side of working more and vacationing less.

This.

My DH gets good vacation time right now, something like 29 days a year (plus 10 holidays). He rarely uses all those days, so while he can carry over the time to the next year, eventually it starts to add up and they will buy the time back from him. So he has lots of time off to vacation but if he doesn’t use it all, eventually he gets paid for that earned time - like a little bonus.

Unlimited PTO isn’t really unlimited. Someone’s watching and you’re worried about that someone watching, so people generally don’t take as much as they could, and then you lose the ability to get paid out the extra that you’re not taking.

 

[shh]

sure wish they had this when I was working corporate. It wasn't that long ago that a new employee got 1 week tops -and you weren't allowed to take any of it until you completed your first year. Then you had to earn that 2nd week with at least 2 year's tenure and wouldn't earn 3 weeks until you were there 10 years. This wasn't an outlier - it was most companies in my area.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Yes, my husband has had this for at least five years, maybe longer. It is more a benefit to the company books because they don't have to carry the liability of all of the vacation accrued payout. Since I still have a set number of days, the time he takes off usually matches similar to what I'm given. Both our work is very flexible though, I might be away half a day but work in the evening or on a weekend, so I really only use my time when we're actually going somewhere.

 

[cvjw]

I'm curious about how companies manage this, in terms of work-flow. Are there periods that are "blacked-out" for taking vacation? How much notice do you need to give? Can you call in on Monday morning if you feel like making it a long weekend? Is there some restriction on how many people can all be gone at once, like say, can an entire department all take Christmas week?

Vacation and days off have to be approved ahead of time. I suspect if you took too many days off or gave too short of notice, you wouldn’t have a job for too long.

My younger son has this at his job, and it was a perk of most of the jobs he interviewed for after graduating UGA. He has only taken off 3 days in 6 months, as he doesn’t want to abuse the perk.

Older son is in a field where it is hard to attract qualified workers (CPA, international tax). He changed jobs a few months ago and this was a perk of most of the companies he interviewed with. The company he went with gives him 5 weeks off, I think. And he uses every single day.

 

[kdonnel]

They say the time off is not tracked, we do not enter any exceptions in ADP anymore like we did before where we had a fixed number of PTO and personal choice holidays.

But I imagine if you no longer got your assigned tasks done in a timely manner management might try to determine if you have been taking "too much" "unlimited" time off.

As a relatively new employee of the company I was worried I would be working with people who don't take time off and I would look like an outlier even though I was taking what I think is a reasonable amount of time off. Happily everyone seems to like to take time off and take vacations.

 

[DeeBee3]

This is such an eye-opening thread! I had no idea this was a thing and now I'm learning it's been around for a while. Sounds enticing and easy to weed out anyone who abuses it. Although I would think it's frustrating for some coworkers when there are constant streams of people out of the office. Thinking of a larger team that works together. You would hope everyone would be considerate.

 

[AndreaDM]

My husband has unlimited PTO and I would guess he's used maybe 20 days? I should have had him track it. I get 20 days and other than a 3 day trip I took with my DD, we've taken the same time off throughout the year. He has taken a handful of half days to go golfing though so I'm guessing 20-22 tops. He has clients all over the world though in every time zone, so it's not unusual for him to hop on to do something later in the evening or early morning, definitely puts in way more than 40 hours on an average week.

 

[daisy2013]

I've had unlimited time off for years. It was always with the caveat that I have to be on top of my work and meet deadlines. Never been an issue. As I do not accumulate days off, if I leave I do not receive a pay out of unused vacation time. This is one of the benefits for companies - the vacation time is not sitting on the books as a liability. I do find that if I take a day off, I tend to want to be available for phone calls etc. where as at previous jobs unless it was a real emergency I never felt the need to be available.

 

[ronandannette]

Vacation and days off have to be approved ahead of time. I suspect if you took too many days off or gave too short of notice, you wouldn’t have a job for too long.

My younger son has this at his job, and it was a perk of most of the jobs he interviewed for after graduating UGA. He has only taken off 3 days in 6 months, as he doesn’t want to abuse the perk.

Older son is in a field where it is hard to attract qualified workers (CPA, international tax). He changed jobs a few months ago and this was a perk of most of the companies he interviewed with. The company he went with gives him 5 weeks off, I think. And he uses every single day.

I use almost all (or sometimes a smidge more) of my allotted time off, as do most people at my company. It’s a bit baffling to me to read that in these “unlimited” schemes, people mention actually taking less than they would probably be entitled to, for fear of being seen as slack. Is it actually some weird manipulation on the part of companies? What good is perk, really?

And as a manager, I’m very glad not to have to navigate it with my own staff. I’m trying to imagine the conversation I’d need to have if someone took too much “unlimited” time off. I guess maybe I’m just too literal a thinker.

 

[soccerdad72]

And as a manager, I’m very glad not to have to navigate it with my own staff. I’m trying to imagine the conversation I’d need to have if someone took too much “unlimited” time off. I guess maybe I’m just too literal a thinker.

The conversation, generally speaking, would not be about the time off they're taking and more about work expectations not being met.

 

[Alicefan]

I use almost all (or sometimes a smidge more) of my allotted time off, as do most people at my company. It’s a bit baffling to me to read that in these “unlimited” schemes, people mention actually taking less than they would probably be entitled to, for fear of being seen as slack. Is it actually some weird manipulation on the part of companies? What good is perk, really?

And as a manager, I’m very glad not to have to navigate it with my own staff. I’m trying to imagine the conversation I’d need to have if someone took too much “unlimited” time off. I guess maybe I’m just too literal a thinker.

Apparently I think the same way as you do on this. I've been sitting here imagining that ONE co-worker that constantly takes off and leaves their work to everyone else and you know you can't count on them to cover for you etc...every company seems to have that person that does the bare minimum to get by. Seems that a system like this would attract mainly workers like that. I don't get the "hey, it's unlimited, but if you actually USE this perk, we'll probably fire you" thing. It's either unlimited or not. Seems like companies could be sued for firing someone well within their rights? I'm self employed and come and go when I want but I don't get paid if I don't work. I'm a hairstylist so my absence affects no one but my own clients. I still get the "must be nice" comments from my coworkers when I travel, but that's out of jealousy and I couldn't care less because I pay to work there...whether I'm there or not, I pay.

 

[morgan98]

I honestly feel the unlimited in a bit of a misnomer. It really does not mean take off all the time you want, no questions asked. There are still approvals if you intend to take a long block of time off, like more than two weeks. There are also "busy seasons" and deadlines during which you really can't take off. It is more that you are not limited to the number of days you earn in a year or to the amount of time off you have accrued. Like I said before, some years you may have a lot going on and need more time. For example, a honeymoon, younger children who are sick often etc. There is no longer the worry of staying within your number of days.

As other have said, we have charge hour goals and other performance metrics that would be hard to meet if you were gone all the time. At that point it is about your performance, not the amount of time you are taking off. You are expected to balance your time off with meeting your goals.

 

[cvjw]

I use almost all (or sometimes a smidge more) of my allotted time off, as do most people at my company. It’s a bit baffling to me to read that in these “unlimited” schemes, people mention actually taking less than they would probably be entitled to, for fear of being seen as slack. Is it actually some weird manipulation on the part of companies? What good is perk, really?

And as a manager, I’m very glad not to have to navigate it with my own staff. I’m trying to imagine the conversation I’d need to have if someone took too much “unlimited” time off. I guess maybe I’m just too literal a thinker.

I think the perk is a way to attract the younger kids just starting to work. As my boys tell me, their generation is into experiences - not really into the 9 - 5 daily grind. They also don’t want to work in an office everyday. All the jobs they looked at were hybrid - mostly work from home. Companies are trying to attract and hold these young workers.

When my older son started his first job with a big 4 accounting firm, a coworker didn’t show up for 2 weeks. Instead of firing them, the company sent counselors to try and help them get over their issue and come back to work. Whole different world now.

At his current job, he only goes into the office maybe 1 or 2 days a month. The firm provides catered lunch in the office every day and a stipend for gas and parking to try and entice workers into the office.

 

[sam_gordon]

Seems like companies could be sued for firing someone well within their rights?

I believe most states are "right to work" states. Which means you can get fired for pretty much any reason (other than "protected" reasons... age, sex, health, etc). Unless a company is stupid enough to say "you're fired because you used too many 'unlimited' vacation days", a suit isn't going to do anything except cost the worker money.