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HR says unlimited vacation time is a great hiring tool
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because it feels less micromanaged and it's good for morale. It's also great for flexibility
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and can even get you more PTO early on when you first start working for another company
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But is that really true? ♪ Being you, being you, being you, being you, being you �
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I know a lot of people who've worked at companies that do unlimited PTO
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And I've even worked at a company that does that as well. And this is my perspective on it
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Unlimited PTO is a total misnomer and it's not something that should be used
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because it's just not accurate. If we're being honest here, there's no way you're gonna be able to just take
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whatever amount of PTO you want. If you were to go down that approach, you will eventually get fired
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So it's not truly unlimited. In most of these companies, the PTO is subject to manager approval
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And so if you're on one of those teams or projects that is constantly in crisis mode
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and that there's never enough people to help get done what needs to get done, it's actually gonna be hard for you to take time off
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Historically with unlimited PTO, you're actually more likely to take less PTO
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than if you were actually accruing PTO in more of a traditional sense
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And one of the reasons for that is that everyone is afraid to look bad compared to their peers
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So because everyone's comparing, no one wants to take more PTO than those around them
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And over time, this can kind of lead to a race to the bottom where people are just taking less PTO
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and there are a lot of companies out there who exploit the unlimited PTO for this very reason
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Fortunately for me, the company I'm working for does have unlimited PTO. And when I hired on
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the manager that was interviewing me emphasized that they like to take their PTO
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and encouraged me to take three to four weeks of PTO each year
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Even with his blessing and the example of other software engineers who aren't even hesitant to take their full amount of PTO
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when it comes time for me to take it, I still end up feeling guilty. I have to be super diligent in reminding myself to take PTO
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and I probably should take more than I do. For me, it always seems like there's always more to do
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and projects stacking up and feature stacking up or I'm getting a new manager
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and now I feel like I need to be spending time to really like prove myself, you know, to get ready for the next end of year review
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so that I can get my full bonus and so that I can hopefully get a good raise or a promotion
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And there's always reasons that, you know, keep me holding back feeling like I just can't take that
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Whereas I never had this problem when it came to using regular PTO
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where I had earned a specific amount of PTO, I knew exactly how much that is
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and I had no problems taking it and even if I ended up not using that PTO
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I knew that I could always cash out later if I ended up leaving the company
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And that's something you wanna keep in mind when it comes to unlimited vacation time
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When you decide to move on to another company, because you don't have a specific amount of accrued PTO
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you just don't get anything, there's nothing to build up. So it very much is a use it or lose it type system
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While I'm grateful that my current employer has been pretty good about respecting people
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taking their unlimited PTO and the flexibility that comes with that, so I've generally had a pretty good experience
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when it comes to interviewing at other companies, this is definitely something that I consider a red flag
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If a company offers unlimited PTO, I've gotta do extra due diligence
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to ask lots of questions about work-life balance and the culture, how many hours a week people are working
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how much time people are actually taking off when they do their PTO throughout the year
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and whether they feel resistance from managers. And if I sense any kind of hesitancy
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or they seem nervous to even answer the question in front of other people on the team
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that's a major red flag to me that this is probably a company that is abusing the unlimited PTO
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And I wouldn't necessarily turn down a good job offer just because they have unlimited PTO
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I mean, I didn't with the current position I'm at, but I do not consider this a very good perk
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And at some companies, it's just a downright scam. So let me know in the comments below
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your experiences with unlimited PTO. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. Lates
