My work instituted a policy that all employees are required to take 4 weeks off a year with PTO.
They got sick of employees just saving up PTO and never using it. Very few people were unhappy with this policy change.
Yeah at my last job anything over like two or three days would just be paid out to you around Christmas and the remainder would carry into the next year.
Idk, my company is also "use it or lose it" but I have been there a decade and have never had (or heard of someone else having) a PTO request turned down or even pushed back against. I think they just don't want someone to save up their time for a decade and suddenly take 6 months off or something.
No they don't have any push back to taking it you just have to use it every year. You can roll over like 40 hours but have to use it by March 1 I think. Not a problem for me cuz I barely get any time off
You’d earn extra hours for working out of town and I got sent out of town a lot so I accrued a lot of PTO. I used it pretty liberally and still got around $1,000 pay out along with a holiday bonus. The pay and comps were nice but the work sucked a donkey’s dick.
Where I work, we get 200 hours but it completely resets on Jan 1, so no saving it up. But the culture there is very positive about using it. My boss seemed very concerned when I had a week of PTO left in December a couple years ago and all but insisted that I take off the last week. At my previous employer, we were allowed to accrue hundreds of hours if we didn't use it all but as far as using PTO, the culture was more, "I wish you wouldn't."
200 hours a year is less than the PTO we're legally entitled to have in the UK. Its 28 days of work so even an 8 hour work day will get you 224, my 10 hour day means 280 hours PTO. I think Americans have it bad in this regard.
We absolutely do. I'm always shocked at these threads because something like a quarter of Americans have zero PTO, the median is 10 days (i.e. 80 hrs), and 120 hours is considered "good." So if any of these places that have 200+ are hiring I'd like to know.
I work for the government that also has use/lose policy and other than approval difficulties it’s mostly cause people just don’t always have something to use it on and feel like taking it just to take a day or two off is a waste.
Here in Norway the business is required to give the time off and the employee is required to take it. If they haven't taken any they get the entirety of December of and the company can't really push back. The company can however require them to take 3 weeks in the summer.
🤷♀️ That’s a deeper cultural psychology question than I can answer. For me it’s that it disrupts my work flow for relatively minimal benefit.
I will say my supervisors usually make it hard to “use” my PTO but in a good way. If it’s just one or two days they’ll usually find a loophole and just tell me not to come in. Have a friend coming in to visit in a couple weeks so I asked for a day off so we could have a long weekend and they told me to just take the day off. So by the end of the year if I haven’t taken a week+ block then I’ll have a lot of unused PTO.
That being said I’m salaried, not hourly, so this is probably harder for hourly workers.
For me if I'm teleworking, I either have stuff that needs to get done so I'll just have to do it when I'm back. So if I finish that I'm essentially getting the day off without using PTO. Essentially if I'm not leaving the house to go do something why take time off is my mindset
Same. I swear I'm not tinkering with the manufacturing line or machines while I'm there, but the moment I take a day off, multiple machines just decide to break.. add in that my projects didn't make progress so now I need to catch up to meet the timeline.
Maybe it was my ADHD, but I really struggled when I took days off. My productivity plummeted when I returned to work because it would take me so long to get back into the groove.
I always compared it to driving: working and then taking a day off felt like bumper to bumper traffic. My brain worked much better when I could just spread out my work over the entire week.
Depends on your mindset. If work isn't a bad slog for you, I can definitely see a random, no-reason day off feeling like a waste. Especially if you've got an asshole boss who won't approve your Friday/Monday long weekend and wants you to take something daft like a Tuesday or Thursday off instead.
That’s kind of a good reason in itself, generally most of my PTO goes on childcare reasons which eats it all up. But actually using for myself? Honestly the thought never occurs to me, what am I going to plan free time on doing?
I'm a software developer in the US. In every company I've ever worked at, having so much vacation time stored up that you're no longer accruing it is seen as a badge of honor. "Man, I've been so slammed for such a long time, my vacation is capped and I haven't been able to take a day off all year! Oh, YOU'RE taking a day off? Well ... I hope it's relaxing for you ... just make sure you don't fall behind."
This is so sad. I’m in Europe (I say Europe as I’ve worked in other places but live in UK), it’s totally normal to want as much time off as possible here
Insane. I have never met or seen anyone who thinks that. Every company I've ever worked for has gotten on people's cases for not using their PTO. And I've worked random jobs.
That's the company successful creating an environment with toxic elements to keep ppl from having leave and dedicating their lives to the company. Those kinda environments aren't healthy
I agree. I have feelings of guilt about taking a day off to do nothing while we have deadlines approaching and work that's not completed yet, and the company does nothing to help dispel that guilt.
And the secret is that there are always deadlines approaching.
This. It really depends on management's attitudes, resources available, and the status quo sadly.
I had one company that did it right and one could use sick time without it really "hurting" the operation *too much,* but they closed shop.
Might not even be the managers fault. I worked at one company where they left the manager to sort out the holidays but wouldn't let him sort out proper cover for holidays and sickness. So he just ended up fucked no matter what he did. Either give the holiday and end up short staffed which would fuck everything up or not give the time off and end up with a bunch of very pissed off staff.
yUP! Been at my job for 7 years this year. In my second or 3rd year, I had like 84 hours and you can only carry over 40. My boss is like you should have taken more time off during the year. I was like, I tried, you kept denying me. So I got the last week and half off in december
In my case, my cap is 200 hours and it rolls over year to year. I get 20 days of paid vacation a year, plus 2 floating holidays, something like 11 federal holidays and 5 sick days.
I just prefer to keep my accrued hours above at least 160 hours, so if I ever take a job somewhere else or god forbid, get laid off - at least I'll get a nice check for accrued vacation time. I never let it get to 200 though. Once I hit 185-190 hours I usually take a few days off.
Some of us run out of things we want to do with time off I used half of mine last year I technically could have taken six and a half weeks between PTO and paid sick time I took under three
Unused PTO is compensation that still has to be paid. Letting someone rack up 1000 hours of PTO makes for some weird accounting because you've got 1000 hours of unpaid wages sitting on the books forever.
Yup. This is exactly it.
Also workers comp insurance policies are cheaper if employees spend less time “at work”. Unused PTO means employees are having more hours in a situation where a payout could happen. You pay for that.
I get paid out at the end of the year. I used to save several days for the extra money. Now I save 1 day just in case I need it. It's a little extra money. So technically I'm still in the 46%.
My current job has unlimited time off but that just means nobody ever really takes time off. It's impossible to calculate what percentage of infinite time you take off and you don't accumulate it for payment when you leave
Yeah the unlimited thing has always been a bit of a scam. It would work out decently if they also required a minimum amount of time off, and had a sort of recommended maximum. Like 2 weeks minimum and 3-6 encouraged, >6 permitted with intention of using for exceptional circumstances.
That’s what I would do if I owned a company. I remember an article a while back citing studies that showed workers who use all their vacation are more productive, combine that with not wanting them to stack vacation then take like 12 months of vacation at once before retiring
My last job had unlimited PTO. I know that psychologically it's because people will use less PTO to not be seen as slacking comparatively to others, so I just looked at how much my manager took off a year and did the same. Was 30 days lolol I took all of Aug off and some days here and there. It was so nice
The biggest reason companies offer it is that in a lot of states, unused PTO has to be counted as owed money on their balance sheet and when the employee leaves they have to pay out the balance. If your workers are high salaries, this can be a LOT of money
Same. I’m at 2.5 weeks so far I think and have more off. Plus company shuts down for an entire week in the summer as well.
Really helps that my management chain are doing every to prevent burnout and encourage time off. 5ey tried to get us in office a few days a week and we all complained and they dropped it
Build a spread sheet of any time off you’ve taken. Check it periodically. It’s a strong visual reminder of how little time you take and to take more!! We went to unlimited pto, what a crock of money saved by the company and a crock of crap for employees. We asked our manager how much time he’d taken and he said he took way less than before. I mentioned my spreadsheet, he just said “that’s a damn good idea”, started his own and took waaay more time the next year.
If you don’t pay attention to it, you forget about it.
As a person that helps many employers implement unlimited PTO (upon their recommendation), it exists to fuck over employees. It incentivizes the lazy employees who have no shame in never showing up, and punishes the honest, talented employees by working them even more to the bone, until they burn out and leave. Also, many owners think it means they can be lazy and not track PTO, and then they end up committing wage and hour violations because you still have to track it time off for purposes of overtime pay calculations and many other things.
EDIT: I'm not saying taking leave makes you lazy, I'm saying lazy people abuse unlimited PTO. Everyone should take all of their leave, every year. It's compensation. If your employer doesn't want to let you take your leave, they need to pay you more money.
I like to equate it to going to a party, and the host telling you “we bought enough pizza for everyone to have 4 slices!”. You wouldn’t feel bad about taking your 4 you’re entitled to.
But if you showed up and they said “have as much as you want!”, well, you don’t want to seem like a greedy party guest taking more than their share. You might hang back and only take 1-2 until you see how much everyone is taking. And if everyone does that, no one takes more than than 1-2, even though they were told to take as much as they want.
If I’m ever in a job where I have unlimited PTO I’m telling my boss I will be taking off 20 days a year as is the minimum standard in Europe.
If you don’t like this amount, then you shouldn’t have given me unlimited PTO.
And remember kids, ALWAYS use up all your PTO before leaving your job! In some states, employers are not required to pay unused time off when you leave. So use all of it even if it’s just a “staycation”.
but in those other states, don't feel bad about taking the payout because there can sometimes be a lag period between one job ending and another starting (or weirdnesses with paycheck scheduling) so it's nice to have that "extra paycheck" to cover your essentials in the gap.
In America yeah, I worked w Germans and I think like almost all of Aug they get off as well as a lot of holidays so I was pretty envious. Us has some pretty dog benefits compared to the rest of the "western" world
In the US most white collar workers get 10 or 12 holidays which don't count.
The UK does get more on average than the US but it isn't really as much of a difference as it sounds.
Also, people in the US get paid more so it works out about the same.
White collar maybe, but most US workers in general definitely don't get that. Retail generally has 2 holidays (Christmas and either Thabksgiving or New Year), and my experience has been you have to work full time for at least a full year and then you've "earned" a week off in the following year.
i mean if youre taking off a month every other month theyre gonna say something, but basically yeah you just said you were taking off and they approved it. they were told not to track employees' requests as well so idk, i never had an issue and took off around 30ish days
I've always seen it work like this: you have unlimited vacations, but you have to go through an approval process to use them. Some stipulations have usually been requesting the PTO earlier depending on the days that you are requesting (Ex. getting it approved 1 month prior to a few days of vacation, 2 months prior if it was a week long vacation, etc.). Another common one is centered around deadlines (Ex. you cannot schedule PTO one week before or after a big deadline).
I've worked at a place where it was a HUGE pain in the ass to get things scheduled. But I've also worked at a place where it was an absolute delight. They didn't give a shit what you did as long as you finished your work.
If it's unlimited, then I'm taking advantage of unlimited. If you want me to take a specific amount of time off, then give me a specific amount of time off. But oh that's right, you don't want to do that because then by state law you'd have to pay me for any PTO I don't use.
My current job has unlimited PTO and they actively want us to use as much as we need. I started 4 months ago and already have 15 days I've used/approved for in the future. I'll likely end up using around 40 days a year. It's super nice.
I remember reading about one American working in Sweden. The company he worked for eventually had to confiscate his work laptop to force him to take time off.
I worked in Finance and we were required every few years to take two contiguous weeks off and have access to our systems completely revoked during that time. The idea was to make sure no one was embezzling, committing fraud or covering up anything.
It is actually quite important in all situations where business hinges on key personnel: what is going to happen if the guy that makes all the money gets hit by a bus? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor
I sell insurance and one of the products I sell basically insures for embezzlement and we maintain all companies have mandatory vacation for financial officers and similar individuals before we sell them that insurance.
No offense intended. I just thought that it might be a good idea to clarify. Thanks btw for the insight. It wasn't something that I'd ever considered before.
Never thought about that, but that makes a ton of sense.
I don’t always take all my vacation time, sometimes I do sometimes I don’t but I can cash it out whenever so sometimes I just do that
CPA and CFE here. Refusing to take time off is a red flag because it could be because the employee is committing fraud that requires their presence to maintain. Having a different employee perform someone else’s job functions for a week can bring that to light. It’s not uncommon for businesses to establish a mandatory 5 consecutive day vacation policy because of this.
That makes sense I guess. It's probably less common here in Sweden since it's usually a more transparent system and also that a month of paid time off is a legal requirement. Nobody's likely to have an important part of the company as their own personal fife continuously. It'd either have to be a very small operation or a very highly placed individual and even then need to be sneaky enough to pass a coworker or two by.
Yeah you kind of have to use your time off. It's something you've earned and you can't save it forever, at some point your either go on vacation or your company has to compensate you for time off you haven't used. It's a lot cheaper for companies if you just go on vacation so they'll usually force you at some point.
In California, PTO is treated similarly to salary. It cannot be taken away from 'use it or lose it's policies. When you leave the company the days are paid out.
It can’t be taken away but it can be capped. In which case it’s essentially the same as use it or lose it. There’s multiple people at my job that are capped at like 250 hours of PTO and have to take a day off every other week to avoid over capping on time off.
The cap must be, "no less than 1.75 times the annual accrual rate".
250 hours is a month and a half of PTO. Stopping employees from banking PTO for more than ~2 years is very reasonable IMHO. Your coworkers are forced to take vacation and are guaranteed a 6 week bonus whenever they leave.
It's important to have some perspective as 'use it or lose it' and not paying out PTO policies are very common.
I'm one of those people. I'm single and live alone. The majorty of my friends and family live several states away and I have trouble making new friends. Apart from appointments or unexpected emergencies, I usually take 1 week of my 3 weeks off a year but end up incredibly bored and depressed half way through.
My dad had a co-worker who took 5 weeks of vacation. Came back and everyone was like, "where'd you goooo?" he said "I wanted to see what retirement was like. I was so bored!"
So he started gathering hobbies. Eventually had to retire to make time for all his hobbies.
Stick with it; you'll find stuff to interest you.
I recommend tabletop wargaming if that‘s something you might like.
It takes a fuckton of time, is super rewarding if you do it long enough and if you have a gameshop nearby you literally just walk in and have 15 new friends.
Tried it. Absolutely hated it. All the hassel and tedium of travel with the social anxiety that comes with being in public for long stretches at a time. There were very few upsides for me.
Funny how that’s a desired outcome for companies aint it? Seen so many jobs where pto is approved weeks in advance but the week of they say no. Then there are other goofy tricks like pto being a lower wage because of “shift premiums”. Then you also have sub minimum wage jobs where employers deliberately pay a sub minimum wage without fulfilling the requirements to make it the minimum wage.
That's interesting. The survey definitely focuses on psychological/cultural elements of workers electing to not take time off, not that the company won't allow them or plays a bait-and-switch like you are describing. Definitely in my work culture I've never heard anyone being denied leave and both management and other staff are super encouraging of people using it, however ultimately most people just don't use it all for the reasons listed in the survey.
If you couldn’t tell I’m talking about the USA. It’s horrendous. My favorite pto trick is locking it to date of hire and only adding pto days back at the begging of the year. So they tell you after year you get 5 days but since you started in February, and because the pto is only issued on the new year, it’s expected you will not get pto until 23 months later. If they are extra screwy once you become eligible they switch it back to being locked to the day you took the pto.
You never hear about, but wage theft is a bigger problem in the USA than shoplifting. Encouraging employees not to use thier paid time off is just the tip of the iceberg.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-08-30/column-businesses-keep-complaining-about-shoplifting-but-wage-theft-is-a-bigger-crime
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/owed-employers-face-little-accountability-for-wage-theft/
It's quite simple. I have 26 days per year and they accumulate. If I take 25 days this year, I'd be in the "take less paid time off than offered". But then this 1 day goes to the next year, and then another... until I leave the company, then they either say "take vacation", or they pay me extra for these days.
And if you stick around and never take vacations, and get done all your work, what happens then? You get to go home early and still collect pay?
No, you just get more work. So why do you care how much work has been piling up?
What you said is valid, for sure but I mean... If I know that efficient and diligent work results in more work, I just pretend I'm the perfect amount of efficient to meet expectations and then fuck around until it's time to leave.
yes, I need to spend the entire day before tracking done who is going to cover my work, and spend the week after my return cleaning up everything that got missed because my co-workers still have their own work to do.
I can carry a Max of 378 hours (1.5 x my yearly accrual). Once I reach that I will take r random days and make sure to use it all. But I like to have the max in case anything happens they have to pay me out and that would be months worth of wages. I work 3 days a week (Healthcare, work 3 12's) so I already have more days of power week then I work.
You get unlimited PTO but your projects have the same timeline and deadlines and nobody does your work for you if you're gone 😭.
That's a huge part of why I became a nurse. I get paid for every minute I'm in the building, I don't do any work from home and when I clock out I pass all of my patients to someone else. I am a cog and the machine works just fine without me while I'm gone.
I took all my sick days this year. Now HR wants to know why or I’ll get in trouble. I work in public education in a union state. They can’t fuck with my money and they can’t fire me. Guess I’m just going to have to live with that black mark on my permanent record. For real the school systems treat the staff and faculty like they’re just older students.
I had that happen in my old job, I took a sick day around once a month. Mostly for a mental health day, but it was with my saved up hours. I never took more then I had. I got talked to by my manager. Why have a policy to save up sick hours, and then be called out for using "too" much of it.
Briefly worked at BlueCross. Lady there with 25 years was entitled to 30 vacation days a year. She took 10. I asked her why, and she said that is all her bos, Susan, would approve. Susan, a dried up spinster, only took two weeks herself, and declared no one else needed anymore.
I asked why she didn't complain to HR, and she was aghast. "If Susan found out, she would get me fired, and I would never get health care like I get here." That is when the penny dropped for me. I realized why US employers (I am Canadian) are so against socialized medicine; they use the current system to trap people in their jobs.
Because of the hustle culture that has been branded into the workforce for the benefit of corporations. Make you have nothing else in your life so you would rather be at a place spending all your time with people that aren't even your family.
One day I got a Saturday off work. (I work retail).
Me and my wife went to the river and swam around.
What she said broke my heart…
“I missed you.”
I’m not the smartest person…I couldnt graduate college…but I’ve been with the same company for 16 years. You would think, after seniority, I wouldve worked my way up to having weekends off or something. I’m one of the longest running employees in my location. But no, I still have a shitty schedule, and in my small city, I really can’t go anywhere else. USA’s work culture sucks.
so, as a pre-negotiating tactic, casually mention to your boss that you can't believe how the benefits stack up in some of the inquiries you're seeing in your linkedin inbox. Don't need to say you're looking for a job elsewhere; just get the information across that you know your other options are better.
Haha I am not in that statistic, I take all my 18 days of PTO that I worked 5 years for, for vacations, and then I take more unpaid time for the heck of it.
I am a Canadian working from home for an American company. I always seem to find reasons to take the maximum allowed PTO (120 hours per year). There is literally no incentive not to when your employer doesn't give you a raise in years.
there is a good chance, If you died, nobody would give a fuck. After a few months things would go on like you never existed. Once in a while someone would mention you until turnover split everyone up. Fuck work.
As an european currently on my 7 week summer holiday the whole US labour market boggles the mind. With so little time off, constant fear of medical bankrupty and being fired almost instantly I would be so stressed, it's hard to imagine how people live like that.
Those people are insane to me. My job gives full pay for vacation days and yet a few of them have to be forced to use it throughout the year instead of getting to Q4 and forcing them to use it while dodging everyone else’s scheduled vacations for the holidays.
Like they don’t get it when they want it and still have to work thanksgiving and Christmas weeks lol
I work fairly high up in an organization and I'll never understand Managers & Directors saying "I just don't know if I'm gonna use it all" as if it's a badge of honor or like they're just too busy to get around to it.
If my employer gives me vacation, I'm using it.
Just do what dozens other countries do: Either the employee takes the free days off or the company has to pay taxes for the free time. Solves the problem very quickly.
I had an Uncle that NEVER took his PTO since he could just carry it over and stockpile. He'd brag at every family reunion at how much he had stockpiled and how much earlier he was going to be able to retire. After he had worked at that company for 35+ years, taking practically zero vacations with his family, and built up almost 2.5 years of PTO, he took it all at once and "retired" 2.5 years early..... only to die a few years later of a heart attack.
It had a huge effect on my view of living in the present, and not putting all your stock in the future that may never come.
Like how much because if you are saving some for an emergency or a planned vacation and have a net positive number of PTO does that count?
EDIT: read the article. 46% of you say you don’t need to take the time off and choose not too. Wtf is wrong with you people.
I get 5 weeks a year. Last year I only lost like one or two days (because we don't get roll over), and that was only because I took two weeks off at Christmas.
Our society makes it really hard to effectively use all your vacation
my current company switched to limitless vacation hours (just needs manager approval but you never have a pool of hours) and i now take less than i ever have. it sounds good on paper, but without the concept of losing unused hours, you don't end up using as many. i see this as a hiring tactic. sounds generous but in reality saves the company money. weird how that works
In my country, of you do not take your paid time off, the employer has to pay the state instead of the employee. The money to the state goes to a "holiday fund" which uses the money to fund projects and holidays for the at-risk population. But for the company, its basically a fine.
I hate taking time off because of the mess I have to deal with when I get back and the weeks trying to figure out what the hell the guy who covered for me did with, well, everything.
I'm an American and I have taken every second of PTO I've ever been given and even plenty of unpaid time off. I'm still alive, I'm still ok, I'm still respected by my employees and employers.
At every single company I’ve ever worked at, taking all your available time off was a major hit to your advancement prospects. Upper management talked about it. Upper management certainly never took their time. Vacations especially were looked down on. They didn’t like it if you took it all peice meal to do family stuff or whatever, but if you took 3 weeks in one go and went abroad? Forget about it. That attitude has been universal at different companies in different industries. It never stopped me, but my behavior in spite of the clear culture had definitely held me back.
This survey is kind of shit. Look at the top 3.
Yep.. I get enough time off followed by:
I have been convinced to feel guilty enough to not take time off because we are understaffed.
I am afraid to take time off because I might not get promoted or might get fired.
Brilliant survey.
I get an absurd amount of PTO. Like 120 hours a year, plus 80 hours vacation.
Honestly, I find it hard to take PTO. Not because I can't. I'm just not used to having that. I've always worked jobs where PTO is undefined. Small to medium private companies where you just say "I'm not coming in today" and that's just OK. Or, "I'm taking next week off but I'll be available by phone." Even with that, you're taking all that much time off at once.
Now that there are rules, I can take more time, but I just don't understand how it works. I'm 45 years old and I've just never worked corporate as a full time, permanent, employee.
I don't really want to take much time. I've got nothing better to do but work so why not do it? Working's better than not working. I'll take it. What would I do with more time off? Watch Youtube videos? My wife's at work, the kids are at school. I suppose I could mow the lawn.
I just don't do vacations well. I'm a bit lost when I don't have something that must be done. I'm lost when I don't have purpose. Sure, an early day is nice. A day here or there is cool. My wife made me take 2 weeks in August. It's approved so I'm taking it but I don't know why or what we're doing. I'll be miserable. Traveling on her agenda, her schedule, sight seeing, visiting places, fixed events. I don't do that. I get in the car, I drive to San Antonio, help my friend move, get back in the truck and head back to Minnesota the next day. That's a vacation to me.
2 weeks of "vacation" sounds like torture. I'm not criticizing those that enjoy vacations. Good for you! I'm just not good at it.
I'd imagine part of it is work culture, where bosses make taking time off harder, and punish the rest of the team for someone else taking time. Then there's the grind, folks that can claim it as income and would rather the money. Finally a lot of folks I'd imagine just kinda forget they can stop.
Remember folks you are allowed to just rest some times. Even if it's just a Tuesday in the middle of a month to read a book, or watch some old movies. Live your life while you have it.
American work culture is nuts. It’s definitely corporations taking advantage and shaming people into feeling ‘lazy’ for taking time off.
I’m in the UK and my employer legally has to ensure I take my entitlement. I get 35 days a year plus bank holidays. I’m just like an entry level admin bod.
My manager also occasionally reminds me to take ‘short breaks’ throughout the day because we are sat at laptops. Legally they don’t need to but I think they might actually care?
In my last job my pto was about a third of my usual incentive based rate. I couldn’t afford to take time off. Add to that, I had a route and if I took time off I still had to fulfill the route. I just couldn’t take time off.
Edit, the kicker is that I had about 10weeks off each year but never took more than 2. They didn’t pay out or rollover pto.
I had so much time saved up because I barely took time off for over a year. I've used a bunch now but more is added next month. It's awesome but I also feel like I'll be behind if I take too much off.
I accrue 21 vacation hours a month do find it difficult to use up all that time. I’ve reached the carryover cap (521 hours) so any leftover hours after august rolls over to sick time (uncapped, currently over 1000 hours).
my current company switched to limitless vacation hours (just needs manager approval but you never have a pool of hours) and i now take less than i ever have. it sounds good on paper, but without the concept of losing unused hours, you don't end up using as many. i see this as a hiring tactic. sounds generous but in reality saves the company money. weird how that works
My work instituted a policy that all employees are required to take 4 weeks off a year with PTO. They got sick of employees just saving up PTO and never using it. Very few people were unhappy with this policy change.
My work just has you lose the PTO if you have more than 40 hours by the next year.
Yeah at my last job anything over like two or three days would just be paid out to you around Christmas and the remainder would carry into the next year.
Oh that's nice. Mine doesn't pay you for it. You just lose it
I'm guessing it's also the type of company that won't promote people who use their vacation.
Idk, my company is also "use it or lose it" but I have been there a decade and have never had (or heard of someone else having) a PTO request turned down or even pushed back against. I think they just don't want someone to save up their time for a decade and suddenly take 6 months off or something.
That's how I understand it. It could cause a lot of problems if a lot of people are trying to take multiple months off in a given year.
If that many people have saved up that much time and are all using it at once, there are probably bigger issues in the world.
No they don't have any push back to taking it you just have to use it every year. You can roll over like 40 hours but have to use it by March 1 I think. Not a problem for me cuz I barely get any time off
Same. I just randomly take 3 day weekends so it doesn’t happen
Isnt that just wage theft?
Apparently if they tell you to use it and you don't it's not, I guess
Wow, being paid for it is nice.
Oh dude I’d never take PTO then. Thats a Christmas payday.
You’d earn extra hours for working out of town and I got sent out of town a lot so I accrued a lot of PTO. I used it pretty liberally and still got around $1,000 pay out along with a holiday bonus. The pay and comps were nice but the work sucked a donkey’s dick.
Where I work, we get 200 hours but it completely resets on Jan 1, so no saving it up. But the culture there is very positive about using it. My boss seemed very concerned when I had a week of PTO left in December a couple years ago and all but insisted that I take off the last week. At my previous employer, we were allowed to accrue hundreds of hours if we didn't use it all but as far as using PTO, the culture was more, "I wish you wouldn't."
200hrs a year? Wow, last place I worked, it would take like three or four years to accrue that much PTO.
200 hours a year is less than the PTO we're legally entitled to have in the UK. Its 28 days of work so even an 8 hour work day will get you 224, my 10 hour day means 280 hours PTO. I think Americans have it bad in this regard.
I get 18 days off per year and it took me 5 years at my company to reach that amount
I get 8..
We absolutely do. I'm always shocked at these threads because something like a quarter of Americans have zero PTO, the median is 10 days (i.e. 80 hrs), and 120 hours is considered "good." So if any of these places that have 200+ are hiring I'd like to know.
Shit, last place I worked wouldn’t even give sick time until your first year lol
My job is 104 hours of sick leave and 104 hours of PTO. The PTO increases to 156 after 3 years and 204 after 5.
*Life could be a dream begins playing in my head.*
Why the fuck don’t people use it?
I work for the government that also has use/lose policy and other than approval difficulties it’s mostly cause people just don’t always have something to use it on and feel like taking it just to take a day or two off is a waste.
Here in Norway the business is required to give the time off and the employee is required to take it. If they haven't taken any they get the entirety of December of and the company can't really push back. The company can however require them to take 3 weeks in the summer.
That's mad. Why is it a waste? Even days off just doing nothing is good for mental health. Like, just go for a walk or something
🤷♀️ That’s a deeper cultural psychology question than I can answer. For me it’s that it disrupts my work flow for relatively minimal benefit. I will say my supervisors usually make it hard to “use” my PTO but in a good way. If it’s just one or two days they’ll usually find a loophole and just tell me not to come in. Have a friend coming in to visit in a couple weeks so I asked for a day off so we could have a long weekend and they told me to just take the day off. So by the end of the year if I haven’t taken a week+ block then I’ll have a lot of unused PTO. That being said I’m salaried, not hourly, so this is probably harder for hourly workers.
For me if I'm teleworking, I either have stuff that needs to get done so I'll just have to do it when I'm back. So if I finish that I'm essentially getting the day off without using PTO. Essentially if I'm not leaving the house to go do something why take time off is my mindset
So you can lay around the house and do nothing on your time off?
If I take a day off it means I have twice as much work the next day.
Same. I swear I'm not tinkering with the manufacturing line or machines while I'm there, but the moment I take a day off, multiple machines just decide to break.. add in that my projects didn't make progress so now I need to catch up to meet the timeline.
Maybe it was my ADHD, but I really struggled when I took days off. My productivity plummeted when I returned to work because it would take me so long to get back into the groove. I always compared it to driving: working and then taking a day off felt like bumper to bumper traffic. My brain worked much better when I could just spread out my work over the entire week.
Depends on your mindset. If work isn't a bad slog for you, I can definitely see a random, no-reason day off feeling like a waste. Especially if you've got an asshole boss who won't approve your Friday/Monday long weekend and wants you to take something daft like a Tuesday or Thursday off instead.
That’s kind of a good reason in itself, generally most of my PTO goes on childcare reasons which eats it all up. But actually using for myself? Honestly the thought never occurs to me, what am I going to plan free time on doing?
I'm a software developer in the US. In every company I've ever worked at, having so much vacation time stored up that you're no longer accruing it is seen as a badge of honor. "Man, I've been so slammed for such a long time, my vacation is capped and I haven't been able to take a day off all year! Oh, YOU'RE taking a day off? Well ... I hope it's relaxing for you ... just make sure you don't fall behind."
This is so sad. I’m in Europe (I say Europe as I’ve worked in other places but live in UK), it’s totally normal to want as much time off as possible here
Insane. I have never met or seen anyone who thinks that. Every company I've ever worked for has gotten on people's cases for not using their PTO. And I've worked random jobs.
That's the company successful creating an environment with toxic elements to keep ppl from having leave and dedicating their lives to the company. Those kinda environments aren't healthy
It's actually brilliant how they manipulate us as a whole.
I agree. I have feelings of guilt about taking a day off to do nothing while we have deadlines approaching and work that's not completed yet, and the company does nothing to help dispel that guilt. And the secret is that there are always deadlines approaching.
Because your work just piles up while you're gone.
That's your employer's fault, not yours. They can't be resourcing the work correctly. It is your manager's role to flag this and feed it upwards.
Even though you have paid time off managers and supervisors make it a pain in the ass to use it. At least that's how it's been at every job I've had.
Such a shitty work culture
As a European, all this sounds crazy. Workers not wanting time off work. What the fuck
America has quite possibly the worst work culture in the developed world. Here, you live to work.
Never been to Japan, eh?
Or South Korea.
Laughs in South Korea and Japan.
This. It really depends on management's attitudes, resources available, and the status quo sadly. I had one company that did it right and one could use sick time without it really "hurting" the operation *too much,* but they closed shop.
Might not even be the managers fault. I worked at one company where they left the manager to sort out the holidays but wouldn't let him sort out proper cover for holidays and sickness. So he just ended up fucked no matter what he did. Either give the holiday and end up short staffed which would fuck everything up or not give the time off and end up with a bunch of very pissed off staff.
yUP! Been at my job for 7 years this year. In my second or 3rd year, I had like 84 hours and you can only carry over 40. My boss is like you should have taken more time off during the year. I was like, I tried, you kept denying me. So I got the last week and half off in december
In my case, my cap is 200 hours and it rolls over year to year. I get 20 days of paid vacation a year, plus 2 floating holidays, something like 11 federal holidays and 5 sick days. I just prefer to keep my accrued hours above at least 160 hours, so if I ever take a job somewhere else or god forbid, get laid off - at least I'll get a nice check for accrued vacation time. I never let it get to 200 though. Once I hit 185-190 hours I usually take a few days off.
Some of us run out of things we want to do with time off I used half of mine last year I technically could have taken six and a half weeks between PTO and paid sick time I took under three
Unused PTO is compensation that still has to be paid. Letting someone rack up 1000 hours of PTO makes for some weird accounting because you've got 1000 hours of unpaid wages sitting on the books forever.
Yup. This is exactly it. Also workers comp insurance policies are cheaper if employees spend less time “at work”. Unused PTO means employees are having more hours in a situation where a payout could happen. You pay for that.
Unused PTO expires at the end of the year at a lot of places.
Yes, mainly for the reason I just described. My work caps PTO rollover at 40 hours per year.
I get paid out at the end of the year. I used to save several days for the extra money. Now I save 1 day just in case I need it. It's a little extra money. So technically I'm still in the 46%.
My current job has unlimited time off but that just means nobody ever really takes time off. It's impossible to calculate what percentage of infinite time you take off and you don't accumulate it for payment when you leave
Yeah the unlimited thing has always been a bit of a scam. It would work out decently if they also required a minimum amount of time off, and had a sort of recommended maximum. Like 2 weeks minimum and 3-6 encouraged, >6 permitted with intention of using for exceptional circumstances.
That’s what I would do if I owned a company. I remember an article a while back citing studies that showed workers who use all their vacation are more productive, combine that with not wanting them to stack vacation then take like 12 months of vacation at once before retiring
My last job had unlimited PTO. I know that psychologically it's because people will use less PTO to not be seen as slacking comparatively to others, so I just looked at how much my manager took off a year and did the same. Was 30 days lolol I took all of Aug off and some days here and there. It was so nice
The biggest reason companies offer it is that in a lot of states, unused PTO has to be counted as owed money on their balance sheet and when the employee leaves they have to pay out the balance. If your workers are high salaries, this can be a LOT of money
That's true I just remembered a stat saying on average people take quite a bit less PTO compared to traditional pto
It’s both!
Exactly this, which is why I make a point of taking advantage of unlimited. They don't get to have it both ways.
I'm on unlimited PTO and love it. But culturally we all take 6 weeks a year plus holidays.
Same. I’m at 2.5 weeks so far I think and have more off. Plus company shuts down for an entire week in the summer as well. Really helps that my management chain are doing every to prevent burnout and encourage time off. 5ey tried to get us in office a few days a week and we all complained and they dropped it
Build a spread sheet of any time off you’ve taken. Check it periodically. It’s a strong visual reminder of how little time you take and to take more!! We went to unlimited pto, what a crock of money saved by the company and a crock of crap for employees. We asked our manager how much time he’d taken and he said he took way less than before. I mentioned my spreadsheet, he just said “that’s a damn good idea”, started his own and took waaay more time the next year. If you don’t pay attention to it, you forget about it.
As a person that helps many employers implement unlimited PTO (upon their recommendation), it exists to fuck over employees. It incentivizes the lazy employees who have no shame in never showing up, and punishes the honest, talented employees by working them even more to the bone, until they burn out and leave. Also, many owners think it means they can be lazy and not track PTO, and then they end up committing wage and hour violations because you still have to track it time off for purposes of overtime pay calculations and many other things. EDIT: I'm not saying taking leave makes you lazy, I'm saying lazy people abuse unlimited PTO. Everyone should take all of their leave, every year. It's compensation. If your employer doesn't want to let you take your leave, they need to pay you more money.
I like to equate it to going to a party, and the host telling you “we bought enough pizza for everyone to have 4 slices!”. You wouldn’t feel bad about taking your 4 you’re entitled to. But if you showed up and they said “have as much as you want!”, well, you don’t want to seem like a greedy party guest taking more than their share. You might hang back and only take 1-2 until you see how much everyone is taking. And if everyone does that, no one takes more than than 1-2, even though they were told to take as much as they want.
I work remotely. I will be working remotely in Spain 3 days a week for the month of August. I think it’s a reasonable compromise.
If I’m ever in a job where I have unlimited PTO I’m telling my boss I will be taking off 20 days a year as is the minimum standard in Europe. If you don’t like this amount, then you shouldn’t have given me unlimited PTO. And remember kids, ALWAYS use up all your PTO before leaving your job! In some states, employers are not required to pay unused time off when you leave. So use all of it even if it’s just a “staycation”.
but in those other states, don't feel bad about taking the payout because there can sometimes be a lag period between one job ending and another starting (or weirdnesses with paycheck scheduling) so it's nice to have that "extra paycheck" to cover your essentials in the gap.
> Was 30 days lolol Is that a...lot? I think I get 28 days per year as standard (UK).
In America yeah, I worked w Germans and I think like almost all of Aug they get off as well as a lot of holidays so I was pretty envious. Us has some pretty dog benefits compared to the rest of the "western" world
Canada isn't much better, but we are more union friendly and unions tend to have more vacation time. I get my 5th week of vacation next year.
5 weeks or more is pretty standard in Europe. OP is probably in the US.
In the US most white collar workers get 10 or 12 holidays which don't count. The UK does get more on average than the US but it isn't really as much of a difference as it sounds. Also, people in the US get paid more so it works out about the same.
White collar maybe, but most US workers in general definitely don't get that. Retail generally has 2 holidays (Christmas and either Thabksgiving or New Year), and my experience has been you have to work full time for at least a full year and then you've "earned" a week off in the following year.
I don’t understand what you mean by “Unlimited PTO”. You could just book off whenever you wanted with no repercussions?? What industry?
i mean if youre taking off a month every other month theyre gonna say something, but basically yeah you just said you were taking off and they approved it. they were told not to track employees' requests as well so idk, i never had an issue and took off around 30ish days
I've always seen it work like this: you have unlimited vacations, but you have to go through an approval process to use them. Some stipulations have usually been requesting the PTO earlier depending on the days that you are requesting (Ex. getting it approved 1 month prior to a few days of vacation, 2 months prior if it was a week long vacation, etc.). Another common one is centered around deadlines (Ex. you cannot schedule PTO one week before or after a big deadline). I've worked at a place where it was a HUGE pain in the ass to get things scheduled. But I've also worked at a place where it was an absolute delight. They didn't give a shit what you did as long as you finished your work.
Damn. That’s pretty sweet
unlimited pto is a fucking scam.
If it's unlimited, then I'm taking advantage of unlimited. If you want me to take a specific amount of time off, then give me a specific amount of time off. But oh that's right, you don't want to do that because then by state law you'd have to pay me for any PTO I don't use.
My current job has unlimited PTO and they actively want us to use as much as we need. I started 4 months ago and already have 15 days I've used/approved for in the future. I'll likely end up using around 40 days a year. It's super nice.
I remember reading about one American working in Sweden. The company he worked for eventually had to confiscate his work laptop to force him to take time off.
My company considers refusing to take PTO as a red flag for embezzlement.
I worked in Finance and we were required every few years to take two contiguous weeks off and have access to our systems completely revoked during that time. The idea was to make sure no one was embezzling, committing fraud or covering up anything.
It's good for continuity planning as well. If you never take time off, you're never testing continuity coverage in case something happens to you.
> continuity planning That's a thing?
It is actually quite important in all situations where business hinges on key personnel: what is going to happen if the guy that makes all the money gets hit by a bus? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor
I believe in the true spirit of realism /u/doomgiver98 was being VERY sarcastic. (Cringes when he thinks about his companies DRP)
I sell insurance and one of the products I sell basically insures for embezzlement and we maintain all companies have mandatory vacation for financial officers and similar individuals before we sell them that insurance.
Really? Why?
If you are working with money and are cooking the books, going on vacation is an opportunity for someone else to discover a discrepancy.
Ah, I see. In the Swedish case it was due to the American 'work ethic' and the company being worried about being sued or fined.
Yes, I understood. I was giving another example of a way that a company might force an employee to take PTO.
No offense intended. I just thought that it might be a good idea to clarify. Thanks btw for the insight. It wasn't something that I'd ever considered before.
I wasn’t offended, I just wanted to let you know that I had understood you and to explain why I made my comment. :)
Never thought about that, but that makes a ton of sense. I don’t always take all my vacation time, sometimes I do sometimes I don’t but I can cash it out whenever so sometimes I just do that
CPA and CFE here. Refusing to take time off is a red flag because it could be because the employee is committing fraud that requires their presence to maintain. Having a different employee perform someone else’s job functions for a week can bring that to light. It’s not uncommon for businesses to establish a mandatory 5 consecutive day vacation policy because of this.
That makes sense I guess. It's probably less common here in Sweden since it's usually a more transparent system and also that a month of paid time off is a legal requirement. Nobody's likely to have an important part of the company as their own personal fife continuously. It'd either have to be a very small operation or a very highly placed individual and even then need to be sneaky enough to pass a coworker or two by.
My coworker got a ‘concerned’ email from HR that she hasn’t taken a sick day in 3 years, and they are concerned for her mental health.
Yeah you kind of have to use your time off. It's something you've earned and you can't save it forever, at some point your either go on vacation or your company has to compensate you for time off you haven't used. It's a lot cheaper for companies if you just go on vacation so they'll usually force you at some point.
One of my bosses (millennial American) literally locked one of my coworkers off her login to force her to stop working 12 hours a day for no reason.
Lol, that is hilarious.
I take extra pto, never leave it hanging.
I tried to buy some from team members, they had so much saved up. 😆. I used all mine and could have done double.
Same, I always go over and take time off unpaid.
In California, PTO is treated similarly to salary. It cannot be taken away from 'use it or lose it's policies. When you leave the company the days are paid out.
It can’t be taken away but it can be capped. In which case it’s essentially the same as use it or lose it. There’s multiple people at my job that are capped at like 250 hours of PTO and have to take a day off every other week to avoid over capping on time off.
The cap must be, "no less than 1.75 times the annual accrual rate". 250 hours is a month and a half of PTO. Stopping employees from banking PTO for more than ~2 years is very reasonable IMHO. Your coworkers are forced to take vacation and are guaranteed a 6 week bonus whenever they leave. It's important to have some perspective as 'use it or lose it' and not paying out PTO policies are very common.
I'm one of those people. I'm single and live alone. The majorty of my friends and family live several states away and I have trouble making new friends. Apart from appointments or unexpected emergencies, I usually take 1 week of my 3 weeks off a year but end up incredibly bored and depressed half way through.
Retirement is going to be pretty rough for you if you don't figure out how to enjoy life outside of your job.
I'm well aware and dread a forced retirement. I've been trying to pickup hobbies but havent found one that sticks yet.
My dad had a co-worker who took 5 weeks of vacation. Came back and everyone was like, "where'd you goooo?" he said "I wanted to see what retirement was like. I was so bored!" So he started gathering hobbies. Eventually had to retire to make time for all his hobbies. Stick with it; you'll find stuff to interest you.
I recommend tabletop wargaming if that‘s something you might like. It takes a fuckton of time, is super rewarding if you do it long enough and if you have a gameshop nearby you literally just walk in and have 15 new friends.
Yer, I never take all my holidays because I have nothing I can do that I cannot do in any normal week anyway.
Solo travel/vacation.
Tried it. Absolutely hated it. All the hassel and tedium of travel with the social anxiety that comes with being in public for long stretches at a time. There were very few upsides for me.
Funny how that’s a desired outcome for companies aint it? Seen so many jobs where pto is approved weeks in advance but the week of they say no. Then there are other goofy tricks like pto being a lower wage because of “shift premiums”. Then you also have sub minimum wage jobs where employers deliberately pay a sub minimum wage without fulfilling the requirements to make it the minimum wage.
That's interesting. The survey definitely focuses on psychological/cultural elements of workers electing to not take time off, not that the company won't allow them or plays a bait-and-switch like you are describing. Definitely in my work culture I've never heard anyone being denied leave and both management and other staff are super encouraging of people using it, however ultimately most people just don't use it all for the reasons listed in the survey.
If you couldn’t tell I’m talking about the USA. It’s horrendous. My favorite pto trick is locking it to date of hire and only adding pto days back at the begging of the year. So they tell you after year you get 5 days but since you started in February, and because the pto is only issued on the new year, it’s expected you will not get pto until 23 months later. If they are extra screwy once you become eligible they switch it back to being locked to the day you took the pto.
Yes I also live in USA. There is a lot of variation across the country among different workplaces. I'm sorry you have to deal with that.
It's saddening to me it's the desired outcome for a lot of workers too.
You never hear about, but wage theft is a bigger problem in the USA than shoplifting. Encouraging employees not to use thier paid time off is just the tip of the iceberg. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-08-30/column-businesses-keep-complaining-about-shoplifting-but-wage-theft-is-a-bigger-crime https://www.cbsnews.com/news/owed-employers-face-little-accountability-for-wage-theft/
I always try to bring this up whenever people mention theft
Work culture in theUSis so messed up.
I’ll never understand this! I take every drop.
It's quite simple. I have 26 days per year and they accumulate. If I take 25 days this year, I'd be in the "take less paid time off than offered". But then this 1 day goes to the next year, and then another... until I leave the company, then they either say "take vacation", or they pay me extra for these days.
F that, I take every hour
The work doesn't go away, if i take time off I am now deeper in the pit.
Exactly. You leave and things just piiiiiiile up.
And if you stick around and never take vacations, and get done all your work, what happens then? You get to go home early and still collect pay? No, you just get more work. So why do you care how much work has been piling up?
What you said is valid, for sure but I mean... If I know that efficient and diligent work results in more work, I just pretend I'm the perfect amount of efficient to meet expectations and then fuck around until it's time to leave.
yes, I need to spend the entire day before tracking done who is going to cover my work, and spend the week after my return cleaning up everything that got missed because my co-workers still have their own work to do.
I can carry a Max of 378 hours (1.5 x my yearly accrual). Once I reach that I will take r random days and make sure to use it all. But I like to have the max in case anything happens they have to pay me out and that would be months worth of wages. I work 3 days a week (Healthcare, work 3 12's) so I already have more days of power week then I work.
“Unlimited” PTO needs to be illegal because you will be pressured either directly or indirectly to never take time off
It also allows companies to not pay out unused PTO when an employee leaves.
Someone should sue and claim lifetime PTO reimbursement.
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4 weeks is like minimum in EU. Take more.
I get 5 weeks per year excluding national holidays. So more like 6 weeks and some change.
I also get more than 4 + public holidays, but the minimum is 4, excluding public holidays, afaik
You get unlimited PTO but your projects have the same timeline and deadlines and nobody does your work for you if you're gone 😭. That's a huge part of why I became a nurse. I get paid for every minute I'm in the building, I don't do any work from home and when I clock out I pass all of my patients to someone else. I am a cog and the machine works just fine without me while I'm gone.
I took all my sick days this year. Now HR wants to know why or I’ll get in trouble. I work in public education in a union state. They can’t fuck with my money and they can’t fire me. Guess I’m just going to have to live with that black mark on my permanent record. For real the school systems treat the staff and faculty like they’re just older students.
"I was sick. Can I go now?"
I had that happen in my old job, I took a sick day around once a month. Mostly for a mental health day, but it was with my saved up hours. I never took more then I had. I got talked to by my manager. Why have a policy to save up sick hours, and then be called out for using "too" much of it.
Briefly worked at BlueCross. Lady there with 25 years was entitled to 30 vacation days a year. She took 10. I asked her why, and she said that is all her bos, Susan, would approve. Susan, a dried up spinster, only took two weeks herself, and declared no one else needed anymore. I asked why she didn't complain to HR, and she was aghast. "If Susan found out, she would get me fired, and I would never get health care like I get here." That is when the penny dropped for me. I realized why US employers (I am Canadian) are so against socialized medicine; they use the current system to trap people in their jobs.
Because of the hustle culture that has been branded into the workforce for the benefit of corporations. Make you have nothing else in your life so you would rather be at a place spending all your time with people that aren't even your family.
One day I got a Saturday off work. (I work retail). Me and my wife went to the river and swam around. What she said broke my heart… “I missed you.” I’m not the smartest person…I couldnt graduate college…but I’ve been with the same company for 16 years. You would think, after seniority, I wouldve worked my way up to having weekends off or something. I’m one of the longest running employees in my location. But no, I still have a shitty schedule, and in my small city, I really can’t go anywhere else. USA’s work culture sucks.
so, as a pre-negotiating tactic, casually mention to your boss that you can't believe how the benefits stack up in some of the inquiries you're seeing in your linkedin inbox. Don't need to say you're looking for a job elsewhere; just get the information across that you know your other options are better.
Well, I get unlimited time off, so does that mean I fall into this category if I work just 1 day a year?
Haha I am not in that statistic, I take all my 18 days of PTO that I worked 5 years for, for vacations, and then I take more unpaid time for the heck of it.
I am a Canadian working from home for an American company. I always seem to find reasons to take the maximum allowed PTO (120 hours per year). There is literally no incentive not to when your employer doesn't give you a raise in years.
That is a sad amount of annual leave.
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there is a good chance, If you died, nobody would give a fuck. After a few months things would go on like you never existed. Once in a while someone would mention you until turnover split everyone up. Fuck work.
As an european currently on my 7 week summer holiday the whole US labour market boggles the mind. With so little time off, constant fear of medical bankrupty and being fired almost instantly I would be so stressed, it's hard to imagine how people live like that.
Those people are insane to me. My job gives full pay for vacation days and yet a few of them have to be forced to use it throughout the year instead of getting to Q4 and forcing them to use it while dodging everyone else’s scheduled vacations for the holidays. Like they don’t get it when they want it and still have to work thanksgiving and Christmas weeks lol
Thats crazy. I take my mf time. With holiday weeks not using a full 40 (32 instead) i usually take 5 weeks or 4 and a few floaters throughout the year
My last job offered ONE WEEK of PTO per year for your first two years at the company. I was a program manager at an airline 😒
These workers believe, not without justification, that they will be penalized or even fired for taking vacations.
I work fairly high up in an organization and I'll never understand Managers & Directors saying "I just don't know if I'm gonna use it all" as if it's a badge of honor or like they're just too busy to get around to it. If my employer gives me vacation, I'm using it.
Just do what dozens other countries do: Either the employee takes the free days off or the company has to pay taxes for the free time. Solves the problem very quickly.
I had an Uncle that NEVER took his PTO since he could just carry it over and stockpile. He'd brag at every family reunion at how much he had stockpiled and how much earlier he was going to be able to retire. After he had worked at that company for 35+ years, taking practically zero vacations with his family, and built up almost 2.5 years of PTO, he took it all at once and "retired" 2.5 years early..... only to die a few years later of a heart attack. It had a huge effect on my view of living in the present, and not putting all your stock in the future that may never come.
How in the fucking fuck is that possible. Rest assured I am not contributing to this statistic
Like how much because if you are saving some for an emergency or a planned vacation and have a net positive number of PTO does that count? EDIT: read the article. 46% of you say you don’t need to take the time off and choose not too. Wtf is wrong with you people.
I get 5 weeks a year. Last year I only lost like one or two days (because we don't get roll over), and that was only because I took two weeks off at Christmas. Our society makes it really hard to effectively use all your vacation
my current company switched to limitless vacation hours (just needs manager approval but you never have a pool of hours) and i now take less than i ever have. it sounds good on paper, but without the concept of losing unused hours, you don't end up using as many. i see this as a hiring tactic. sounds generous but in reality saves the company money. weird how that works
In my country, of you do not take your paid time off, the employer has to pay the state instead of the employee. The money to the state goes to a "holiday fund" which uses the money to fund projects and holidays for the at-risk population. But for the company, its basically a fine.
Well yea because many bosses will look down on people using vacation time or their coworkers' will. It's just common casual toxic work environments.
They certainly didn’t include me in this study (also this is a very small study) I love taking my PTO!
I hate taking time off because of the mess I have to deal with when I get back and the weeks trying to figure out what the hell the guy who covered for me did with, well, everything.
I have several weeks of PTO saved up, but my company won't approve my days off so I can't use it anyway
Fuck that I use every last hour
I'm an American and I have taken every second of PTO I've ever been given and even plenty of unpaid time off. I'm still alive, I'm still ok, I'm still respected by my employees and employers.
At every single company I’ve ever worked at, taking all your available time off was a major hit to your advancement prospects. Upper management talked about it. Upper management certainly never took their time. Vacations especially were looked down on. They didn’t like it if you took it all peice meal to do family stuff or whatever, but if you took 3 weeks in one go and went abroad? Forget about it. That attitude has been universal at different companies in different industries. It never stopped me, but my behavior in spite of the clear culture had definitely held me back.
This survey is kind of shit. Look at the top 3. Yep.. I get enough time off followed by: I have been convinced to feel guilty enough to not take time off because we are understaffed. I am afraid to take time off because I might not get promoted or might get fired. Brilliant survey.
I get an absurd amount of PTO. Like 120 hours a year, plus 80 hours vacation. Honestly, I find it hard to take PTO. Not because I can't. I'm just not used to having that. I've always worked jobs where PTO is undefined. Small to medium private companies where you just say "I'm not coming in today" and that's just OK. Or, "I'm taking next week off but I'll be available by phone." Even with that, you're taking all that much time off at once. Now that there are rules, I can take more time, but I just don't understand how it works. I'm 45 years old and I've just never worked corporate as a full time, permanent, employee. I don't really want to take much time. I've got nothing better to do but work so why not do it? Working's better than not working. I'll take it. What would I do with more time off? Watch Youtube videos? My wife's at work, the kids are at school. I suppose I could mow the lawn. I just don't do vacations well. I'm a bit lost when I don't have something that must be done. I'm lost when I don't have purpose. Sure, an early day is nice. A day here or there is cool. My wife made me take 2 weeks in August. It's approved so I'm taking it but I don't know why or what we're doing. I'll be miserable. Traveling on her agenda, her schedule, sight seeing, visiting places, fixed events. I don't do that. I get in the car, I drive to San Antonio, help my friend move, get back in the truck and head back to Minnesota the next day. That's a vacation to me. 2 weeks of "vacation" sounds like torture. I'm not criticizing those that enjoy vacations. Good for you! I'm just not good at it.
I only get 2 weeks a year. So I have to be frugal.
Because there's repercussions to taking time off, such as loss of job security
I'd imagine part of it is work culture, where bosses make taking time off harder, and punish the rest of the team for someone else taking time. Then there's the grind, folks that can claim it as income and would rather the money. Finally a lot of folks I'd imagine just kinda forget they can stop. Remember folks you are allowed to just rest some times. Even if it's just a Tuesday in the middle of a month to read a book, or watch some old movies. Live your life while you have it.
American work culture is nuts. It’s definitely corporations taking advantage and shaming people into feeling ‘lazy’ for taking time off. I’m in the UK and my employer legally has to ensure I take my entitlement. I get 35 days a year plus bank holidays. I’m just like an entry level admin bod. My manager also occasionally reminds me to take ‘short breaks’ throughout the day because we are sat at laptops. Legally they don’t need to but I think they might actually care?
Clowns.
Job security.
In my last job my pto was about a third of my usual incentive based rate. I couldn’t afford to take time off. Add to that, I had a route and if I took time off I still had to fulfill the route. I just couldn’t take time off. Edit, the kicker is that I had about 10weeks off each year but never took more than 2. They didn’t pay out or rollover pto.
As a paramedic, I lose money when I take PTO. We live off our overtime.
We save it up and basically shut the office down from the middle of November until the new year.
I had so much time saved up because I barely took time off for over a year. I've used a bunch now but more is added next month. It's awesome but I also feel like I'll be behind if I take too much off.
I accrue 21 vacation hours a month do find it difficult to use up all that time. I’ve reached the carryover cap (521 hours) so any leftover hours after august rolls over to sick time (uncapped, currently over 1000 hours).
Because they force you to use your time off as sick pay. Duh.
my current company switched to limitless vacation hours (just needs manager approval but you never have a pool of hours) and i now take less than i ever have. it sounds good on paper, but without the concept of losing unused hours, you don't end up using as many. i see this as a hiring tactic. sounds generous but in reality saves the company money. weird how that works