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Is Unlimited #PTO a good or bad thing? Interesting stats in this Wall Street Journal article. 🔷 7% of U.S. companies have unlimited PTO plans 🔷 This is up from 1% in 2014 🔷 The average PTO days taken at these companies is 16 🔷 Average days taken in other companies is 14 In our experience, large corporations more often offer unlimited PTO. We see it at times in VC-backed startups. PE-backed companies, not as much. Whether unlimited PTO is a good thing or bad thing usually depends on the company's #culture. Understanding that culture is quite difficult during the interview process. If you dig in too hard on the topic, you may not get the offer. But it's a topic that needs to be broached. Do you prefer an unlimited plan or a finite number?
I agree that it depends on how the unlimited PTO works and the culture. The drawback is for very tenured employees, there is no PTO time accrued. In the event of employment separation, nothing needs to be paid out, which benefits the company. This is especially true when mass layoffs take place in larger corporations. That’s the real reason for unlimited PTO.
It’s a great perk! I remember having 1 week paid vacation in my first job out of college. It felt so restrictive. I could see why there’s only a 2 day differential in days taken off in the study. I tell me team to use what they would have had before unlimited PTO was instituted as a guidance for how many days they should use. It’s nice to know you have the flexibility to use more days here and there.
This is a great example of the standard a company sets in all its culture becomes what is lived out. Setting a trap of unlimited only to make people feel they can't take it isn't a cutlture is manipulation. I believe in treating people as adults and if you can honest say you hired adults, you should trust them to decide what is best from the top down. If you don't think you can trust you teams to make the right choice, that isn't a PTO problem, that is a people problem. What is not mentioned in this is the Parental Leave topic that often gets burried in PTO because a company can easily assume they will just use PTO, but if its not culture to be off for three weeks at a time, then most dads won't stay at home, they will return to work to conserve PTO time. People need permission and clear boundaries for what is expected, and also what is given in order for these types of polocies to work.
Looking forward to reading these responses!
Neither one is a "make or break" for me. However, if you're focused on hiring the right people, I think unlimited PTO is a great tool to build trust in the workplace if you truly implement it as a "no strings attached" perk.
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1wOk, now it’s a perk? Vacation, or PTO, benefits etc are all part of the employment package. It’s not a perk. It’s part of the compensation. It should be treated as such. We give 20 days vacation to start, maxing out at 50. We have a similar policy for sick days (3 is ridiculous). And I insist on people taking their vacation days. It prevents burn out. I wouldn’t have an issue with unlimited. If there was a value to it. I put no conditions on what vacation days people use, or how, or when. They are not denied. Ever. As I said, it’s part of the compensation package. Denying it makes no sense.