Why do I hate Unlimited PTO?
Why do I hate Unlimited PTO?
Why do I hate Unlimited PTO?
As a guy who sits in Europe, I probably need to get up to date with the most modern Silicon Valley fashion trends. I guess Unlimited PTOs became popular among SV start-ups a few years ago. The European IT market is just taking very early steps to become more popular.
TL;DR;
What’s my thought on that? Write more articles to kill it before it gets spread.
Number of vacation days
In Poland, when you work on a full-time job agreement, you get 20 paid days off a year during the first years of your career. Then, after you gain certain experience (calculated by the number of formal education years + job experience), it grows to 26 days a year. There might be similar rules in other countries.
In the software industry, B2B Contracts have become a commodity. There is no strict law about vacation policy in B2B agreements, so companies are free to choose the vacation policy they offer.
Problem with zero paid days off
Many people cannot accept the idea of not earning money for a specific time. This vacation policy means that you only make money if you work. It may “cost” thousands of euros a month.
They do not take time off because they want to earn more. As a result, they end up working 12 months a year with no vacation at all.
Is the behaviour of these people bad? Or are these people bad? No. We are all humans. The company leaders' job is to create healthy work conditions, boundaries, and constraints.
Of course, only some employees work this way, and many people can balance the amount of work and the amount of vacation. They calculate their annual salary and include the no-money-making period in the yearly budget.
The amount of vacation
This article does not focus on the number of vacations people need to take. Everyone is slightly different. Some people will require 60 days off a year, and others will need to take 3 days off a year to solve some private life issues.
Some people love to work, and I enormously respect it. From time to time, I am one of them too.
This article is about communication and safety. This is against companies, bosses, and leaders.
Unlimited PTO is rarely unlimited
I experienced that many of my colleagues, who started working for Unlimited PTO companies, keep asking me “Hey Rafal! You are a manager so you probably know. How many days off can I take with unlimited policy?”.
Many people are afraid or shy when they plan to ask for days off when there is no strict information about the number of days they can take. They feel guilty going off even when they take care of passing all the responsibilities to their colleagues for the vacation period.
Statistically, many people take fewer vacation days a year with Unlimited PTO than a strict number of paid days off policies.
Unlimited PTO startups are not that fancy
Of course, we may argue that it is the company’s job to create the proper culture of psychological safety for its employees. Most companies fail to do that. My call on that topic is to stop using the idea of Unlimited PTO to become a hot startup. I consider it an excellent example of manipulative insincerity from Radical Candor’s dictionary.
Work never ends
Whether it is a corporate environment or an early-stage dynamic startup, there is always some stuff to do. It might be sitting in front of a computer doing nothing to show your presence to the boss or doing impactful things.
Work never ends. The meaning of “work” is just slightly different from company to company.
How to quickly fix a vacation policy?
Communicating the exact number of paid days off in a job offer is much better. No matter if it is zero, 20, 26, or 40. Just write a number. This is how you can maximize the likelihood of building a psychologically safe work environment.
People will use or lose the days off. Both scenarios are better than giving them fake unlimited possibilities.
Talk about vacation time with your boss
I encourage employees working for Unlimited PTO companies to keep asking about the vacation policy and to take time off.
Ask questions about the number of days, company culture, unlimited time, working 3 hours a day, working 4 days a week. Say that you want to use this time for growth, travelling, learning new programming languages, reading about management techniques, meeting new cultures, attending international meetups, taking care of your mental health, and so on. How many days of leave a year does your manager take?
Maybe it will make them think about changing it to “We encourage our employees to take at least 20 days off a year, and after that, they get Unlimited PTO”.
Ask your boss about it. Most bosses and managers will fail to answer your questions, especially if you go with 5xWhy.