While unlimited PTO sounds like a dream to many workers facing unprecedented rates of burnout, the ability to
Half of workers in the U.S. would prefer unlimited PTO to earning a higher salary, according to a survey by the Harris Poll. Yet, a study by HR software company Namely found that employees with unlimited PTO policies only took 13 days off annually, compared to employees with traditional capped PTO policies, who took 15 days off.
So, is unlimited PTO simply not as good as it sounds? It depends on how leaders and employees approach it, says Allison Rutledge-Parisi, senior vice president of people at HR solutions company Justworks.
“Unlimited PTO has to be seen as a tool that people use to refresh themselves in order to give the best of themselves to work,” says Rutledge-Parisi. “But unlimited PTO needs to be thoughtfully supported by the organization, so it actually benefits everyone.”
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While Rutledge-Parisi acknowledges that unlimited PTO policies are not the right fit for every company, she believes it can serve as a self-care and retention tool for employers and employees, respectively — but only if organizations are encouraging time-off within the work culture. If not, a capped PTO policy is likely to better serve workers because they feel entitled to take a specific number of days off.
“Our leaders talk about the importance of taking time off, and we work with each other to make sure that we model stepping away ourselves,” says Rutledge-Parisi. “You cannot step away and still be on Slack or your email.”
Rutledge-Parisi stresses that employees should not only be told to take time off, but that they see their managers and executive leaders completely unplug from work. Justworks even offers workers up to $50 every quarter as an incentive to take a day off to do something they love, whether it’s buying books, renting a bike or getting a manicure, explains Rutledge-Parisi. An additional incentive comes after five years at Justworks, when employees can take up to a three-month sabbatical.
“We want to make it clear that we value people taking their time off,” says Rutledge-Parisi. “As long as you clear your time off with your manager, it’s absolutely encouraged.”
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That being said, an unlimited PTO policy does have to come with constraints — one being manager-approval. Rutledge-Parisi notes that Justworks offers managers guidance in navigating how to use their discretion appropriately. For example, if a team is in the middle of an intense project or in a customer-facing role during a moment of high demand, managers can ask that the employee delay a recent week-long PTO request. If an employee is taking more than four weeks off per year, and it’s affecting their performance, a manager would step in and have a conversation about possible challenges the employee may be facing outside of work.
Most importantly, Rutledge-Parisi emphasizes that unlimited PTO policies should be limited to vacation time and not account for other kinds of leave, such as sick time, jury and parental leave.
“It gets very messy, very quickly when managing people if you're not clear which policies are being applied to the time away,” she says. “Not to mention, there are city, state and federal laws regarding sick time and forms of leave we need to be compliant with.”
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Rutledge-Parisi encourages workers to be critical of unlimited PTO policies during job interviews and question whether the company culture allows them to utilize that benefit. While easier said than done, she also asks employees to believe they deserve a break.
“The fact that they can work from their bedrooms, wearing slippers doesn't mean they're not working,” says Rutledge-Parisi. “They're working very hard and they need to shut down that computer, put it away and draw the boundary between their personal and their professional life.”
