Unlimited PTO?!?

MattB

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As stated, from an employee perspective there are good employers and bad employers. Some do some amazing things for their employees.

When I was in banking, I worked with some companies that had a really high turn-over rate (US EV manufacturer that will remain nameless), a few which had good long-term employee retention, and one that had really good retention and seemed to eventually rehire every employee that left (Anritsu, US sub of a Japanese parent company). Some employees had no idea how good they had it until they went somewhere else, and then a crazy high % returned and worked there until they retired.
 

Titan_Bow

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I’ve been on this setup for about 3 years now and it’s not really any different. I find myself taking about 3 weeks of vacation a year, with some random days thrown in here or there. That’s about what I’d have taken given my seniority at the company had it been accrued vacation. It’s not like you can just decide not to come to work and say you are on PTO. I have deadlines and deliverables and that’s what drives my priority to know whether I can take off for a week to go hunting or grab a Friday-Monday to get. 4 day trip in, etc. and it’s got to be planned out a couple weeks in advance typically. I manage a team of people and none of them abuse it or make a big deal of it. When someone has time off planned they take it.
Companies go to this format for one thing really, and that’s to get the potentially millions of dollars of unused vacation off their books. When my company switched to this model, many long time employees were pissed because some people never took vacation and just “banked” hundreds of hours of unused vacation. Now they no longer accrue vacation do there’s nothing adding up on the books. I still struggle to get some people to actually take some off.


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cnelk

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That is a load of BS. Just like there are crap employees their are crap employeers. But there are good ones out there too. With that attitude its not hard to figure out where you fall.

Careful there. You have no idea about my work career that I retired from.

Just this week I was offered a job that paid $25,000/month based on my work experience. They knew exactly ‘where I fell’.

I declined the offer.
 
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Careful there. You have no idea about my work career that I retired from.

Just this week I was offered a job that paid $25,000/month based on my work experience. They knew exactly ‘where I fell’.

I declined the offer.
What kind of job is that?
 

hunterjmj

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Montana
I've worked in the trades for most of my life and commercial refrigeration for the last 14. Work is never caught up and never will be. My old boss would throw his head in the air and sigh when I requested pto. I always thought if you are against your employees taking time off then don't offer it. I wouldn't work at a company that didn't offer pto but many employees offer it but throw a fit when you use it. This post is an interesting read on the differences in employers and blue collar vs white collar.
 

cjdewese

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Sep 8, 2020
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I’ve been on this setup for about 3 years now and it’s not really any different. I find myself taking about 3 weeks of vacation a year, with some random days thrown in here or there. That’s about what I’d have taken given my seniority at the company had it been accrued vacation. It’s not like you can just decide not to come to work and say you are on PTO. I have deadlines and deliverables and that’s what drives my priority to know whether I can take off for a week to go hunting or grab a Friday-Monday to get. 4 day trip in, etc. and it’s got to be planned out a couple weeks in advance typically. I manage a team of people and none of them abuse it or make a big deal of it. When someone has time off planned they take it.
Companies go to this format for one thing really, and that’s to get the potentially millions of dollars of unused vacation off their books. When my company switched to this model, many long time employees were pissed because some people never took vacation and just “banked” hundreds of hours of unused vacation. Now they no longer accrue vacation do there’s nothing adding up on the books. I still struggle to get some people to actually take some off.


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When your company switched what happened to thr banked PTO? Did the employees with time get paid out?
 

MattB

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Careful there. You have no idea about my work career that I retired from.

Just this week I was offered a job that paid $25,000/month based on my work experience. They knew exactly ‘where I fell’.

I declined the offer.
Have you worked for all the companies?
 

MattB

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When your company switched what happened to thr banked PTO? Did the employees with time get paid out?
Based on the explanation of my friends who have gone through this, I believe the banked hours are eliminated.
 

big44a4

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Based on the explanation of my friends who have gone through this, I believe the banked hours are eliminated.

I had a friends company do just that. They gave employees a deadline to use it or lose it all. Most lost a lot of it due to not being able to take time off given status of jobs they were working on.
 

big44a4

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Based on the explanation of my friends who have gone through this, I believe the banked hours are eliminated.

I had a friends company do just that. They gave employees a deadline to use it or lose it all. Most lost a lot of it due to not being able to take time off given status of jobs they were working on.
 

big44a4

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Based on the explanation of my friends who have gone through this, I believe the banked hours are eliminated.

I had a friends company do just that. They gave employees a deadline to use it or lose it all. Most lost a lot of it due to not being able to take time off given status of jobs they were working on.
 

big44a4

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Based on the explanation of my friends who have gone through this, I believe the banked hours are eliminated.

I had a friends company do just that. They gave employees a deadline to use it or lose it all. Most lost a lot of it due to not being able to take time off given status of jobs they were working on.
 

Reburn

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Careful there. You have no idea about my work career that I retired from.

Just this week I was offered a job that paid $25,000/month based on my work experience. They knew exactly ‘where I fell’.

I declined the offer.

You still make broad statements with a poor attitude.
Bad employees with poor attitude make alot of money sometimes as well.
The two arent mutally exclusive.

Alot of companies go to great lengths to ensure their employees are healthy and happy.
Why
Because healthy happy employees are more productive which makes the company more profitable. Both can win. It doesnt have to be one against the other.

Companies have to make policy to protect themselves from bad employees. Sometimes good employees get caught in the crossfire. Look no further then dude asking about using FMLA for a hunting trip. https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/how-to-get-time-off-work-fmla-help-or.331367/
 
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Alot of companies go to great lengths to ensure their employees are healthy and happy.
Why
Because healthy happy employees are more productive which makes the company more profitable.
You literally just proved @cnelk's point. Companies, like the one I work for, do go to great lengths to try and maximize employee morale and wellbeing. Why? Because it makes the company more profitable. When time off programs and other incentives outpace profitablity, guess what? Those programs are usually scaled back or you see large scale layoffs or outsourcing. I've worked in corporate America for 25 years and played the game my entire career. Fortuantely, I've been able to keep my seat through a couple buyouts in the last 15 years.

If you think an employer, small/large, white/blue collar, is going to go out of business for its employees, you've been drinking too much Kool-Aid.
 

MattB

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If you think an employer, small/large, white/blue collar, is going to go out of business for its employees, you've been drinking too much Kool-Aid.
There is a huge gap between companies implementing employee-friendly policies and a company going out of business on their behalf. In my career I worked with 100+ different companies and, as I previously explained, there is a very broad spectrum in and yes - there are companies that make decisions which benefit employees to the detriment of shareholders. Based on my experience I would say they are in the minority, but they exist.
 

Reburn

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You literally just proved @cnelk's point. Companies, like the one I work for, do go to great lengths to try and maximize employee morale and wellbeing. Why? Because it makes the company more profitable. When time off programs and other incentives outpace profitablity, guess what? Those programs are usually scaled back or you see large scale layoffs or outsourcing. I've worked in corporate America for 25 years and played the game my entire career. Fortuantely, I've been able to keep my seat through a couple buyouts in the last 15 years.

If you think an employer, small/large, white/blue collar, is going to go out of business for its employees, you've been drinking too much Kool-Aid.

Again.
Why does it have to be whats good for the company is bad for the employee.
This is toxic thinking that leaves 2 losers in the end.
The same is true when the company behaves that way.

You proved my point. Balance is good.

A bigger ship is harder to turn. If you wanted to say a fortune 500 company......Then maybe I could at least side with you a little. But since those companies are so hard to turn they have to have policies that protect the company from crappy employees. You should be angry at the people that try to take advantage of everything. Not the company protecting its self. If you do find yourself at a bad company just leave. Eventually they will have to change their behavior to retain people or they will have to pay more for people to put up with it.

There are a ton of small and medium sized companies that treat their employees right. Sometimes at the detriment of the company. I have seen it. This isnt idle speculation.
 
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