Can You Hear Me Now

When you’re certain you cannot be fooled, you become easy to fool.

Edward Teller

I admit that the first time I heard about unlimited PTO (Personal Time Off) I was jealous. For my entire work life my vacation and sick days were governed by corporate policies that assigned days off according to the number of years I worked at a particular company.

When I started at Northern Telcom in 1983, we were granted two weeks of vacation until we were there for five years. From five to ten years we got three weeks. I don’t recall the exact milestones beyond that, but after so many additional years we were given another week.

The vacation ladder was fine until I changed jobs and was forced to negotiate days off as part of my hiring package. There was no way I was going to accept two weeks after 27 years of continual employment.

10 years later I was back on the job market and not looking forward to another round of haggling. However, that wasn’t necessary since my new company, Avaya, offered the thing I had be coveting for so many years — unlimited PTO. Instead of having to start over or give up a week or two, I could take as many days as I wanted. Yes, there were restrictions, but the policy essentially read that if my manager agreed to my request it would be approved. How cool is that?

Well, not as cool as I thought it would be. After nearly three and a half years of employment, I took far less time off per year than I did in the previous 40. Without a set number of days to use, it wasn’t on my mind to use anything except the bare minimum — and those days were usually driven by my wife. Knowing that I could take time off became a substitute for actually taking that time.

I can’t tell you how many days I lost out on because no one, including me, was keeping track. It wasn’t like my days at Nortel when the number of days I used was shown on my paystub. I guess I could have looked back at my calendar and searched for entries marked “vacation,” but that would have been a cumbersome process. And now that my Avaya calendar has been erased, it’s an impossible job. Did I take two weeks last year? Three weeks? Your guess is as good as mine.

I can only speak for myself, but the reasons I fell short are:

• I was too busy to take time off. Unlimited PTO is the curse of the driven employee.
• My manager will think I am not needed if I ask for vacation. Unlimited PTO is the curse of the imposter syndrome employee.
• I would have caused hardship on my coworkers. Unlimited PTO is the curse of the thoughtful employee.
• I was too embarrassed to ask. Unlimited PTO is the curse of the shy and unassertive employee.
• I didn’t think I needed time off. Unlimited PTO is the curse of the overconfident employee.

Perhaps you can relate to one of these reasons or have a few of your own. I know that I am not alone in this because studies are showing that across the board employees are taking less time off when given unlimited PTO. This is not just an Andrew problem.

In addition to missing out on vacations and downtime, when I left Avaya they owed me nothing. When I left previous companies, I was paid for all my unused days. Unlimited also means there are no unused days. I can only imagine how much money companies are saving because of this policy.

I would love to hear what others think of this. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Does this policy only benefit the company? Are you taking more or less days of PTO now that you have no limit? Inquiring minds want to know.

Only a fool with eyes averted
shuttered from an obvious and undeniable truth
a sap who refuses to question
this and other pig-headed notions

To be so afraid of what is clearly before him
to bury his head in the sands of denial

Only a fool as the one in the mirror
only a fool such as I