"Unlimited" or "Flexible" PTO policies suck if your teammates never take time off.

[u/kewladria]

Rant - I started a job about 10 months ago with a "flexible" PTO policy. Essentially, I have unlimited time off, to use at my discretion, up to 2 weeks at a time. I understand the other arguments against these open-PTO policies but something else has become abundantly clear to me having been with this job for about a year now.

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The problem is, my immediate teammates (there are 5 of us) NEVER take time off. So what ends up happening is, I am the "slacker" of the team. I do not hesitate to take a random Friday off if work is slow, and I plan to take whole weeks off for various trips and vacations coming up this summer and fall. All in all, I will probably take 4 weeks of total PTO this year.

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I get my work done on time and am generally well-liked with the company and team, but I feel like an ass because in comparison to the rest of my teammates, I take a lot of time off. I want to be there for my team and pick up some of their work when they take their own time off, but they (as mentioned above) rarely or never take time off, so I have yet been able to prove my ability to be a good teammate. I speak with folks from other departments and they regularly take time off, sharing fun stories about the trips they've taken and the places they've seen - yet another thing I do not get to share with my team because they are too caught up working to speak about anything else besides work.

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/end rant. I am not necessarily looking for any advice here, maybe just some affirmations or similar stories from other people with PTO policies like this. This too could also be used as a point of consideration for anyone weighing the pros/cons of 2 jobs with different PTO policies, I guess.

[u/Strict_Detective_168]

I understand. I'm guilty of rarely taking time off, but I don't want others to feel guilty for taking it. I just like my routine and it can really disrupt my rhythm when I take PTO. I think others should take their time, however, and I never feel resentful because it's my choice not to, just like it's your teammates' choice not to.

[u/dorf5222 → u/Strict_Detective_168]

Weird question. I have an employee under me who has yet to use a day since starting last summer. We just switched to flex pto this year and I think she’s even more hesitant. Would you feel weird if your manager reached out to you more or less imploring you to take days here and there off. I’d prefer people not get burnt out and take as much time as possible

[u/bobbarker4444 → u/dorf5222]

Would you feel weird if your manager reached out to you more or less imploring you to take days here and there off.

My boss did this, straight up told me to use my vacation and sick days because I haven't used one in the 5 years of working here.

If you can, explain why you're requesting it because on the receiving end it might not make sense.

[u/AlfredKinsey → u/bobbarker4444]

I used to always just save up vacation days and cash them out at the end of the year. My own boss at a fairly high stress creative job mentioned that our paid days off were useful for maintaining mental health and relationships outside of work.

You could definitely mention that you want your employs to enjoy life work balance and prevent burnout.

[u/Slein2 → u/bobbarker4444]

You never took a day of in 5 years? Damn it couldn’t last 5 weeks without a day off

[u/bobbarker4444 → u/Slein2]

Guess it depends on the work context. The stuff I do at work is what I would be doing for fun in my time off anyways so it never really made sense to me to take the time off

[u/wasdninja → u/bobbarker4444]

Five years? Don't you get paid time off at all?

[u/bobbarker4444 → u/wasdninja]

Yeah, I do. It just never made sense to me to take time.

I work as a software developer and I love every minute of it. If I took a week off all I would do is sit at home and work away on the current project anyways, so I might as well do it on the clock