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The United States has a vacation problem. And at a time when more than half of of U.S. workers reporting that they were experiencing anywhere from a moderate level of burnout to a "high" or “very high” level of burnout — it's a problem we need to fix.
I’ve been there, too. It had been months since I’d taken even a single day off work, and I was burned out. Even after a decade of working in an environment with unlimited PTO, I found bad habits were hard to break.
But, as I sat at the end of my long vacation last month, I had to at least give kudos to the way unlimited PTO is handled in our organization. There are skeptics, but until we fix time off in this country, unlimited PTO remains one of the best options for dealing with our lack of guidance on what organizations should offer for vacation and sick time.
Deprogramming Limited PTO
Like many people, I’ve spent my career dealing mostly with vacation, sick and PTO policies that have been limited in nature. In my first job out of college, employees would get one week of vacation and one week of sick time after the first year. For the first 364 days after you started the job, you were expected to show up every day. You were expected to not get sick, to not want to take any time away and even to be grateful that you got any time off at all because it wasn’t required of employers.
Even at organizations that provided better policies, I would still come back nervous from a long vacation where I used up a big portion of my vacation or PTO bank. I’d hope that a family member or myself wouldn’t get sick or that nothing unexpected would happen before I was able to rebuild the balance of days I could take. So, I would always keep some hours available for the unexpected, just in case. What other options did I have?
My behavior wasn’t an outlier. PTO usage in the U.S. is absolutely abysmal compared to the rest of the world. For example, statistics show:
- The average American gets 11 days of vacation and 8 days of sick leave annually
- 28 million American employees get no vacation days at all
- The average employee ends up leaving 6.5 days of PTO on the table every year
- The United States is the only first-world country without some level of mandatory PTO
Simply stated, we do an awful job of accruing and taking vacation and PTO hours.
Related Article: The US Has a Vacation Problem: Here's Why We Should Fix It
Everyone Hates Unlimited PTO … Except Employees
A recent MetLife survey found that unlimited PTO was one of the top benefits requested by employees (nearly three-quarters are interested in it). It’s not surprising. After all, not worrying about a bank of hours is a gift for any employee.
Yet, when I talk to HR leaders, many are skeptical about the benefits of unlimited PTO. And employees who have the perk also wonder how to do it right. They ask questions like:
- How much is the norm to take in an unlimited PTO organization?
- What if your culture (or manager) discourages PTO usage?
- What about favoritism or bias?
- What happens when employees expect a PTO payout when they leave the organization?
- How do you counter abuse or legal considerations?
These are all fair questions. I understand the hesitation when you’re not familiar with that benefit. Any organization that offers unlimited PTO has to solve these issues. Some of them, like addressing abuse or legal considerations, can be difficult. But they are all possible.
What isn’t realistic is trying to fix the country’s current approach to PTO with more of the same. It is clear that vacation and time off are still far underutilized. And with the proportion of U.S. employers offering unlimited PTO still in the single digits, we know most of that underutilization is coming from limited (or no) PTO organizations.
Related Article: Your Next Killer Employee Experience App: PTO
Fixing What Can Break With Unlimited PTO
Like any employee policy, unlimited PTO has its challenges, the most significant one being culture.
There was no expectation that I would take that self-imposed break from work, certainly not of that duration. Yet, psychologically, I wanted to make my time off count. And it’s important that, as employees, we take the time we need. If the norm of your team, your boss or even yourself is to not take PTO, then you’ll find yourself in a workplace that doesn’t take PTO.
Unlimited PTO is also a perk that some leaders have added in hopes of fixing a broader problem. Like a magic wand, they hope unlimited PTO solves their workforce woes. Maybe their organization has been dealing with burnout, or perhaps they have recruiting or retention challenges. Regardless of the challenge, unlimited PTO can’t be implemented as a standalone solution. For it to work, an organization has to embrace the idea of taking time off on a more consistent and open basis.
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As for the accrual pushback for unlimited PTO, there really isn’t a solution for that. Some people will just want accrued PTO. Most of the other issues, however, could be fixed with a mandatory minimum hours or days of PTO that employees must take.
While this solution sort of takes the elegance out of the system, it ensures that a baseline exists. Abuse of unlimited PTO is certainly a concern, but work leaders have been trying to figure out how to properly enforce attendance policies for decades. With some thought, I’m sure we could figure something out that balances the spirit of unlimited PTO with the realities of managing a diverse workforce.
Most importantly, until we fix the laws for mandatory time off in the U.S., unlimited PTO offers something that limited PTO policies can’t offer: something that changes the frame of reference for separate work life from the rest of life. And for now, it’s the best thing we’ve got.
