The truth about unlimited PTO
It’s not about time off. It’s about culture. And mansions – real or figurative.
There’s a Wall Street Journal article making the rounds. It’s about Unlimited PTO (that stands for Personal Time Off for those who have miraculously escaped corporate culture.) The article says this perk is on the rise, but it’s a mixed blessing because we’re all timid mice-people, except the Journal says it much nicer than that. The piece grabbed my attention because I once worked for an employer that offered unlimited PTO, and the experience left me with hard-won opinions. If a writer isn’t offering up hard-won opinions on Substack, what is he even doing here?
When Playboy offered unlimited PTO (yes, that Playboy, and yes, I did just drop that P-bomb), it was a move very much within bounds of company culture. Our two-story Beverly Hills office had a well-stocked bar, which was accessible downstairs from the editorial offices at any time. I can’t say no one ever abused it, but I never heard about anyone abusing it. The bar was mainly used for office happy hours, special events or for some of us to grab a beer on Friday at 4 (PM not AM). Playboy HQ also had a game room with pinball machines, a pool table and Ping-Pong, as well as a kitchen stocked with free drinks and snacks. It’s a bummer to think that I will never work anywhere like this again, but be happy that it happened, not sad that it’s over, I guess.
The vibe was – we’re adults here, and we’re confident you’ll act like it. For a magazine that long advocated for personal freedom, the workplace matched the mission. It would have been odd to me if Playboy HQ was not playful and a little decadent.
When I told friends we had unlimited PTO at work, it only added to the company’s allure.
Of course they do.
They’re cool.
Indeed, it felt cool.
I had a good boss. His take on our unlimited PTO was – as long as you get your work done, take what you need. His focus was on making Playboy relevant in the digital era, not keeping track of who took how many days off. He trusted us.
Per the Journal article, the average worker with unlimited PTO takes off around 16 days a year. I’d say I was probably average in that regard. I suspect that once a workplace norm of this sort has been established, the group adheres to it, for a whole host of reasons, perhaps chief among them – more people would hate to lose a benefit they don’t fully take advantage of than risk losing it, having never taken full advantage of it.
Why didn’t I take more time off? Some of it was the established norm, sure, but also I liked working there – liked going to work, liked our mission, liked the writers I worked with and liked the other perks, such as invitations to parties at the mansion. True story: I took my five-months pregnant wife to a Midsummer’s Night Dream Party as my plus-1, both so I could remain happily married and because it was a dream of hers to go to the mansion. We had a great time. Why draw attention to yourself by taking 14 weeks of PTO a year when you can party with Justin Bieber?
I am well aware that employers don’t offer perks unless it advantages them in some way, and those advantages are obvious. The idea of potentially eternal PTO definitely helps with recruiting and retention. There is no awkward negotiating over days off when you get as many as you are willing to take. It’s one less administrative task for managers and HR. And the company doesn’t have to pay out unused PTO when you leave or are let go.
So — unlimited PTO — good or bad?
To any human resources managers who stumble upon this piece on Google, listen up: unlimited PTO works, but only if your office feels more like a dream job and less like an Outlook calendar that keeps pinging you on weekends.
If your workplace culture is broken, or if your industry is a revolving door, it’s not going to work. People will abuse it, and those who will pay the price are the employees who don’t abuse it – your best workers.
If yours is an industry where workers are too meek to take days off and end up not using their PTO, that’s no good for anyone. They’ll burn out and flee, perhaps leaving a viral TikTok video as a flaming departing gift.
The question isn’t whether you should offer unlimited PTO, the question is whether your company has earned the opportunity to offer it.
Having a mansion helps.
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It’s interesting that the average number of days taken with unlimited PTO is 16. Basically that’s about 3 weeks off per year. At this point at my job, I get 4 weeks, which is 20 days, plus another 9 because a while ago the company did away with sick day accruals and turned it into extra PTO. And you have to take a certain number of days each year or risk not accruing more days. So at this point, unlimited PTO doesn’t have much allure for me because I don’t take all of my days now anyway. And we know one reason companies do this is that, in the event you leave, there is no unused PTO to have to pay out to you.
Good post. Didn’t entirely go where I was expecting, which I appreciated.
There was a 3 year window at my last employer when I covered Playboy, it was a fun office to visit, esp during happy hours (got to go to the mansion once too!). My buddy and I used to tell everyone else on our team when we got the inevitable questions… they hired good people, returned phone calls, quality sales discussions. Proper adults. I’m not at all surprised you guys made unlimited PTO work.
I agree UPTO has to be earned. Imperative to have people who actually care about the people they work with. For most employers, it’s a huge red flag. For many companies, if they don’t track it, it’s not important. I’d argue for many employers, PTO doesn’t work. If there’s always an assumption the work gets done, and the right people aren’t in place (and enough of them), unlimited PTO does not work.