A growing number of employees have expressed a desire to have unlimited vacation time at work. To be fair, this sounds like a dream. Instead of being given an allotted number of paid days per year, employees would have the luxury of being able to request as many days off as they want or need.
While the initial thought is that employees would abuse their unlimited time off, it’s quite the opposite. New data has revealed that employees who work at companies that offer unlimited PTO don’t tend to use their time off as often as one would think.
A report revealed how many days people with unlimited PTO at work actually take off each year.
On average, employees with unlimited time off policies take 16 days off per year, compared to the 14 days that employees with limited PTO take. Without much difference, it’s surprising that, according to retirement plan provider Empowerroughly 1 in 5 U.S. residents say they would decline a new job if it didn’t offer the benefit.
Overall, the Empower report reveals how people feel about unlimited time off policies. Roughly a quarter of employees (26%) say they would consider a lower-paying job if it offered unlimited PTO, while 19% say they wouldn’t accept a new job without the benefit. And 43% say that all companies should offer unlimited PTO.
On average, employees need at least 15 PTO days annually to consider taking a new job.
“Especially in the United States, where there is an expectation to work more than in other countries, employees may be hesitant to take too much time off, even when given the freedom to do so,” Caitlin Collins, an organizational psychologist and program strategy director at software firm Betterworks told the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
“The report likely reflects how workplace culture and leader and peer behavior can influence individual decisions, regardless of policies.
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Employees value the freedom to take time off when needed without feeling constrained by rigid allotments of vacation days, and they work better when they feel empowered to manage their time off without fear of retribution.”
Despite how popular unlimited PTO is with employees, it’s rare for companies to offer the benefit.
The 2024 SHRM Employee Benefits Survey found that the vast majority of employers offer separate vacation and sick leave policies for employees (98% and 96%, respectively), and just 7% offer a paid open or unlimited leave policy.
At first glance, unlimited PTO might seem like a dream, but many companies end the policy and declare it a failure after implementing it with their employees.
A 2018 survey showed workers with unlimited PTO took fewer holidays than those with a fixed allocation; according to another poll, one-third of U.S. workers with unlimited PTO always work while on vacation.
Employees expressed how much guilt they had when taking days off, and the main issue is that even with a set number of days given for time off, employees tend to not use those days either.
Not only do employers need to worry about making sure the policy surrounding unlimited PTO is fair for every employee, but they should also be encouraging their employees to take a much-needed break from working.
It’s about work-life balance and making sure that employees aren’t overworking themselves for the sake of productivity.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.
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