I never got less vacation days than the time we switched to unlimited vacation. God, I hate CEOs that keep up on the latest bro management books and blogs.

I think it's really dependent on the management. I worked at an "unlimited vacation" job and Felton shame taking 4-6 weeks off per year. There was motivators for not taking vacation- profit sharing was dependent on your utilization rate. I happen to have a good reason to take the time (my kids holiday schedule) so I didn't mind giving up extra money for time. I never was approached about my vacation time and felt that I used it responsibly. I can see how some environments could push that into a don't take vacation culture though.

If this is what you want, why not offer 6 weeks of PTO and a firm policy? It removes the ambiguity.

I always take 6 or more weeks per year. Usually I have unlimited vacation. The few times I've been acquired by megacorps with ancient vacation policies I either "forget" to file for vacation and so does my boss, or I take unpaid time off.

> Ah, unlimited vacation. A competition to see who can take the least vacation!

That definitely hasn't been the case for me. I've had unlimited vacation and take off 4 weeks a year + assorted random days off (2/month).

I would never work somewhere with constrained vacation. Having to file paperwork for a random day showing family around town is ridiculous.

That being said, I think "untracked" is the best definition. It's obviously not unlimited, but there's also no hard limit. And the limit depends on behavior (leaving for 6 weeks is frowned upon, but 3 random days off every month is fine).

I'm from the U.K. - everyone here is entitled to that number of holidays

I understand that your requirement is 28 days. [1]

I've taken as many as 44 days off, which is a lot more.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/entitlement