A saner equivalent to 'unlimited' is 'minimum required'. That way, folks know for sure you're supposed to take at least 3 weeks (or 2 or 4 or whatever) and can do so without worry.

In fact, to call it unlimited and not have a minimum is probably always a scam - its so easy to post a minimum, to not do so must be deliberate.

Ditto - I prefer a flexible and generous actual paid time off policy over unlimited PTO. One big benefit to a defined policy is accruing time off you'll be paid out for if you leave. That can be a non-insignificant amount of money for some people.

"Unlimited PTO" is a policy ripe for employer exploitation. In practice at my workplace, this means a) Cannot take more than 2 weeks of PTO at a time (even if you want to go unpaid). Automatic manager rejection. b) Cannot be combined with other forms of time off. I had a kid recently and was told that PTO cannot be combined with FMLA. c) When I told them that I wanted to take FMLA, I was told by the Dir. of Engg that I could not take any further PTO for the rest of the year even with the "Unlimited PTO" option and said policy was unrelated to FMLA. He went so far as to state that when he worked at Twitter, there were folks who would alternate working 2 weeks with 2-week PTOs cause of the Twitter's "Unlimited PTO" policy. I found that extremely insulting and de-motivating.

Of course, I am sure a lot of this has to do with management culture /values. Another colleague in a different department is being discouraged from taking FMLA (which is borderline illegal). However, he feels stuck as the company is doing his Green card application and has him by the balls.

All that to say, I took my FMLA and handed in my notice as soon as I returned.

I work for a tech company that's public now, but has had an unlimited vacation policy since before IPO. I take 5-6 weeks of vacation per year (in addition to the 10 fixed holidays we get). Who cares if you don't "feel comfortable"? Do it anyway! Trust me, you'll start feeling comfortable real fast once you have a reasonable work-life balance.

I work for a non-startup/non-tech company with unlimited PTO and people here take advantage of that all the time.

Unlimited PTO doesn't lead to work-balance nightmares; it's the result of management discouraging employees from taking breaks.

I've worked at two companies with "unlimited PTO" and it also worked as stated.

The other goal of "unlimited vacation" is that companies don't have to pay out banked vacation days upon end of employment.

I guess that depends on the jurisdiction. I worked at a company with unlimited vacations and they had to pay. It got quite complicated to estimate due days when employees started leaving in droves and there was no record of any holiday taken.

> "unlimited PTO" nonsense

Absolutely. I've seen multiple startups with this ridiculous policy. The net effect of it is that people hardly ever take any time off, and certainly less than employees with more sensible policies, since taking any time off directly reflects on your moral character.

I worked at a large Seattle startup (~300 people post Series A), with "unlimited PTO" and only had 5 days approved the entire year.

I've had unlimited PTO at a place with double digit employees, and one with four-figure employees.

These issues around having vacation days "approved" seems like a function of your bosses, not your PTO plan. If you have to get your time approved, it doesn't matter the size of the bucket you're pulling from.

My experience is much more "hey I've got a couple weeks off coming up, by the way, I'm thinking of [x, y, z] for making sure everyone's up to speed while i'm out" and no pushback.

I agree with this, but I think that there is something to be said for the cadence at which others take vacation. I think it's more accepted at megacorp that you'll use most of your earned vacation and that's fine. As a result, everyone does it.

At a lot of places that have unlimited vacation, I'd bet that people take less vacation overall, and part of that is the status quo/what is currently acceptable.

The last experience I have with unlimited PTO is it being unlimited PTO until people actually try to take PTO. Then that all goes to shit.

Duo, where I work, has an unlimited PTO policy. If you take less than 15 days a year, they try hard to encourage you to take more time. It's common to take more than that.

I think this policy really depends on the culture where you work.

Those issues are because of leadership and culture. Unlimited PTO is perfectly fine. It's much more flexible for both sides, and limiting time off is definitely not the goal.

Plenty of companies do a great job with it and have no questions asked up to a certain amount or minimum time off to encourage usage.