Jeffman52
Full time employment: Posting here.
It sounds great, especially to people entering the workforce, but it is a trap because you simply can't have unlimited time off. If everyone took their unlimited hours, then NOTHING would get done.
And the biggest trap of all is that this benefits the company because:
In practice, it comes down to both peer pressure and management pressure. High achievers never take the time. They make everyone else cranky because they feel they can't take the time since superman/woman is always working and they'd be compared to them. Then there is the opposite problem of the worker who decides they'll take off every Friday, and a month in the summer, waiting for management to challenge them.
- The company doesn't have to carry accrued vacation on the books
- The employee doesn't get an accrued vacation/PTO payout when they quit
A good friend of mine works for such a company. He is in management. He says the biggest problem is getting people to take time. He also had to fire someone who did exactly as I mentioned (Every Friday, month in summer). The employee simply didn't have enough time to get the tasks done required of them.
There are a few nice things about it, many revolving around sickness and disability.
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I still think my first megacorp had it right. Everyone was required to take at least 5 days in a row at some time during the year, their choice. It allowed for forced downtime that tech workers typically don't want to take.
All of the above is 100% true. The Mega Corp I still W**k for went to unlimited time off and I already see the difference. Most feel the pressure to continue each day without a break because that is what everyone else is doing.
I contacted my boss a few days after the policy was implemented and very clearly told him I was still going to monitor my time off the way I was before and would be taking at "least" as many days off as before. I highly recommend that others do the say. I not only didn't get push-back but he had not thought about doing the same and now does his time off the same way.
Time> money. I like many others on this website have seen friends and family pass away early and some never got to retire at all. Some were only retired a few years and were gone. At some point just realize that you have more than enough to let go of the J*b. My BIL retired last year and before he moved to Florida to enjoy his retirement were were having a beer and he said "Keep this in mind. How much money do you really need?"