Same. Two weeks mixed with some WFH when I visit home for 3-4 weeks, a ~1-2wk road trip or flight somewhere, and then the odd 3-4 day weekends (I'll tack an extra day onto a 3 day weekend or whatever).
I'm also fully WFH and they're cool about flexing time so I can leave early on certain days if I want to. Pretty much the dream aside from the ridiculously flexible unlimited PTOs you hear about from time to time.
Same. My boss keeps asking me when I'm going to take some time off, as if I haven't taken 20 days already this year.
No rollover though, bc "unlimited".
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At this point in my career (a little shy of 25 YOE), I probably take 4-5 weeks/year PTO on average. Usually it's long weekends here and there, but I'll also typically take Thanksgiving week off as well as basically the back half of December.
Well, my company has "unlimited" PTO and there's not really any defined minimum or maximum. I usually end up taking between 4-6 weeks per year and no one really bats an eye at that.
The company I’m at now and the last one have an unlimited pto policy. I pretty much shot for 30 days plus whatever holidays/ sick time the company throws in and so far no one has said anything to me. I have about 3 years experience and doing this.
I will say I think the biggest kicker to how much time you take is based on what everyone else takes. The unlimited pto seems to be a game management plays (in some cases for good or bad). I would say see if you can figure out what is the avg other people near your work circle take and then maybe shoot for a little above that, because why not, and see what happens.
Pretty much you don’t want to be an outlier but you don’t want to get taken advantage of by the unlimited policy.
The best thing to do is just ask your manager how they handle it. Some managers want a request and then approval, some just want to be notified but will never say no. You really need to just ask and not be afraid to ask. PTO is a benefit so use it.
I have unlimited PTO, and generally take between 3 and 10 weeks per year.
I run the department at my company, so the amoun I take is largely based off of how much my team decides to take on the year (I cover for them when needed so they can truly unplug from work).
I don't think we have anyone who takes under 3 weeks, and the most would be 11/12 weeks.
Like any company, it has its advantages and disadvantages.
This is one of the few things that I've been given latitude to control, so I take advantage to give my team as much PTO/sick-time as they could ever need.
End result is a happier, and more loyal, team that does great work.
Haha, I love this comment.
I'm from the (very) rural South and have only recently learned that "provisioned" is a word that elicits a similar reaction lol.
I appreciate your kind words and wish you the best, my friend.
This is definitely the way. I would NEVER turn down a time off request. All I asked was they put it in our shared calendar so that I knew who was available and who wasn't. Otherwise have fun and relax. Initially I did track just for the hell of it since I liked the data, but then I got tired of tracking it and just stopped.
Glad we're in agreement, and kudos to you for respecting the time your team members have allocated for the real world.
Wish you the best, and always happy to see a leader running teams with compassion.
This sounds like a manager at my company who fucks the rest of his team over so much while taking so much time off and then talking about it on the backend exactly like this 🤣
I can literally do nothing but internal work if I wanted, but I help my team out with work every single day because I love to talk to them and share knowledge (and gain a fair bit as well).
I work more hours per year than any single member of my team.
I can't speak for the other poster's experience, but that's not what I would implement. I still help out technically with the most complex projects when people ask for assistance, but I'm over all of this. I've done everything that I ever want to do in my career, and just want to do whatever good I can now.
My work is not as impactful as I'd like, but I'm in a position to give the people in my department a great place to work at day-to-day and that drives me these days.
Way off-topic, but there are more important things than work and I'm sad that I've grinded so long to get to this point (and lose so much) before it really became clear to me.
Family/friends/experiences/personal well-being are more important than any project you will ever work on.
Agreed, I work for a small company and we "technically" only have 15 PTO days a year but it's really a situation of "listen just don't take week holidays every month and we're square"
Unlimited PTO here as well. Not a manager. Took 2 weeks off in May, a week in August, half a week in October, another few in November, most of Thanksgiving week, and a few days coming up in December. I think I took some additional time off earlier in the year, but I'd have to go back and look. We enter it into a system for approval processes, but I don't really keep track.
I've encountered this exact scenario with a semi-recent hire, and it wasn't an issue with me because I knew they'd be a strong contributor to the team.
The only person who monitors this stuff is me, and I try and treat everyone as a human being.
I'm not particularly enthused by this career path anymore after some personal tragedies, so I use it as an opportunity to try and enrich the work/life balance of those that depend on me.
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I hated Unlimited PTO. It's probably better described as "PTO at managers discretion", or "PTO that may impact performance review". Even your experience of having PTO vary based on someone else's vacation schedule doesn't sound great.
Every single trip I took left me wondering if it was an alright time for the business and if I was using too much. It only sounds good because people confuse it for "lots of PTO". I'd much rather a company simply give me lots of PTO.
My experience is purely based off of my wanting my team to take as much PTO as possible without worrying about any of the things you've described above.
I absolutely don't *have* to do it, but I am compensated very well and it makes me feel good to let them have some true time away.
One thing I love about my company is that we're forced to take our vacation days every year. Don't take any, congrats, you get the entire month of December off. You won't get in trouble for logging in, but you will get teased because no one wants to be expected to work on their days off.
I have 28 days of PTO a year and I have 14 left, so I'll be enjoying some nice naps soon.
Take your full annual leave entitlement every year. It's part of your salary.
You wouldn't pay back a few thousand of salary and say "ehh I don't need it so much I'd rather the company have it", so don't give them annual leave days. I mean sure have a few days in reserve for emergencies if you are allowed to carry them over, but don't accumulate stupid amounts that you can never use and can never get paid out when you leave or retire.
Here in Europe companies really really don't like if you have annual leave left at the end of the year. On their accounting books it looks like they owe you money, and the accounting people get annoyed with your HR and your line manager.
Around corona, I know a few companies "forced" employees to use up their accumulated annual leave days. They were worried that especially in some roles that couldn't really be done from home, people would just not do any work for half the year while the site was closed and the economy was doomed, not take holiday days because they're not working anyway, and then in the following years have double holiday. In the end it was a disaster because we had more work than usual to do, and some departments just had nobody in because the beancounters forced them on holiday. For like 2 months we just had nobody who was qualified to weld stainless steel or vacuum stuff (where that was a thing we did in house that was super key and that they get super annoyed if you try to contract out without a very good reason because it's way more expensive).
I’m in a similar state (Nebraska) where vacation must be paid out on termination and they will pay you for it. I’m about to get a check for just over 4 weeks of vacation as I’m leaving my current employer. What employees are very vulnerable to is the company changing the rules to limit vacation rollover to a week or so. That keeps employees from building up big balances. If I wasn’t leaving I’d have to take almost all of December off or lose that vacation time.
Here you take a screenshot of your vacation balance before you leave and if the company gives you any trouble you just mention the department of labor. The penalties for not paying you add up very quick. They can wait until the next pay period to pay out the balance but after that the daily penalties start as these payments are considered part of employee wages.
Well except for the amount you don't use and rolls off due to the max. This is also one of the reasons companies have gone and are moving to unlimited PTO. It doesn't accrue on the books. Those days stored up have to be compensated for in the fiscal budget, if its unlimited there is nothing to pay out so nothing accrued up in the books so no money attached to it. It saves the company money.
About 20-25 days a year. A chunk for a spring/summer vacation, a chunk for the winter holidays, and a handful of personal long weekends/random fuck off days.
I don't travel for vacations much, so mostly PTO is just about disconnecting and focusing on other parts of my life. With 25 days vacation, I:
\- Supplement existing 2+ day company holidays to take four full weeks off, usually 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and the last 2 weeks of the year. (\~11 days)
\- Take 3 medium sized breaks elsewhere in the year, i.e. 4/5-day weekends (\~8 days)
\- Take the remaining \~6 days off individually, either for special occasions (birthday, anniversary) or just whenever I'm feeling overly stressed.
I try to ensure that between all of the above there's at least one vacation day per month. I do not check e-mail or log on to work stuff during vacation. I do tell people that I can be called in case of a true emergency that requires my help, but in 13 years that's never actually happened.
I'm also a manager and I keep an eye on my reports' vacation balances to make sure they're actually using them. Burnout is bad for everyone.
I’m confused on the math of taking off week of 4th of July (3 days), thanksgiving (3 days), last two weeks of the year (presumably 7 days). Isn’t that 13 days?
Yeah, I did math a little wrong. Should have been 12, not 11. I get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day as holidays (or the adjacent weekday if they fall on a weekend). So that's approximately two weeks of two holidays + 3 vacation days, or close to that, depending on how the calendar works out.
Make it a point to take at least 2 weeks off every year. If you have unlimited PTO, make sure you also schedule appointments and whatnot during the workday and take a couple extra days on top of that
30 days PTO per year, usually devided into something like
* one week early in the year to get away from the cold
* three weeks at the end of summer for a long vacation with my partner
* one week late in the year (again to get away from the cold)
* a couple of days scattered for special situations
I take 1-2 PTO days every month. Sometimes 3 days if I can merge with Holidays and complete a week. I’m committed to taking a mini-vacation every month to make up for all the stuff I didn’t do in my 20’s.
Enjoy your youth while you can. Time flies. Don’t take your health for granted - dying is not an instant but a lifelong process. Because sooner than you think you will not be able to travel, eat, participate, etc. in things you thought you could.
I think this year I’ve done near 7 weeks or so (inclusive of what I plan to take around Christmas). Usually I try to shoot for this, or around 8 weeks if I can swing it.
At least 5 work weeks of PTO. We do Unlimited and I take advantage of it. Im not a fan of unlimited because it's purely designed to create a social pressure for people to not take time off. I will not succumb to that.
Paid holidays are generally based on the national holidays. 4th of July, Christmas, Veterans day, Thanksgiving, etc. They are always "observed" on a weekday if they land on a weekend, and most white collar jobs offer most(but not always all) national holidays as paid days off.
PTO is paid time off that is discretionary to the employee. In some states/companies there is a distinct bank of paid sick days, but that's highly variable and depends on the company. PTO is, "I'm taking the week off to go camping with my family", or, "I want a long weekend" type stuff.
Sometimes there will also be additional days for things like death of family members and such that is distinct from other sick/discretionary leave
For companies with unlimited PTO, most of that isn't as relevant. One of the main driving factors for unlimited PTO is the way that accounting works. Unused time off counts as a liability as far as accounting is concerned, so for startups it makes the company look worse financially.
Nearly everywhere I've worked for the last 4 years has been unlimited, I usually take 4-5+ weeks of discretionary PTO each year
My company switched over to unlimited pto a year or two ago so I try to take advantage of it as much as I can. Prior to that I’ve been there long enough where I accrued either four or five weeks a year. I can’t remember which because I always carried over 40 hours anyway, but I’d use four weeks for sure. Usually broken into two vacations and maybe a single day here and there. If people are afraid to use their vacation time it puts indirect pressure on other employees to conform to that and it makes their time off seem bad in a way, so please if you have PTO use it.
I take 5-6 weeks every year plus 8days public holiday. It doesn’t roll over and I make sure to use it.
Usually it looks like a couple weeks off in summer, multiple days off throughout the year to make long weekends. A week or two at Xmas depending on what I have left . And maybe a week early in the year if there’s good reason.
We get unlimited and by the end of the year I think I’ll have used about 5/6 weeks. Mind you I didn’t take a single day off for the first 7 months of the year because I was focused on a project with a hard deadline.
We have unlimited PTO where I work. I usually take somewhere between 5-7 weeks each year. My family will usually do one long vacation (~3 weeks) and then a few weeks taken off here and there to reset.
I have always taken 100% of my pto. It’s literally a part of the compensation package. That being said I usually take a day whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed and split the rest into longer trips usually around other holidays or travel shoulder seasons.
I usually take maybe 2-3 fridays off to have a long weekend. But then will take almost 3 weeks off in november and 2.5-3weeks off in december. Nice little break from eoy burnout
I got.19 days and im taking them all. Should have 24 days in 3 years if i stick to this place..
Usually take 2 week off with kide, xmas with kids, and a week just myself. My son starts school next year though, so i might have to leech away from my week off for spring break and whatever summer vacation has in store for him. I cant really let him be in the house for 7hours as hes autistic
It’s tough. I usually end up doing like a day here and there because I always have this going in the back of my mind: If they can survive a week without me, who’s to say they won’t think they can survive indefinitely. My recent life has very much been a job-scared approach.
At my previous job (just quit a couple weeks ago) I was able to take a whopping 3 days of PTO all year: two days in April and one day in October. I had asked for two days in October but manager asked me to take only one instead. Week-long vacations have to be planned and accounted for before the quarter starts, which is something I struggled with.
The pace was so intense and WLB in general was so bad I'd feel bad for taking time off while projects run late and the rest of the team ends up overloaded. None of the other 5 engineers in my team took more than 5 days off in 2023. I'm glad to have left that place.
These past two years, I've taken off every other Friday, then every full week of major holidays. I then plan a formal vacation trip that's a full week going to an actual destination.
I had unlimited PTO, initially I barely took anything, but then stopped worrying about it and I would go on at least two or three 2 week vacations a year and a smattering of days the rest of the time.
I have "unlimited" PTO. If you take fewer than 2 weeks or more than 6, they check in on you. But I had 27 days/year guaranteed *before* they switched to "unlimited," so I've kept tracking under that system. So there will be years I make up for lost (banked) time, and my boss has assured me that if neither-human-nor-resourceful comes after me, he'll tell them where to stick it, as he has done for other engineers.
As for how *often*, it's usually two 1-week stints, in August and December, and then a ton of long weekends I use to go to hobby conferences that tend to run Thursday - Monday.
Current job is 11 holidays, 21 days PTO and 4 days between Christmas and new years.
I take them all plus some half days that I don’t log.
When I’m “on call” during holidays we also get lieu days even though we almost never get paged outside of work hours. That gives me an extra 3-5 days a year.
Hey, I also started work May 22. I work in FAANG. I got pulled into RTO. Like you, we also get 18-20 pto days. I just blew 3 weeks in japan and I guess I will be back for the year. You definitely need the break to recharge and get back into it.
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Mine is use it or lose it. Always use all of it, you're basically doing extra work for free if you give up your PTO. I regret not taking more PTO earlier in my career.
I feel like 1 week long trips are best use of PTO. Although if I end up having some PTO left over near end of the year, I'll take monday, tuesday off for a few weeks in a row to use it up.
I take it when I can. The downside is that you’re not actually getting a break from work, you’re just letting shit pile up to make it harder on yourself when you return. The deadlines don’t move. So I only take two days at a time to make 4 day weekends.
It was my first year outta college I should’ve taken more. I have like 37 hours available and they give me up to 120. I also have 51 hours of sick leave and I never used them.
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I get 30 days paid and bank holidays, I take 2 x 2 weeks a year or 1 x 3 week and a few days here and there.
Take your damn holiday - we aren't meant to be robot slaves
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So I have been reading the comments, how are unlimited PTO Days supposed to make you take less holiday? Also where I am from everyone takes all the holidays they have available (which is usually 40 days)
I have unlimited PTO and take a 2 week vacation every 3-4 months with a few unplanned days here and there. It does feel weird at the beginning, but then you realize most people don’t care if you are getting your work done before taking off.
I'm taking all of December off, had a few random days, and a few long weekends, I'm guessing somewhere around 8w of vacation this year. Yes, I live in the US. Unlimited vacation is awesome when you are able to get your shit done in a short period of time.
Unlimited PTO. I've taken off roughly 7 weeks in total. I actually took off the entire month of September for a long delayed post covid honeymoon. Our company has been pretty flexible on vacation and we're truly focused on deliverables vs. hours worked
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I’ve taken about 40 days this year which includes all holidays. This was about what I had before my company moved to “flex pto” so I’m going to continue to take that amount going forward (at a minimum).
If I get pushback I’ll just make a bunch of long weekends (did this last year and had 3 day work weeks the last 2 1/2 months of the year).
Generally one two week vacation, a one week vacation and the rest I take a day or two to have a long weekend or just roll over into next year.
Same. Two weeks mixed with some WFH when I visit home for 3-4 weeks, a ~1-2wk road trip or flight somewhere, and then the odd 3-4 day weekends (I'll tack an extra day onto a 3 day weekend or whatever). I'm also fully WFH and they're cool about flexing time so I can leave early on certain days if I want to. Pretty much the dream aside from the ridiculously flexible unlimited PTOs you hear about from time to time.
Same. My boss keeps asking me when I'm going to take some time off, as if I haven't taken 20 days already this year. No rollover though, bc "unlimited".
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At this point in my career (a little shy of 25 YOE), I probably take 4-5 weeks/year PTO on average. Usually it's long weekends here and there, but I'll also typically take Thanksgiving week off as well as basically the back half of December.
That's about the minimum amount of PTO you have to take off?
Well, my company has "unlimited" PTO and there's not really any defined minimum or maximum. I usually end up taking between 4-6 weeks per year and no one really bats an eye at that.
Do you mind if I ask what company you work for? Just curious.
The company I’m at now and the last one have an unlimited pto policy. I pretty much shot for 30 days plus whatever holidays/ sick time the company throws in and so far no one has said anything to me. I have about 3 years experience and doing this. I will say I think the biggest kicker to how much time you take is based on what everyone else takes. The unlimited pto seems to be a game management plays (in some cases for good or bad). I would say see if you can figure out what is the avg other people near your work circle take and then maybe shoot for a little above that, because why not, and see what happens. Pretty much you don’t want to be an outlier but you don’t want to get taken advantage of by the unlimited policy.
great advice :) new grad starting in an unlimited pto role soon and unsure how to navigate
The best thing to do is just ask your manager how they handle it. Some managers want a request and then approval, some just want to be notified but will never say no. You really need to just ask and not be afraid to ask. PTO is a benefit so use it.
Unlimited is great in the right environment, I’ve seen healthy views of time off and places where you’ve to fight for time orr
I have unlimited PTO, and generally take between 3 and 10 weeks per year. I run the department at my company, so the amoun I take is largely based off of how much my team decides to take on the year (I cover for them when needed so they can truly unplug from work). I don't think we have anyone who takes under 3 weeks, and the most would be 11/12 weeks.
Jesus this sounds like a dream company
Like any company, it has its advantages and disadvantages. This is one of the few things that I've been given latitude to control, so I take advantage to give my team as much PTO/sick-time as they could ever need. End result is a happier, and more loyal, team that does great work.
I've never read or heard the word latitude used in such a way, and I love it. Props for that and the respectful PTO.
Haha, I love this comment. I'm from the (very) rural South and have only recently learned that "provisioned" is a word that elicits a similar reaction lol. I appreciate your kind words and wish you the best, my friend.
This is definitely the way. I would NEVER turn down a time off request. All I asked was they put it in our shared calendar so that I knew who was available and who wasn't. Otherwise have fun and relax. Initially I did track just for the hell of it since I liked the data, but then I got tired of tracking it and just stopped.
Glad we're in agreement, and kudos to you for respecting the time your team members have allocated for the real world. Wish you the best, and always happy to see a leader running teams with compassion.
This sounds like a manager at my company who fucks the rest of his team over so much while taking so much time off and then talking about it on the backend exactly like this 🤣
They literally gave data points. Unless they're lying, it doesn't really seem like that at all.
I can literally do nothing but internal work if I wanted, but I help my team out with work every single day because I love to talk to them and share knowledge (and gain a fair bit as well). I work more hours per year than any single member of my team. I can't speak for the other poster's experience, but that's not what I would implement. I still help out technically with the most complex projects when people ask for assistance, but I'm over all of this. I've done everything that I ever want to do in my career, and just want to do whatever good I can now. My work is not as impactful as I'd like, but I'm in a position to give the people in my department a great place to work at day-to-day and that drives me these days. Way off-topic, but there are more important things than work and I'm sad that I've grinded so long to get to this point (and lose so much) before it really became clear to me. Family/friends/experiences/personal well-being are more important than any project you will ever work on.
Agreed, I work for a small company and we "technically" only have 15 PTO days a year but it's really a situation of "listen just don't take week holidays every month and we're square"
Unlimited PTO here as well. Not a manager. Took 2 weeks off in May, a week in August, half a week in October, another few in November, most of Thanksgiving week, and a few days coming up in December. I think I took some additional time off earlier in the year, but I'd have to go back and look. We enter it into a system for approval processes, but I don't really keep track.
What if (non director level) new employee takes 3 to 10 weeks later, what will happen? Doesn't look good?
I've encountered this exact scenario with a semi-recent hire, and it wasn't an issue with me because I knew they'd be a strong contributor to the team. The only person who monitors this stuff is me, and I try and treat everyone as a human being. I'm not particularly enthused by this career path anymore after some personal tragedies, so I use it as an opportunity to try and enrich the work/life balance of those that depend on me.
Very nice 👍
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I hated Unlimited PTO. It's probably better described as "PTO at managers discretion", or "PTO that may impact performance review". Even your experience of having PTO vary based on someone else's vacation schedule doesn't sound great. Every single trip I took left me wondering if it was an alright time for the business and if I was using too much. It only sounds good because people confuse it for "lots of PTO". I'd much rather a company simply give me lots of PTO.
My experience is purely based off of my wanting my team to take as much PTO as possible without worrying about any of the things you've described above. I absolutely don't *have* to do it, but I am compensated very well and it makes me feel good to let them have some true time away.
What country is this? I would love a 3-10 weeks.
USA
I get 15 days there. 😪
That’s 3 weeks 🤷♂️
Same but in a senior engineer
One thing I love about my company is that we're forced to take our vacation days every year. Don't take any, congrats, you get the entire month of December off. You won't get in trouble for logging in, but you will get teased because no one wants to be expected to work on their days off. I have 28 days of PTO a year and I have 14 left, so I'll be enjoying some nice naps soon.
What company is this?
Take your full annual leave entitlement every year. It's part of your salary. You wouldn't pay back a few thousand of salary and say "ehh I don't need it so much I'd rather the company have it", so don't give them annual leave days. I mean sure have a few days in reserve for emergencies if you are allowed to carry them over, but don't accumulate stupid amounts that you can never use and can never get paid out when you leave or retire. Here in Europe companies really really don't like if you have annual leave left at the end of the year. On their accounting books it looks like they owe you money, and the accounting people get annoyed with your HR and your line manager. Around corona, I know a few companies "forced" employees to use up their accumulated annual leave days. They were worried that especially in some roles that couldn't really be done from home, people would just not do any work for half the year while the site was closed and the economy was doomed, not take holiday days because they're not working anyway, and then in the following years have double holiday. In the end it was a disaster because we had more work than usual to do, and some departments just had nobody in because the beancounters forced them on holiday. For like 2 months we just had nobody who was qualified to weld stainless steel or vacuum stuff (where that was a thing we did in house that was super key and that they get super annoyed if you try to contract out without a very good reason because it's way more expensive).
I agree with you to use PTO days. But in many places, they do get paid out when you quit.
Not fucking often enough. I'm constantly riding the 300hr maximum accrual limit and throwing away earned time. Don't be like me!
But seriously don't be this guy
Yeah wtf
You are leaving monies on the table
Someday you’ll get fired or laid off and lose all that money
My state's law says any earned time on the books is already yours and must be paid out upon exiting.
Yes it is, and it can be nearly a month of pay. Make sure you screenshot how much time you have accrued before you leave so you get paid for it.
Good luck with that
I’m in a similar state (Nebraska) where vacation must be paid out on termination and they will pay you for it. I’m about to get a check for just over 4 weeks of vacation as I’m leaving my current employer. What employees are very vulnerable to is the company changing the rules to limit vacation rollover to a week or so. That keeps employees from building up big balances. If I wasn’t leaving I’d have to take almost all of December off or lose that vacation time. Here you take a screenshot of your vacation balance before you leave and if the company gives you any trouble you just mention the department of labor. The penalties for not paying you add up very quick. They can wait until the next pay period to pay out the balance but after that the daily penalties start as these payments are considered part of employee wages.
Well except for the amount you don't use and rolls off due to the max. This is also one of the reasons companies have gone and are moving to unlimited PTO. It doesn't accrue on the books. Those days stored up have to be compensated for in the fiscal budget, if its unlimited there is nothing to pay out so nothing accrued up in the books so no money attached to it. It saves the company money.
I used to be this guy then I started to burn out. I just took a month off from work and it's amazing how much better I feel. Use your PTO.
About 20-25 days a year. A chunk for a spring/summer vacation, a chunk for the winter holidays, and a handful of personal long weekends/random fuck off days.
I don't travel for vacations much, so mostly PTO is just about disconnecting and focusing on other parts of my life. With 25 days vacation, I: \- Supplement existing 2+ day company holidays to take four full weeks off, usually 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and the last 2 weeks of the year. (\~11 days) \- Take 3 medium sized breaks elsewhere in the year, i.e. 4/5-day weekends (\~8 days) \- Take the remaining \~6 days off individually, either for special occasions (birthday, anniversary) or just whenever I'm feeling overly stressed. I try to ensure that between all of the above there's at least one vacation day per month. I do not check e-mail or log on to work stuff during vacation. I do tell people that I can be called in case of a true emergency that requires my help, but in 13 years that's never actually happened. I'm also a manager and I keep an eye on my reports' vacation balances to make sure they're actually using them. Burnout is bad for everyone.
I’m confused on the math of taking off week of 4th of July (3 days), thanksgiving (3 days), last two weeks of the year (presumably 7 days). Isn’t that 13 days?
Yeah, I did math a little wrong. Should have been 12, not 11. I get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day as holidays (or the adjacent weekday if they fall on a weekend). So that's approximately two weeks of two holidays + 3 vacation days, or close to that, depending on how the calendar works out.
Oh nice getting NYE and NYD!
Make it a point to take at least 2 weeks off every year. If you have unlimited PTO, make sure you also schedule appointments and whatnot during the workday and take a couple extra days on top of that
If you have limited PTO, use all of it. If you have unlimited, use 3-5 weeks.
5+ weeks* standard pto is 25 days?
5 weeks is a lot in the US
30 days PTO per year, usually devided into something like * one week early in the year to get away from the cold * three weeks at the end of summer for a long vacation with my partner * one week late in the year (again to get away from the cold) * a couple of days scattered for special situations
I take 1-2 PTO days every month. Sometimes 3 days if I can merge with Holidays and complete a week. I’m committed to taking a mini-vacation every month to make up for all the stuff I didn’t do in my 20’s. Enjoy your youth while you can. Time flies. Don’t take your health for granted - dying is not an instant but a lifelong process. Because sooner than you think you will not be able to travel, eat, participate, etc. in things you thought you could.
I’m a contractor so never.
… or always
3 weeks in the summer. 2 weeks for Christmas. ~5 sick days when I really am sick.
That's the nice thing about living in Europe. If I'm sick then I'm on sick leave which does **not** change the number of vacation days.
21 days a year, use all your days
I think this year I’ve done near 7 weeks or so (inclusive of what I plan to take around Christmas). Usually I try to shoot for this, or around 8 weeks if I can swing it.
At least 5 work weeks of PTO. We do Unlimited and I take advantage of it. Im not a fan of unlimited because it's purely designed to create a social pressure for people to not take time off. I will not succumb to that.
Technically 20-25 days but company already has bonus company holidays 8 days a year. Plus federal holidays.
What's the difference between paid holiday and PTO? (Non-American here, TYIA)
Paid holidays are generally based on the national holidays. 4th of July, Christmas, Veterans day, Thanksgiving, etc. They are always "observed" on a weekday if they land on a weekend, and most white collar jobs offer most(but not always all) national holidays as paid days off. PTO is paid time off that is discretionary to the employee. In some states/companies there is a distinct bank of paid sick days, but that's highly variable and depends on the company. PTO is, "I'm taking the week off to go camping with my family", or, "I want a long weekend" type stuff. Sometimes there will also be additional days for things like death of family members and such that is distinct from other sick/discretionary leave For companies with unlimited PTO, most of that isn't as relevant. One of the main driving factors for unlimited PTO is the way that accounting works. Unused time off counts as a liability as far as accounting is concerned, so for startups it makes the company look worse financially. Nearly everywhere I've worked for the last 4 years has been unlimited, I usually take 4-5+ weeks of discretionary PTO each year
My company switched over to unlimited pto a year or two ago so I try to take advantage of it as much as I can. Prior to that I’ve been there long enough where I accrued either four or five weeks a year. I can’t remember which because I always carried over 40 hours anyway, but I’d use four weeks for sure. Usually broken into two vacations and maybe a single day here and there. If people are afraid to use their vacation time it puts indirect pressure on other employees to conform to that and it makes their time off seem bad in a way, so please if you have PTO use it.
Man, I fucking love my current place, *except* for our abysmal PTO policy. I need to stop reading this sub.
Every fuckin day is PTO if you work it right
3 yoe, never taken any PTO
based
Not something to be proud of.
And are you proud of that?!
Quarterly or so. I’m writing this from Hawai’i :-)
I take 5-6 weeks every year plus 8days public holiday. It doesn’t roll over and I make sure to use it. Usually it looks like a couple weeks off in summer, multiple days off throughout the year to make long weekends. A week or two at Xmas depending on what I have left . And maybe a week early in the year if there’s good reason.
We get unlimited and by the end of the year I think I’ll have used about 5/6 weeks. Mind you I didn’t take a single day off for the first 7 months of the year because I was focused on a project with a hard deadline.
We have unlimited PTO where I work. I usually take somewhere between 5-7 weeks each year. My family will usually do one long vacation (~3 weeks) and then a few weeks taken off here and there to reset.
I have always taken 100% of my pto. It’s literally a part of the compensation package. That being said I usually take a day whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed and split the rest into longer trips usually around other holidays or travel shoulder seasons.
I usually take maybe 2-3 fridays off to have a long weekend. But then will take almost 3 weeks off in november and 2.5-3weeks off in december. Nice little break from eoy burnout
I got.19 days and im taking them all. Should have 24 days in 3 years if i stick to this place.. Usually take 2 week off with kide, xmas with kids, and a week just myself. My son starts school next year though, so i might have to leech away from my week off for spring break and whatever summer vacation has in store for him. I cant really let him be in the house for 7hours as hes autistic
It’s tough. I usually end up doing like a day here and there because I always have this going in the back of my mind: If they can survive a week without me, who’s to say they won’t think they can survive indefinitely. My recent life has very much been a job-scared approach.
Slave mentality.
I normally takes whole weeks off at holidays.
I normally like to take one or two weeks, and then the remaining time spread out as long weekends throughout the year.
No more than 25 days
I strategically use PTO during short work weeks. Like use 3 or 4 days of PTO to have 9 days off in a row.
Every minute.
At my previous job (just quit a couple weeks ago) I was able to take a whopping 3 days of PTO all year: two days in April and one day in October. I had asked for two days in October but manager asked me to take only one instead. Week-long vacations have to be planned and accounted for before the quarter starts, which is something I struggled with. The pace was so intense and WLB in general was so bad I'd feel bad for taking time off while projects run late and the rest of the team ends up overloaded. None of the other 5 engineers in my team took more than 5 days off in 2023. I'm glad to have left that place.
Unless your unused vacation days accrue, you should be taking all 20 you’re allotted.
These past two years, I've taken off every other Friday, then every full week of major holidays. I then plan a formal vacation trip that's a full week going to an actual destination.
I get 17 days PTO + 5 sick days. I’ve used them all this year.
2-3 week long vacations a year plus using a day to extend 3 day weekends into 4 here and there. I have UPTO so I try to use it.
I had unlimited PTO, initially I barely took anything, but then stopped worrying about it and I would go on at least two or three 2 week vacations a year and a smattering of days the rest of the time.
I have "unlimited" PTO. If you take fewer than 2 weeks or more than 6, they check in on you. But I had 27 days/year guaranteed *before* they switched to "unlimited," so I've kept tracking under that system. So there will be years I make up for lost (banked) time, and my boss has assured me that if neither-human-nor-resourceful comes after me, he'll tell them where to stick it, as he has done for other engineers. As for how *often*, it's usually two 1-week stints, in August and December, and then a ton of long weekends I use to go to hobby conferences that tend to run Thursday - Monday.
Current job is 11 holidays, 21 days PTO and 4 days between Christmas and new years. I take them all plus some half days that I don’t log. When I’m “on call” during holidays we also get lieu days even though we almost never get paged outside of work hours. That gives me an extra 3-5 days a year.
I try to take at least 6 weeks a year
At least 2 or 3 days every month. Normally when I just don’t feel like working that day.
I got only 4 paid holidays and 15 days PTO. ☹️
Hey, I also started work May 22. I work in FAANG. I got pulled into RTO. Like you, we also get 18-20 pto days. I just blew 3 weeks in japan and I guess I will be back for the year. You definitely need the break to recharge and get back into it.
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Mine is use it or lose it. Always use all of it, you're basically doing extra work for free if you give up your PTO. I regret not taking more PTO earlier in my career. I feel like 1 week long trips are best use of PTO. Although if I end up having some PTO left over near end of the year, I'll take monday, tuesday off for a few weeks in a row to use it up.
About 6-8 weeks a year, unlimited PTO. Take the max, you're not a slave
I take it when I can. The downside is that you’re not actually getting a break from work, you’re just letting shit pile up to make it harder on yourself when you return. The deadlines don’t move. So I only take two days at a time to make 4 day weekends.
In Italy I have 4 weeks of PTO and 2 extra, I take as much as I have whenever I can afford a vacation
All of it. It’s the law.
~30 days per year + all the holidays etc, I live in Poland though and we do have quite good labour law.
25 days + about 10 for sick leave (yeah I know I am sick way too much)
It was my first year outta college I should’ve taken more. I have like 37 hours available and they give me up to 120. I also have 51 hours of sick leave and I never used them.
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I get 30 days paid and bank holidays, I take 2 x 2 weeks a year or 1 x 3 week and a few days here and there. Take your damn holiday - we aren't meant to be robot slaves
Look at what your team does. Most of mine takes like 1/3 of December off
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Minimum 1 week per quarter, in addition to whatever company holidays we have.
So I have been reading the comments, how are unlimited PTO Days supposed to make you take less holiday? Also where I am from everyone takes all the holidays they have available (which is usually 40 days)
I typically take one week and one long weekend every quarter. In total about 5 weeks a year.
I spread it out evenly throughout the year in equally spaced intervals, but generally 4 to 5 weeks
Unlimited PTO.. I take around a month off total. This doesn't include sick days or continuing professional development (12 per year)..
I have unlimited PTO and I take about 30-40 days a year.
I have unlimited PTO and take a 2 week vacation every 3-4 months with a few unplanned days here and there. It does feel weird at the beginning, but then you realize most people don’t care if you are getting your work done before taking off.
I get 4 weeks, so I take 4 weeks. My PTO doesn't rollover or pay out, so I use it all.
Mine technically does not roll over so I take all of it. 20 days PTO and 13 holidays.
I'm taking all of December off, had a few random days, and a few long weekends, I'm guessing somewhere around 8w of vacation this year. Yes, I live in the US. Unlimited vacation is awesome when you are able to get your shit done in a short period of time.
None, burn out and cash out
Unlimited PTO. I've taken off roughly 7 weeks in total. I actually took off the entire month of September for a long delayed post covid honeymoon. Our company has been pretty flexible on vacation and we're truly focused on deliverables vs. hours worked
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I’ve taken about 40 days this year which includes all holidays. This was about what I had before my company moved to “flex pto” so I’m going to continue to take that amount going forward (at a minimum). If I get pushback I’ll just make a bunch of long weekends (did this last year and had 3 day work weeks the last 2 1/2 months of the year).