This classic way of accruing PTO instills this sort of culture where it’s not your fault that you’re using your leave; it has to be used. No one, not your boss and not HR, can fault you for taking it, because they understand the necessity of it.
On the other hand, there’s something about having something indefinitely that, no pressure, no ticking clock, is just there floating ephermerally as a theoretical leave balance, it doesn’t have to be used, there’s no ticking time on it’s expire, it’s just there. Sure, you might use it someday. Unlimited PTO sounds great, after all!
But there’s more to it than that. That understanding from your boss, that requirement that the PTO be taken, is gone. HR is no longer tracking PTO as an overhead balance, a liability that needs to be constantly reduced, but rather the liability of the employees who are now wasting company money by taking time off. And the fact that the “unlimited” PTO is being regarded in this way means it’s not really unlimited at all. After all, to take time off, you need to be able to step away from your job culturally and psychologically. Most companies that switch to unlimited PTO do so alongside stricter policies about taking time off and pushing cultures that “encourage” workers to be dedicated to their roles… or else.
While the policy looks progressive on paper, the reality is much different. Pay out your PTO? What PTO, you mean that “unlimited” PTO that you never used that somehow simultaneously never existed in the first place? This makes unlimited PTO essentially “Schrodinger’s PTO”; you can’t be sure of its state, as it is dependent on a variable you can’t control or observe in the first place.
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