How does your company handle PTO?

27 comments

1. I’ve never been told a limit for days in a row. I’ve had 30 days of PTO and used them before. For my job(s) it’s always just been a matter of giving them enough time to make sure that they won’t be struggling in that time I’m gone.

2. Unlimited but we shouldn’t abuse it.

3. I’ve had coworkers take 2 or 3 week long vacations. Of course it was planned far enough in advance to allow for contingencies. It’s not something you can just up and decide to do.

4. It is now unlimited PTO with the caveat being anything over 5 days in a row needs department head approval (VP level). Before it was a max allotment (3 weeks/yr) that I believe one could ‘spend’ in whatever intervals they wanted as long as it was manager approved.

   I would say it’s granted most of the time, especially for big trips or life events: trip overseas, wedding/honeymoon, etc. Not sure how well my VP would react if I randomly told him “yeah I’m just gonna the next take two weeks off to chill” out of the blue.

   11 days off isn’t too long if it’s planned well/far enough in advance with coworkers to cover the workload. I’d probably be pretty pissed if I had to cover for someone for that long at the drop of a hat (depending on the reason, of course), but that’s just me.

5. We have folk, me included, take off weeks at a time for trips.

   11 days isn’t too much.

6. I’m self employed so pretty fast and loose.

7. Never have a limit on how many days I can take at once. In my case, I currently have 16 PTO days (I am an entry-level engineer) separate from my 10 sick days and 11 federal holidays. I can also take a 5 day advance on my PTO in which I can dip in the negative for time off.

   I usually give a month or two warning for long trips at least a week-long, and then something short like a weekend of a few extra days, I’ll give them a 2-3 week warning. I just had to ask my boss if it was ok (usually it was), and all I’d do is just submit the request and be done.

8. I’m public sector, so I’m pretty entitled to using the leave I have. But I’m also a key person in my office, so it’s a mix of caring about my reputation and having some courtesy to what’s going on. I value my time off, but I’m going to be reasonable too.

   I took two weeks off for vacation, and then I caught covid so took another week off. It was a crucial time for my office, but it is what it is. I still have another week and a half or so of leave and a couple weeks of sick time which I can theoretically take, but I feel like it’d be a dick move at this point.

   far enough in advance with enough prior coordination to not leave people hanging? Taking 3 weeks off wouldn’t be a big deal. Even one of the private sector guys that supports us took off for three weeks on vacation (pretty rare though, most take one or two weeks at a time). They’re pretty respectful of PTO and vacation where I’m at.

9. 11 is the most I’ve ever done consecutively (so a 17 day trip)

10. I have unlimited PTO.

    I took off 2 weeks earlier this year for personal reasons. I’m taking 3 days this week, and I’ve got two weeks scheduled for later this year. I’ll take a day here or there if I need a mental break.

    There is no limit on how many days I take in a row. I highly, highly encourage that people take a 2-week vacation at least once every 5 years. And go somewhere meaningful when you do it. 2 weeks is long enough to totally decompress from work.

    The only restriction on how much I take is making sure that my job is done and I’m achieving my objectives. If I fail to deliver, then I probably shouldn’t be taking a lot of time off. My employer treats us like adults, so it’s up to us to not abuse the system.

11. As long as you give enough warning that you’re taking 2 weeks off (as a manager, I hope for 3-4 weeks for every week you take off), no one really cares at my place. Take it whenever you want. We just hope for enough warning to make arrangements to cover you. Obviously it’s not always possible to give that warning — one of my guys let me know of some things that went bad in his personal life on a Sunday night last year and by the end of the night, I had approved a week of paid leave starting Monday, had people to cover his project, and had set up some additional support for him to make sure he wasn’t just hanging there on his own. In extreme conditions, we’ll go to extreme lengths (well… reasonably extreme anyway) to accommodate our employees.

    If you’re asking for advice, talk to your manager. Say you’re hoping to use 11 consecutive PTO days and give a rough date. Tell them you’ll put in for the official time off once you solidify the dates. I’ve always found that being open, from both sides of the manager-employee relationship, is key to success as a team.

    For reference, I’m a software engineer and my industry is definitely known for being a bit more relaxed about things like this.

12. I get more than 7 weeks a year. Took about 14 days in February, 5 in May and 12 in Sept and still have about 14 days left (I did use some other days here and there). We’re encouraged to take at least a 2 week block once a year.

    I got covid now, and they offer covid sick time as well.

13. We get 4 weeks off a year automatically, but for each week beyond that, you have to convince the next manager up that you deserve it.

    A couple years ago, I hadn’t actually used any of it all year, so I just didn’t show up in December lol.

14. There is no limit on consecutive days, never even heard of anything like that

15. I have unlimited PTO, but I never use it.

16. over 10 consecutive days there needs to be supervisor approval. But historically pre-covid people taking off for an entire month was pretty normal. State employee.

    We can schedule up to 6 months in advance. And there is a leave calendar. Only two people per team (8 people) can be out at a time. First come first serve.

17. Why would 11 days be “too much”? People have lives.

18. No limit on days in a row. We accrue 1/24th of our annual PTO per paycheck, which works out to about a half a day per pay period.

    One annoying thing is that our system doesn’t calculate the amount of time off an employee will have in the future. So if I were to plan a vacation for four days next January, but I only have 6 hours of PTO accrued currently, I have to wait to request the time off even though I’ll have almost a full week of PTO accrued by that time.

19. There’s no limit but we can only have two people off per day.

    I’m taking 15 days off pretty soon for a trip to California

20. Officially, no more than two weeks (so 10 days PTO, 16 consecutive days if you start on a Saturday and go to the Sunday two weeks later). Unofficially, if our schedule allows some slack time, exceptions can be made, but few people could plan it that far in advance.

21. It is informal and up to individual managers …. which is a double-edged sword. My manager is fine with any number of PTOs as long as (i) I inform them beforehand and (ii) There isn’t any emergency crisis for the team.

    However, this could easily go wrong if someone gets a bad manager.

    Also, there is no longer any “accruing” or fair resettlement next year, so not good if you get a bad manager.

22. I’ve taken 15 business days off before. I told my supervisor ~6 months in advance and she only emailed me about what work I would need help covering.

23. We can only have 10% of staff off on any given day….

    Makes it hard when Saturday shift only has 12 people on…

    We end up just calling in.

24. Mine technically won’t let me take more than 5 vacation days at a time. However, I have other forms of PTO that I can use if need be to get around that. For example I took a personal holiday, 5 days of vacation, and a paid holiday all in succession. Today was my first day back. With weekends it was 11 consecutive days, quickest 11 days of my life.

25. I’m not sure the exact amount but it’s somewhere between 25-28 days including a very lenient sick policy (which I never use). Currently I have no issues in requesting time off and it’s been pretty good. So no complaints!

    The most consecutive days I’ve taken off is somewhere around 2.5 weeks but that was when I first started and I had a preplanned trip. In recent memory, the most I’ve taken off consecutively is 5 but I’ve had coworkers be gone for 2 weeks so I don’t think 11 days is horrible.

26. I have unlimited. But considering how many people are abusing it I’m pretty sure these fuckheads are going to ruin it for everyone

27. Most companies require you put in a request for PTO days then it’s approved or denied. Those approvals/denials are going to vary a lot from company to company or industry to industry.

    I had a manager tell me that as long as I get the request in early enough then it’ll be approved because they had to have a reason to deny it, and there’s no way they can justify denying a request several months in advance.