Does your company/mgr discourage you from using PTO?

[noodleoo]

Just curious how common this is.  At my current company, they have a pretty generous PTO.  All employees start with 4 weeks.  That's an awesome benefit and I plan to use it.  However, I've noticed that other employees and even some team leads/managers make comments about not using it all.  You can only roll over 2 weeks a year, so if you don't take enough, you will lose it.  Several people on my team make comments about how they always lose vacation time.  A team lead yesterday made a comment to me that "oh yeah, you'll lose your time too".  She's also the one who never eats lunch and makes weird comments about it like "who has time to eat lunch?".  It is kidn of a weird peer pressure/competition over who works the hardest.

It is making me paranoid about the fact that I use my vacation.  I'm definitely going to use all my time this year.  I noticed in a management meeting that the VP made a comment about how people need to take more vacation, but it seems like while he may "say" that, that theme here is that it is considered a negative if you do.

On the other hand, my manager hasn't said anything and she has approved the vacations I'm taking with no issue.  

Thoughts?  Is this a culture thing?  My last company had an "honor system" PTO policy that HR touted as being awesome, when in reality, no one there really took much time either.  

[tripleshot]

I think it depends on the individual manager. Mine never denies my time off.

[wavepool]

My boss tells us we have it for a reason, family comes first, use it when we need it. I love that he reminds of his thoughts on this every year because it's really easy to get in to the thinking that it shouldn't be used, even though it's there.

Sounds like I'd keep doing what you're doing in your situation.

[ohyouknow]

We have "use or lose" leave also. Basically the prevailing thought is that people who lose leave are not good time managers, and fail to plan in time to recharge their batteries and take care of their family.

[mbcdefg]

I worked for a newspaper where the boss was a real hardass, especially about time off. It's understandable because we had a small staff and it was a huge PITA to arrange coverage when someone was out of the office - but it was my first job out of college and I was petrified to ever ask for anything. (He was always personally nice to me, though, maybe because I was so young or maybe I was always busting my butt so I didn't get screamed at like other people.)

I worked for another publication, a magazine, where time off was also frowned upon because of the small staff size and the difficulty arranging coverage. Plus the boss was just a huge bitch in general.

I've never really had a problem scheduling time off at other companies I've worked for. My current workplace is awesome and my manager is such a peach.

[Deleted]

Generally, no.

However, there are times of the year when it is strongly discouraged

[niq]

Sept 16, 2014 11:26:28 GMT -5 @mrschicken said:

Generally, no.

However, there are times of the year when it is strongly discouraged

This is me, basically. It's driven by what's happening with the business, so it's not like "every march it's hard to take vacation".

We have the honor system PTO and I hate it. Like you say, in practice it usually just means people take less vacation. Here it was a way to take accrued vacation off the balance sheet.

[egishere]

Mine encourages you to use it all, especially my manager. No idea about how other managers in the company work but I suspect there are people that don't take all of their time. We can only roll over a week and it has to have VP approval so not encouraged to roll time over.

[polarbearfans]

We are encouraged to use it. Employees perform better when rested. With 4 weeks, you can take a week vacation each season!! Love it!

Take your vacation, but work out when it would be the best for the company, like t there is any time that is less busy.

[Deleted]

My manager just took two months of parental leave. As long as you're not asking for something stupid (like, time off in the summer as a construction manager), you're going to get it.

I also prefer to work in lower pressure, lower pay, better life balance places, though.

[lizrd7579]

We have people like that...who think they are awesome because they don't take vacation. Uh, not taking the vacation and losing it is basically getting docked pay! We do have certain times we can't take vacation (year end/quarter end), but a day or two during isn't a deal breaker.

[meltoine]

I am my own boss, but MH has actually gotten a talking-to about not taking enough leave. Apparently the Secretary of the Air Force thinks that the mental health issues in the military can be helped by everyone taking more leave. Each member can roll over 65 days of leave per year. Whenever a member loses leave at the end of the year, the member's commander has to answer for why his/her people aren't taking their leave.

I have no idea if it will help or not, but I support the policy.

[KaraOrNot]

No, we are not discouraged from using our vacation time. They also try to be flexible in when we can use it and try to allow as many people off as possible on highly requested days off (e.g. day after Thanksgiving).

[spunkarella]

We are encouraged to use it. Flexibility and work-life balance are awesome here.

[steph96]

We receive lots of PTO. My manager is a martyr. She never takes off and she constantly has her time rolled over into disability. She thinks it is normal to have time rolled over into disability and she doesn't understand why no employees want it to happen (you lose it if you leave or never end up taking disability).

She still is good about approving time off. If someone takes their full PTO every month, she does say that they take too much time off. If they take a random day here and there and then one week off another month, she doesn't say anything despite the fact that it ends up averaging out to the same amount of time. We are discouraged from taking more than a week off due to monthly processes that we are responsible for.

[pinkdutchtulips]

the firm line is that they encourage PTO by making 2 components of it use it or lose it (sick and floating holidays) and only being able to roll over vacay time.

however, I do have a billables quota to meet for the yeah and ANY time off cuts into that ....

[v]

They're perfectly nice about granting requests for time off, but since we have a billable hour requirement we have to make up the hours we are on vacation, which is a huge incentive to not take a lot of time off.

[Deleted]

DH's employer strongly encourages employees in certain departments to flex off. If you are accruing too much pto the manager will strongly encourage (read: mandate) you to take time off. This has less to do with work/life balance or happy employees than it does with reducing liabilities.

[shaynaatl]

We have a generous vacation policy and are not discouraged for using it.

[Deleted]

Sept 16, 2014 12:14:33 GMT -5 shaynaatl said:

We have a generous vacation policy and are not discouraged for using it.

This but this isn't a company thing.  I just have a great manager. 

[drloretta]

My current company prefers we take most of our PTO during our slow time (summer). I haven't had an issue with fall travel, but I'm trying to be mindful of when i take time off

[Deleted]

I take my leave and I tell my staff I'm not checking my emails either.

I always try to help my staff figure out a way to take whichever days they want. The only time that's tough is Christmas because someone has to work then.

I have warned my staff when they use the year's vacation by August that that's all they have and people usually run into issues when they so they, but it's their time. They can do what they want.

My boss is very supportive. My old boss slightly more martyr-y, but still just fine in letting me use my time.

[WinterWine]

I have always used every single day of time off granted. I just returned from a 3 week trip my boss was very supportive of. I had been hoarding my vacay since I started to take this trip. However I did get lots of comments from coworkers about what a long trip it was. I earn it and will definitely use it- it makes me a more efficient, happier contributor to our company.

[cjeanette]

Everyone here uses their PTO to the last drop.

[L]

We are encouraged to use all of our vacation time, but it must be requested for the entire year before January 1st (this is a genius retention tool, btw - it's almost impossible for me to get time off to interview anywhere else). Nothing rolls over unless you're in one of the California offices.

We are not encouraged to use our sick time although the company technically allows us 10 sick days/year. I'd never even try to take a day off unless I was hospitalized.

[jerseyjaybird]

OP, my working environment is much like yours. I have five weeks of vacation, and I roll over very little (if any) of it each year. This is very unusual in my organization. We're not allowed to shift any of our work onto others when we go on vacation, so I have to work long hours leading up to and following my vacations . . . but I take them. It's definitely been a mark against me, especially with my current supervisor, who was upset that when said that I wouldn't be checking email on my honeymoon.

Insane Martyr Olympics around these parts. And, folks, I work for an art museum. We're not curing cancer, or even making money.

[msmerymac]

I also have a coworker with the "who has time to eat lunch?" mentality who told me when she found out I was taking vacation, "Oh, you're always going somewhere!" Which... it was my first real vacation, where I wasn't consistently checking in on my email in over a year and a half. But my coworkers are always asking when I'll have kids, so my comeback is, "well, I want to do this kind of thing before I get to that point!"

Anyway, I think it also depends on your position. I have coworkers who already work 60+ hours per week and if they take a week off, they have a TON of stuff to come back to, so it's almost not worth it. Thankfully, while I definitely spend a few days catching up, it's never been that bad for me.

[abramos]

As long as we give enough notice and I have enough hours, then PTO/vacation is encouraged. If it happens that I am taking time off during a board meeting or board packet production, then I need to arrange for back up, which is easy to do.

[cheezer]

I get so many damn emails while I'm on vacation asking me to do stuff sometimes it's easier to not go on vacation. At least then I didn't pay for a plane flight and a hotel room only to do work.

Now that I've been here a little bit and proven myself I'm starting to just say no unless it's actually an emergency.

[picaflora]

My direct boss is like this. Her counter part isn't great about taking his days, but encourages others to take them. That level hordes the work instead of spreading it out to those below them. So I'm sitting with not much to do, while both of them are swamped. Boss makes it a BIG DEAL that she never uses all of her time and she's just TOO BUSY for that noise. I think she's just lonely and doesn't have anywhere to go/anyone to go with on her time off. The level about her definitely takes their time.

My place also doesn't pay out vacation time when you leave. My last day is on Thursday, and I'm leaving 3 days on the table because I had them planned for Dec.