I also saw this ad, and was amused by one of their perks being "unlimited PTO". The combination of that and "not a lifestyle job" tells you everything you need to know about so-called unlimited time off policies.
In the previous US startup I worked for, which also had an "unlimited PTO", I checked the company calendar and it was standard to take at most 2-3 weeks of vacation per year. Seeing what I saw, I now consider the unlimited PTO a red flag, as in - somebody is looking for suckers.
Also, in many American states, accrued vacation must be paid out when you leave the job. So it's not just an imaginary liability.
I'm currently at a company with unlimited PTO, and the way it works in practice here is that people feel free to take random days off without having to count beans, on top of a pretty normal amount of scheduled vacation: I currently have six weeks of vacation on the calendar for the rest of the year (that's more than I would've liked, but I have a few important family things going on overseas). On top of that, I'm taking this Friday off for a visiting friend. This unavoidably means my career will be worse off than if I had an extra couple months of productive work this year, but I'm an adult, capable of making this decision to trade off marginal career success for marginal quality of life improvements.
It's beyond me that some people who don't want to take responsibility for their careers are so desperate to tear down policies that treat employees like adults capable of making their own decisions. It's not like unlimited PTO is being offered to those who are one paycheck away from starvation. Take a normal amount of PTO if you want, take less or more if you want, but don't pretend like this choice being offered is exploitation.
> I'm currently at a company with unlimited PTO, and the way it works in practice here is that people feel free to take random days off without having to count beans, on top of a pretty normal amount of scheduled vacation: I currently have six weeks of vacation on the calendar for the rest of the year (that's more than I would've liked, but I have a few important family things going on overseas). On top of that, I'm taking this Friday off for a visiting friend. This unavoidably means my career will be worse off than if I had an extra couple months of productive work this year, but I'm an adult, capable of making this decision to trade off marginal career success for marginal quality of life improvements.
> It's beyond me that some people who don't want to take responsibility for their careers are so desperate to tear down policies that treat employees like adults capable of making their own decisions. It's not like unlimited PTO is being offered to those who are one paycheck away from starvation. Take a normal amount of PTO if you want, take less or more if you want, but don't pretend like this choice being offered is exploitation.
I personally dislike the term "unlimited" because it truly is not. If you can't legitimately take a whole year off, don't call it unlimited. I'm sure some who take issue with "unlimited PTO" feel similarly.