Most US employers offer their workers 10 paid holidays, 2 weeks’ vacation, two personal days, and 8 sick leave days per year. Under a PTO plan, the employees would be credited with 30 days paid time off instead (10+10+2+8).
This policy in one stroke has eradicated the irritation of employees, feigning to be sick to use unused sick days and has reduced absenteeism greatly. Now workers can be more honest about taking time off since they don’t have to give an official explanation.
A majority of the workers are healthy and do have the occasion to use up their sick days. Now they don’t need to lie, as the earlier classified sick days can now be candidly used for vacations with the family.
Of course any new policy has its share of pros and cons and this one is no exception.
Disadvantages For The Employee
It has its share of minuses for both the employee and the employer.
Employers whilst switching a traditional time-off plan to PTO don’t allot the full quota of accrued days and reduced it by a few days. A worker who once received 20 vacation days, 7 sick days, and 6 personal days (for a total of 33 days) might only receive 30 days under a PTO plan.
Disadvantages For The Employer
Another abuse of this law can have serious consequences for the company. Employees when they are really sick do not avail of the sick leave as they do not want to curtail the number of days in their PTO induced vacation. So they take some medication and report for work. If their disease is contagious, it could spread to other employees.
Moreover, a sick worker will also not be able to work to his full potential and his productivity will be low. Had the PTO not been introduced, he would probably have taken leave and stayed at home.
Now since the company is not concerned an employee is taking leave, employees take leaves more often. Of course this can be monitored slightly as prior approval and permission is required for any PTO, but it is seen that whereas many employees did not use their full quota of sick leave, they will surely use all of their PTO allowance.
Advantages For The Employee
Unlike unused sick days, that could not be carried over to the following year, unused PTO days can be carried forward. However, there is a cap on total days accrued. If an employee uses only two of his permitted 5 sick days, he can usually carry over the remaining three and use them as he sees fit.
Advantages For The Employer
The PTO makes the company more attractive to the workers and helps in worker retention. You are treating employees as grownups whose every move does not need to be monitored. This leads to a happier bunch of employees, who will pose less administrative headaches and will return from their vacations rejuvenated and determined to do their extra bit for their workplaces.
How to Manage Your PTO
Employees have to plan out their own time accordingly – the time they will put in at work and the time-off they require for the proposed vacation. Since you are uncertain, how many of the sick days will be available to you, this planning can be a little tricky.
Presuming that you have 25 days of PTO left, don’t jump to the conclusion, that you can plan for a five weeks vacation. Instead calculate how many sick and other unanticipated days you took the previous year and presume that it is going to be the same this year.
The PTO is a privilege granted to you by your employer. Employers should not misuse or abuse it – there is nothing worse than a trust betrayed.
