Some companies like Netflix are doing away with PTO altogether. PTO policies are abused day in and day out by employees around the country and human resource departments are tired of policing them.
If a company decides to do away with a PTO plan, the benefits are essentially:
1) the Company no longer has to carry a liability for earned PTO (improving liquidity ratios and net working capital), and
2) the Company doesn’t have to worry about enforcing a policy that is prone to fraud and abuse. Employees are basically allowed to take as much time off as they like (with supervisor consent) so long as they get their shit done.
I’m personally still on the fence on this one. A company can clearly manage PTO abuse if they want to - fire employees who abuse the policy, put caps on PTO accruals and make employees take time-off. Doesn’t seem so difficult to me…


October 5th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Vacation is for wimps. You are better off without those people.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Just chain employees to their desks if you want them to be highly productive…works for China
May 5th, 2011 at 9:15 am
I do agree with all of the ideas you have presented in your post. They are really convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are very short for novices. Could you please extend them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.
December 16th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
I like Your Article about The End Of PTO Policies? | CFO Lounge Perfect just what I was looking for! .