Unlimited PTO: Policy on Paper, Culture in Action

I was 25 when I joined a fully remote team with an unlimited PTO policy. This was at the peak of the pivot to remote work and the rise of unique time-off policies, so I was quick to brag about ours. But people were just as quick to share their opinions. Their “wisdom” usually sounded like this: “No one actually takes time off under unlimited PTO.” Then I started traveling: Joshua Tree, Sedona, Canada, Colorado, Iceland, Puerto Rico, Portugal. And I noticed my teammates were traveling too. A pre-meeting chat about recent adventures and extracurricular activities outside of work was the norm.