Is “Unlimited Paid Time Off” Actually a Scam?
Unlimited paid time off. Flexible time off.
Different names with the same concept and intention: to give workers flexibility in their day and more control over their time. It’s a pretty modern and trendy employee benefit, and companies use it as a way to show their support for “work-life balance.”
But the reality is that companies won’t offer such a sweet deal without making sure it benefits them first. With allotted vacation days, companies would have to pay out any unused vacation days when an employee leaves a company.
With unlimited paid time off and flexible time off, the company doesn’t have to pay a dime when you leave the company, whether you used that time off or not. At first, it might seem like the companies would still lose more money with unlimited paid time off because people might take advantage of it, but the data shows that it’s actually the opposite.
It’s not really “unlimited.”
Unlimited time off sounds like you can take as much vacation time off as you want, whenever you want. Common sense tells us that you can’t actually take as much vacation as you want, but then why use the word ‘unlimited’?
