There was a recent post from u/dancorbe regarding the farce that is unlimited PTO that had me wanting to open this up to scrutiny from people outside the echo chamber that is my team. It's been really well received by them, but I'd love to hear potential pitfalls r/antiwork might be able to point out.

For context: I am of the opinion (which I believe is widely shared in this sub at least) that unlimited PTO is a scam meant to put the onus on you, the worker, to take time off, and to take less time off than your coworkers so as not to look bad by comparison. It is designed so companies can dust their hands off and say “but we give you unlimited. it's not our fault you're feeling pressured to take less. we're cool.” In that way it's similar to the “we're a family here” crap.

So here's my question/dilemma:

My company (I am the owner, for transparency) does have unlimited PTO, but we have what we've coined “incentivized” unlimited PTO. The way this works is, in addition to the broad unlimited PTO, we've implemented a holiday bonus system of up to $400 dollars in December depending on if you've taken at least 20 days of vacation off in a calendar year. So $20 per day you've taken vacation.

In short: Take 20 days off, get $400 in Dec. Take only 15 days off, get $300. Take 10 days, get $200, etc etc.

It's worked really well this year (first year implemented), with everyone taking 20 days (because why the hell wouldn't they?), and many taking 1 to 5 more for unexpected illness, appointments, mental health, etc.

So what I'm curious about is r/antiwork's thoughts on a system like this? I'm sure there are pitfalls and issues I haven't forseen, and I'd like to potentially iron them out before we cement it as a baseline moving forward. My team has loved it, but I want to make sure the echo chamber that is our small company isn't the only place I'm getting feedback on something so major.

Thanks in advance for the feedback!