I started working for my current (very large) company back in July. I had been with my previous company in the same industry for five years. When negotiating my compensation before accepting the position, I negotiated for additional PTO comparable to what I was getting at my previous company (where I had seniority and thus got significantly more PTO). The request was approved, as well as a pay raise, so all was good at the new company.
Until last week when they sprung a new corporate policy on us: Flexible Time Off (FTO). This policy, which will go into effect January 3rd, 2023 (thanks for the short notice!) theoretically allows for unlimited time off. BUT. Each of us is expected to contribute a certain number of billable hours to the company each fiscal year. That number is set by corporate and does not involve the input of us or our direct supervisors. Before, with PTO, we had a target utilization rate each year, which our PTO did not affect. I'm in a high-utilization sector so I've never really had to worry about my utilization rate before. In fact, in my last year with my previous company, my utilization rate was >100% (due to overtime and not taking any PTO).
Corporate has told us that FTO will encourage people to take more time off rather than banking PTO to just cash out when they leave. I don't know if that's true, but I know I certainly stopped taking PTO at my previous company when I knew I was going to be leaving eventually, so as to increase the payout. With the new FTO policy at my current company. everyone's PTO will be frozen on January 3rd and will no longer accrue. So it seems like they are essentially trying to reduce their financial liability for PTO payouts.
What I'm worried about is that the target billable hours which I am assigned will be far above what I'm currently expected to contribute, given my level of negotiated PTO in the previous system, plus holidays. I could easily see a scenario where corporate gives me the equivalent of 2 weeks FTO. They also haven't communicated what the penalty would be for not meeting our target billable hours in a fiscal year, so it remains to be seen what negative effects we'll suffer.
Does anyone have any experience with FTO? Any pitfalls I should be worried about? I've discussed this with several other folks at my company and the transition seems universally hated. I've got a meeting today with my manager and others on my level from other offices to discuss the policy. Do I actually have any recourse if this is something I can't deal with? I expect no, given the size of the company, but I have limited experience challenging corporate policies so I'm not sure if others might know a better avenue.