In 26 states in the US, paid time off is a benefit that belongs to an employee. It can’t be stolen back by an employer even if the employee is fired or quits. I do not live in one of those 26 states and my employer does not pay out the value of accrued PTO to departing employees.
I generally liked working for this employer, I took some pride in my work, my boss was a decent guy, I suffered no disrespect, and the pay was competitive. I wasn’t some disgruntled employee looking for a way to shaft my team on the way out the door, but when the time came to move on in my career, I had multiple thousands of dollars’ worth of PTO in my balance and I wasn’t just going to kiss it goodbye to benefit the company. I would have preferred to just take my PTO as it came, and the company was generous about approving requests, but I did not have the luxury as I relied on at least a dozen hours of overtime every week just to make ends meet.
My only option to keep my bills paid and then get compensated for my PTO was to not only forego the courtesy of a two-week notice, but to take all of my PTO starting the day I began work for my new employer. I’m almost a month in to my new role and just resigned from my previous role. This maneuver was painful to the company as I was a remote worker supporting a nearby customer that shells out a lot of money for our company’s services and there now isn’t any one else immediately able to fulfill the terms of our contract with this customer. I consider myself an honorable person and a good employee, but I don’t have any qualms with how I handled my exit. Treat PTO like the earned compensation that it is and don’t let employers rob you of it. If more people take this approach, it will not be in an employer’s best interest to reclaim unused PTO from their employees.