Trendy workplace benefit is too good to be true: ‘it’s not all it’s cracked up to be’

This time-off policy is not making employees any happier. These days, when people are applying for jobs — they look for an employer that pays well and offers generous paid time off. However,

if you see a job listing that offers “unlimited” PTO, it might be a scam — here’s why. “People hear you have it and are like ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so jealous, you have unlimited PTO.’ But from

my experience, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” a disgruntled employee told Travel & Leisure in an interview. The outlet revealed that employers offer the time off benefit as a

“recruitment tool” as more job hunters are looking to work for companies that allow their employees to have a healthy work-life balance. EXPLORE MORE Supposedly, one in five Americans won’t

even give a job the right time of day if the employer isn’t generous with employees’ time off, according to a survey from Empower. “There’s a very powerful message when an organization

adopts unlimited PTO,” Julie Schweber, senior advisor at SHRM, told the outlet. “It says ‘We value you. We trust you. We trust you’ll get your work done.’ I can’t think of a better retention

tool or motivator for employees.” Yet people are quickly learning that there’s a catch when it comes to working for a place that offers this — like not having unused vacation days roll over

or be paid out when an employee leaves the company — something that’s often done at places with more limited time off policies. “I view the concept of unlimited PTO as more of a PR gimmick

and a way for a firm to get out of providing a quantifiable benefit,” an unnamed Detroit-area senior systems engineer told T&L. Employees who are offered unlimited PTO also notice that

even when they do take a long vacation — they tend to feel the need to check in on work while away or feel guilty if they were to take another long trip later in the year. And since many

people work at places that don’t offer this “gimmicky” policy — they have to get creative with how they use their limited amount of PTO. The PTO hack that went viral earlier this year is to

schedule vacations around holidays that land at the start of the week, like Memorial or President’s Day. “Federal holidays and long weekends are your best friend here,” Jesse Neugarten, CEO

and founder of Dollar Flight Club, told Forbes. Doing this allows people to have an extra-long weekend without using up all their PTO.