American here, so you have paid time off but greedy American capitalism boss can deny for any reason. Not enough staff, busy company time, favoritism, or simply fuck you I dont like you.
Some companies can give you monies at the end of year for your paid time off, but some don’t and it’s wasted due to greedy capitalism boss and given to the company casue companies have better rights then people.
For example my company and boss I work for is cool about giving time off when requested, however starting next year my company will not pay out unused PTO because reasons.
Such a weird thing from a european perspective. Here in Germany, you as a worker are obligated to take your vacation days. It even can happen that your boss asks you to take your vacation if you forget to.
I wish it was like that, I even work for a German company, but don’t get treated quite as nice. I guess for American standards, and it’s low unfortunately, it’s a good company to work for.
I guess that’s cause our laws force companies to make their employees take the mandated pto else they’d get into trouble. But they can aparently get away with treating overseas workers worse
In the Netherlands you’re only obligated to take the days that your employer is mandated to give you (20 days per year). But most employers give more, and if you don’t take those up, you can often have them paid out or save them for later years.
Thank you for the explanation. But isn’t the phrasing in the meme totally soul-crushing?
You get 40 hours this year - all year - where you don’t have to work for us.
(uttered by some company suit)
seems to be the implication.
In Europe, even part-time workers’ time off is counted in “days off.” Even if the end result were the same, I just think it sounds a lot nicer for the employee. “Hey boss, I won’t be coming in for the next two weeks. Nah, make that three.”
Sort of. There is no legal requirement for any time off in the US. But PTO is a very common arrangement.
It is what it sounds like: Paid Time Off. Basically you have some hours available your will be paid for but you don’t have to work. You earn PTO at a certain rate for every hour you do actual work, so you have to earn it.
You don’t have the right to use them whenever you want; that’s up to your boss, usually. You usually have to trade any kind of time off for your PTO: vacation, holidays (even mandatory ones), sick days, etc. There is usually a minimum amount of hours you have to take at a time, so you can’t always take an hour here and there, but sometimes you can agree to make up time with you boss.
For extended time off, like if you have surgery, you can usually work with your employer to use a reduced rate of PTO to make it last longer, like get 40% pay. When it runs out, you don’t get paid. You may still be able to keep your job, within the rules of FMLA (12 weeks), but you have no income. I am not sure what happens to insurance at that point, but I think you’re covered as long as you’re employed and pay premiums.
Of course this is not legally required and it’s rare that it’s even offered if you’re part time or work for a small company, since those aren’t required to offer any benefits.
I don’t work in HR, I’m not a lawyer or doctor, my experience is my own, this is not legal advice, your state laws may be different, etc, etc. YMMV.
I’ve had a couple of jobs where the PTO was issued in one big block once a year in a use-it-or-lose-it system instead of accruing week by week. I’m not sure how common it is; I was kind of surprised by it the first time I encountered it.
Yeah I had that in my previous job, but they didn’t call it PTO. Also we didn’t use PTO for our official holidays. It was really stupid: we would get 12 months worth of time off on January 1st and all of it expired December 31st. This naturally caused everyone to basically take December off, which meant our busiest months of December and January were super fun.
In my current job, PTO is earned for each working hour at a rate decided by your seniority, so you gain more PTO per hour the longer you work there, and you can bank up to a certain amount and the excess is lost. It’s a pretty big bank, so I think it’s an okay-ish balance between stealing our PTO and encouraging us to use it. I guess it could be worse.
This is different from when I lived in Norway, where I had “unlimited” sick days, all bank holidays off, and an additional 5 weeks of time off a year + vacation bonus in the summer, plus time and a half for any overtime beyond 37.5hrs/wk with double pay on Sundays and holidays.
The first company that did the all-at-once system was at least smart about having the refresh date be your hire anniversary date. The December effect you described would have wrecked them (retailer).
Yep, it eventually dawned on them that it wasn’t smart to force everyone to take off at the busiest time of year, so they started using the employee’s work anniversary instead. But, by that time I already had one foot out the door.
Another thing I’m not American enough to understand.
American here, so you have paid time off but greedy American capitalism boss can deny for any reason. Not enough staff, busy company time, favoritism, or simply fuck you I dont like you.
Some companies can give you monies at the end of year for your paid time off, but some don’t and it’s wasted due to greedy capitalism boss and given to the company casue companies have better rights then people.
For example my company and boss I work for is cool about giving time off when requested, however starting next year my company will not pay out unused PTO because reasons.
Hope this helps!
Such a weird thing from a european perspective. Here in Germany, you as a worker are obligated to take your vacation days. It even can happen that your boss asks you to take your vacation if you forget to.
Can you get me a job at your company? Is your boss willing to fill out the paperwork to hire from outside the EU?
I wish it was like that, I even work for a German company, but don’t get treated quite as nice. I guess for American standards, and it’s low unfortunately, it’s a good company to work for.
I guess that’s cause our laws force companies to make their employees take the mandated pto else they’d get into trouble. But they can aparently get away with treating overseas workers worse
In the Netherlands you’re only obligated to take the days that your employer is mandated to give you (20 days per year). But most employers give more, and if you don’t take those up, you can often have them paid out or save them for later years.
I had 30 days for my jobs in Germany and the Netherlands. In some jobs you “earn” more with age or staying a certain amount of years in the company.
Thank you for the explanation. But isn’t the phrasing in the meme totally soul-crushing?
(uttered by some company suit)
seems to be the implication.
In Europe, even part-time workers’ time off is counted in “days off.” Even if the end result were the same, I just think it sounds a lot nicer for the employee. “Hey boss, I won’t be coming in for the next two weeks. Nah, make that three.”
Which state do you live in? It’s very illegal to not pay out unused PTO in many states.
Stupid Texas.
I think PTO is just like regular vacation in other civilized countries? Just less of it
Just stands for Paid Time Off.
You aren’t required to use it for vacation, specifically.
Sort of. There is no legal requirement for any time off in the US. But PTO is a very common arrangement.
It is what it sounds like: Paid Time Off. Basically you have some hours available your will be paid for but you don’t have to work. You earn PTO at a certain rate for every hour you do actual work, so you have to earn it.
You don’t have the right to use them whenever you want; that’s up to your boss, usually. You usually have to trade any kind of time off for your PTO: vacation, holidays (even mandatory ones), sick days, etc. There is usually a minimum amount of hours you have to take at a time, so you can’t always take an hour here and there, but sometimes you can agree to make up time with you boss.
For extended time off, like if you have surgery, you can usually work with your employer to use a reduced rate of PTO to make it last longer, like get 40% pay. When it runs out, you don’t get paid. You may still be able to keep your job, within the rules of FMLA (12 weeks), but you have no income. I am not sure what happens to insurance at that point, but I think you’re covered as long as you’re employed and pay premiums.
Of course this is not legally required and it’s rare that it’s even offered if you’re part time or work for a small company, since those aren’t required to offer any benefits.
I don’t work in HR, I’m not a lawyer or doctor, my experience is my own, this is not legal advice, your state laws may be different, etc, etc. YMMV.
I’ve had a couple of jobs where the PTO was issued in one big block once a year in a use-it-or-lose-it system instead of accruing week by week. I’m not sure how common it is; I was kind of surprised by it the first time I encountered it.
Yeah I had that in my previous job, but they didn’t call it PTO. Also we didn’t use PTO for our official holidays. It was really stupid: we would get 12 months worth of time off on January 1st and all of it expired December 31st. This naturally caused everyone to basically take December off, which meant our busiest months of December and January were super fun.
In my current job, PTO is earned for each working hour at a rate decided by your seniority, so you gain more PTO per hour the longer you work there, and you can bank up to a certain amount and the excess is lost. It’s a pretty big bank, so I think it’s an okay-ish balance between stealing our PTO and encouraging us to use it. I guess it could be worse.
This is different from when I lived in Norway, where I had “unlimited” sick days, all bank holidays off, and an additional 5 weeks of time off a year + vacation bonus in the summer, plus time and a half for any overtime beyond 37.5hrs/wk with double pay on Sundays and holidays.
Norway’s system sounds like a dream.
The first company that did the all-at-once system was at least smart about having the refresh date be your hire anniversary date. The December effect you described would have wrecked them (retailer).
Yep, it eventually dawned on them that it wasn’t smart to force everyone to take off at the busiest time of year, so they started using the employee’s work anniversary instead. But, by that time I already had one foot out the door.