Why taking your PTO is important. How bad I am at taking PTO and what I’m…
By: Pablo Ramos
Tags: Growth, Burnout, Holidays, Vacation, Self

Planning and taking PTO (Paid Time Off) has been a long issue for many people. Over time I’ve seen plenty of cases when team members or colleagues will never take PTO, I always thought there were crazy. Reality is that I’ve realised I’m really bad at it too. I’ve even lost days for not being aware of it. Here is what I’ve learned from it.

I’ll share a few scenarios on the excuses I gave myself not to take my time off, or even the fake reasons I’ve invented in my head. It can happen to anybody, even if your partner constantly reminds you of how much time you have.

Excuse #1 — New Job

Start a new job, you’re exited and engaged with what I do. Things are new and I just don’t want to stop, I’m learning. Time goes by an I’ve taken a few days here and there. HR Policy does not allows me to carry over more than 5 days to into the next year.

I got this. Month by month my PTO time starts to pile up and I’m still not taking it, I haven’t planned any trip nowhere. I’ll figure something out during the holidays. That never happened.

Outcome: 3 days lost.

Excuse #2 — FOMO?

New year, new chance. This time it won’t happen to me again. FAIL. Normally the new year starts with performance reviews for me. I still have 5 days from last year that I should take before the end of March.

Performance reviews are done, but we have that company trip. I’ll wait. Planning for the year can be a little bit crazy, and with that a lot of things will happen, February is gone too.

I’ll take my days in March. Big new project just came in, I need to get this planned and scheduled for the team, and more planning is still happening. I can take the 5 days at the end of the month. Never happened.

By creating a single excuse for myself I’ve tried to hide that I did not wanted to miss what is happening within the team, I felt like too many thins where going to happen while I was away, and bad planning hit.

Outcome: 4 days lost (I managed to take one)

Excuse #3 — I’m really bad at taking time off

We’re over Q1 and I’ve already lost 4 days from the previous year. I won’t let it happen again. I started looking for dates when it would be good to take a few days off. There was never the perfect time.

Something will always come up. Even when travelling to visit family (I’m an expat) I would not take big chunks of time off and try to work in between days of visiting relatives (that’s a different story)

Finally I managed to get a week here and there (In Ireland we have ~25 working days), relaxed a little bit but a big chunk was still pilling up. I’ll take the rest during the winter holidays (Christmas and New Year). Wrong.

I’ve still have a plethora of days to take off and when I’ve scheduled one I even had to deal with the bloody calendar and end of the year.

Outcome: I might be doing better but still have tons of PTO to take

The PTO Checklist

Never, just never feel guilty for taking your time off.

Communicate that you will take PTO and things will keep on running

It will never be the perfect time to be off so just schedule it when it works for you, some considerations might happen, communicate.

When you’re off just disconnect from work. It pays off.

If you can’t find a block of 5+ days, I try taking one day here and there. I can make a combo with a holiday and get a super long weekend. It’s a story for a different post. Anything longer than 4 days off is good enough for myself to disconnect, but we’re all different

Goal: Not loose any PTO time

Something that I try to remember regarding my PTO, and that I tell to a lot of people that I talk to. Not taking PTO and losing might be similar to returning any extra money that you have from your salary at the end of the month. Nobody I know does that

Most of people that are employees, when we get paid our PTO time is computed in there. Not taking that time might be one of the most dumb things I do (I do a lot of them).

One of the bright sides of actually being off is that we do learn how to overcome FOMO. Things will keep running. One of the best feelings I had when getting back is that the team can and does work while I’m away. That’ a double benefit. The team is empowered and will solve problems and I know I can take PTO and actually enjoy the time off with my family.

It’s harder than it sounds

For the last couple of years I’ve failed at taking all the time off that my employers where giving me and that’s just plain wrong. I do really plan to change it and while being more conscious on why, I’m improving the how. Hopefully with 2020 close to it’s end, I’ll be able to end up the year with no PTO left.