Is Unlimited PTO a Benefit or a Burnout Trap?

Unlimited PTO is a great concept on paper. Employers who offer it are seen as modern, empathetic, and sensitive to work-life balance, improving their employer branding and helping them attract top talent. Employees are drawn in by the idea of not needing to count their remaining PTO allowance, and not having to choose between a summer getaway with friends or the winter holidays with the family.

But the reality of unlimited PTO is anything but a dream. In the U.S. in 2024, only around 7% of employers offered an open/unlimited leave policy. In 2025, active job postings mentioning unlimited PTO fell to just 2.9%, down from 8.8% in 2022.

Is there a way to fix the pitfalls of unlimited PTO, giving employees maximum flexibility while maintaining momentum at work? And if unlimited PTO is off the table, how can companies create a culture of freedom that befits the modern workplace?

Understanding unlimited PTO

To answer those questions, we need to identify what people truly want from unlimited PTO and why it's not meeting their expectations. Early hype around the policy's potential has dwindled, with highly publicized walkbacks, such as Bolt's earlier this year. Bolt CEO, Markus Villig, said that unlimited PTO “leads to A-performer burnout. B-performer luxuries. And feelings of unfairness across the board.”

With traditional PTO policies, people feel like they’re using what they’re entitled to. With unlimited, they feel like they’ll be perceived as taking advantage of their company’s generosity. As Bolt’s CEO pointed out, A-performers also suffer, either feeling too locked-in or under too much pressure to clock out.

Another problem with unlimited PTO is the uneven distribution of time off across the org chart. Senior staff and those with more tenure feel more entitled to time off, while those who are more junior or who joined more recently may not.

Leaders aren’t the only ones aware of the problem of unlimited PTO, as it has earned itself a negative reputation among the talent pool. When we look at what employees are saying on sites like Glassdoor and Reddit, the consensus is that unlimited PTO can either be beneficial or a scam. It depends entirely on whether leadership intends the policy to be merely a marketing tactic to attract talent, or whether freedom and flexibility are genuinely built into the culture.

Avoiding the pitfalls: How to make unlimited PTO work

If you do decide that unlimited PTO is the way to go, culture is the linchpin. What you’re aiming to tackle is inequality, and make sure people aren’t hesitant to book time off. Managers and team leaders will be at the forefront of these efforts, and they must lead by example. Encourage them to take holidays to legitimize the policy in practice visibly.

One option is to recommend a minimum number of days taken per year to encourage usage, but this runs the risk of becoming prescriptive. Someone may take only a few days off one year and more the next, depending on the demands of their role and their lifestyle. With unlimited PTO, it's the employer's responsibility to create a culture where taking time off isn’t unfairly discouraged, whilst trusting employees to use their autonomy responsibly. You're trying to cultivate an adult-adult relationship, where employees feel respected as grown-ups to manage their own time.

That doesn’t mean you should introduce unlimited PTO without any guardrails. Set expectations with employees of how long their breaks can be, how far in advance they need to be requested, and what the potential reasons for refusal are. Creating and openly documenting these guardrails might feel like you’re limiting people’s freedom (which goes against the primary appeal of unlimited PTO), but creating rules actually encourages usage. When the rules aren’t clear, employees won’t request time off for fear of accidentally breaking them.

Measuring success is paramount. Monitor usage to identify disparities across teams and to detect underuse or overuse. Pair this with other employee data to identify potentially dangerous patterns. For example, if one team takes few vacation days but reports low satisfaction in pulse surveys, that’s an early warning for burnout.

Alternatives: Offering flexibility without unlimited PTO

If you want to give your employees more than the statutory minimum, you could introduce floating holidays, sabbaticals, or mandatory company shutdown times. But time off isn’t the be-all and end-all of flexibility. It’s important to introduce flexibility and freedom in people’s day-to-day work, not just when they’re on the clock.

How Deel supports a culture of flexibility and freedom

Freedom isn’t just part of our culture. It’s part of our mission. We offer a suite of products and services designed not only to simplify HR for organizations, but to impact the future of work. Here is just a portion of our offering, which supports businesses in their mission to build a more flexible employee culture:

• Deel HR gives employees easy access to their contract, payslips, and other important documentation. They can request leave, access benefits, request new tech assets, and much more in one user-friendly platform.
• On-Demand Payroll allows employees to receive a portion of their paycheck up to one month in advance, supporting their financial freedom and well-being.
• Deel Immigration makes it easier than ever to support employee relocation, whether for short-term travel or a permanent move.

Book your 30-minute Deel demo today to explore all of your options and give your employees the experience that keeps them engaged, whether they’re on the beach or at their desks.