[dragonwriter]

PTO is just merging sick days with vacation, usually to mask the low combined total (the nominal “benefit” to employees compared to classic separate sick plus vacation policies is that the whole amount can be used for vacation.)

[malnourish]

I don't disagree, it was a bit alarming and while our PTO policy is better than many, there are still lots of competitive employers who offer better benefits wrt time off.

It is nice to never actually need to provide a reason/note to be out, but I think the combination does stress some of my coworkers (e.g. "I don't want to take vacation because what if I get sick", "Oh great, I'm sick, now I can't take vacation").