1. It is NOT unlimited and should be illegal to advertise that
2. It is still at management discretion so it's not like you can be sure you can always take off whenever you want.
3. It is usually capped at 2 or 3 consecutive weeks so even if there is a minimum of 4 weeks you can't take all 4 at once at many companies.
4. Companies are happy to nickel and dime you but they abhor it happening to them and this is, IMO, largely a play to avoid vacation accrual and/or vacation time payout.
Then there's stuff like this:
> Paid time off (PTO) is not considered part of an employee's salary, so it can be docked without jeopardizing the employee's exempt status ... the court held that PTO is a fringe benefit with monetary value, not a component of salary under federal law.
For me it has two problems:
- Legal - in some places people has the right to take a minimum vacation days per year. If you as a manager don't enforce a minimum, then you're putting a legal risk.
- Personal - When I joined the team one person had 6 vacation days last year. She was burnt but didn't knew it. It was hard to notice since she was an hyperactive person that took long hours because she lived in a place where nothing to do. Having mandatory time off made her think about her life.