Buddy...the point is really, really not unlimited PTO.
NO ONE treated workers at scale like Google did in earlier decades. It was literally wild and unprecedented.
Engineers for many decades had unprecedented job mobility and bargaining power. Certainly not a bad thing in and of itself, but it's an outlier experience that's ending.
Unfortunately, companies don't organically and spontaneously decide to treat their workers well. Leaders need to fight for it...and most engineering leaders just aren't positioned to right now.
You seem to be missing a lot of data points. From Microsoft to even Jack Welch's GE, absolutely everyone who was competitive was trying to butter up talent.
And then you affirm things such as "unprecedented job mobility", for which citation is sorely needed, and close it with "it's ending", though there is absolutely no evidence for it.
It seems to me that you are trying to ignite some flames, but your points are very thin on data.
Unlimited PTO means:
- If you are on a visa -- no PTO
- If you are part of the in-crowd friends with the boss -- unlimited PTO (see: @tech.unicorn for the lifestyle)