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Comment by bedhead | Hacker News Reader

I used to work at a company that, like everyone else, tracked PTO days. But I'm kind of a pain in the ass so I never bothered, plus, I worked ridiculously hard and came in at least one day every weekend and sometimes both Sat and Sun (plus most nights in general). Anyway, the head of HR asked me to start putting my PTO days in the system and I said sure, just let me know where I can submit the overtime slips. They got the point...it helped that I was good at my job.

I've always liked the "treat people like adults" policy with unlimited PTO and no formal tracking. If someone can't manage PTO and is abusive of it, my guess is they either might not be a great hire anyway, and if they are, what are you accomplishing by bothering them?

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I'm quite confused at your response. Why are you so proud to give a company all your time, including nights and weekends, and for no additional costs?

Then when asked to take PTO you asked for money instead of holiday, despite working nights and weekends?

wat

I did well and was promoted and given raises and bonuses - that was kinda the point of working hard, not to get more days off. I just didn't like people making PTO a thing, it struck me as juvenile. I used plenty of PTO days, one summer I took every Friday off, but I didn't like the idea of being tracked like I was a child. My simple thought was if people do a good job, who cares about PTO tracking.

I see. That's much clearer, thanks.

Although the point of documenting PTO is both useful for you (to quantify days off as you may be taking much less than you thought!) and the company (was behead meant to be in work today?! What if there's a fire alarm and headcount is needed?)

Congrats on the promotion and raises! I agree that ideally working hard should lead to those outcomes.

Seems you misunderstood their comment. They took time off but never logged it in the system. HR asked them to log the days they took off, they said sure but I also get to log my overtime and get paid for those then.

Ignoring the fact that they are considered an exempt employee (at least in the US).

Probably illegally misclassified as exempt, you mean.

Do you figure a software engineer is likely to not meet the criteria for classification as exempt? I’ve never heard that called into doubt before.

How do you figure? Technology roles are well understood to be exempt, no? Don't get me wrong, I think it's stupid and should be changed, but it is what it is (for now).

Unfortunately "adult" does not have a universal definition in this context.

However I'm with you... I'd never work somewhere again (circumstances permitting) that did not offer me the flexibility I need to perform well. Sometimes that means I take a Monday and do nothing because I'm not recharged and my brain isn't being productive. Sure I could try to force something out, but honestly that doesn't benefit me or the company. My output would be poorly thought through, and I'll grow resentful. The tradeoff is, when I'm in the zone on something, it tends to consume me a bit and I'll gladly work until I'm done with it, nights or weekends be damned, because it's interesting.

Knowledge work is not a "show up and punch the clock" gig. Brains have off days and inconsistent output. When the quality of the thinking matters, and impactful output scales way beyond the cost of the individual employee, it pays for employers to be flexible.

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