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 Hiii y’all, I realize the irony about asking if you’ve unplugged on PTO while sending you a newsletter whilst I am on PTO… Don’t worry I wrote my newsletters before I went out and I’m currently relaxing!!! If you need me I’m on a lake, sipping a coffee and soaking in the sun! And if you miss me… here’s a few things to fill that void: 🎧 S13 of the pod has been FIRE. Dani Herrera joins me to discuss if culture is really HR’s job or not... It gets juicy and we share HR processes and policies we’re absolutely over and their impact on current cultures. We even geek out about superheroes. 📺 This month on HR Therapy I’m sitting down with a DOCTOR of behavioral therapy (yup!!!!) and we’re getting into motivation, why it seems like there’s a mindset shift at work and even what decentering identity at work is about. We’re going to geek out about SO MUCH you absolutely do not want to miss this. Now, onto todayyyy PTO!! Sponsored by Rippling Benefits season is back again, and it's already more expensive than last year! 🥲 You're basically stuck doing two jobs back to back…negotiating renewals while carriers hike costs, then bracing for the open enrollment chaos that follows. Rippling's Renewal Ready webinar series has you covered! Learn what companies your size are paying for benefits, so you walk into renewal convos with real numbers, and hopefully a lil more confidence. Then, see how AI-powered workflows, built right on Claude or your team’s preferred AI platform, handle deductions and carrier reports automatically, so open enrollment doesn't eat your October. 😮💨 It’s two free sessions, 45 minutes each! You want first dibs on the data your peers are using to negotiate better? Here it is! BUILDER MODE The PTO guilt no one talks about: ^^ But do we really Oprah??? Writing about PTO while on PTO feels like some sort of weird inception move? But here I am, incepting away! To note: I found Inception really confusing yet continue to reference it to this day, so in the spirit of total honesty I’m probably not using that reference correctly…. ANYHOOO While preparing to take actual time off, it got me thinking about PTO as a policy. If you're new here, this quarter's theme is Build Mode. Every week I'm taking an HR thing (system, process, policy, ideas) and giving it a verdict: improve it, rebuild it, or tear it down. We've done onboarding, engagement surveys, 1:1s. This week's room in the HR And the verdict is Improve. The policy on paper is rarely the problem, it's everything happening around it that's broken… Why am I like this? Here's the thing about being "out of office" I still checked Slack. Maybe you do the same? Truthfully, it's not because anyone made me!!! It's because I've been conditioned in previous jobs to think being unreachable feels like a liability. And therein lies the problem… 🚨 Companies love to advertise "unlimited PTO" or "generous time off" in the job posting, and then quietly build a culture where taking it makes you look less committed. TBH: it turns out for unlimited PTO, when there's no set number, people take less, not more. Why? Well there are a few reasons at play:
Here's the part I don't want you to miss though: this isn't just an unlimited PTO problem! Companies with a set, accrued number of days have the exact same guilt sitting underneath. Having "15 banked days" doesn't automatically make someone feel safe using them, plenty of people still let PTO pile up because taking it feels like handing over evidence that the team can run without them. Tracked or untracked, capped or uncapped, I don’t think the number was ever the real barrier. The culture around using it is… So the policy isn't broken. The behavior around it is! What we can actually do: I've got 3 things HR can actually do here. And these tips apply whether you're unlimited, accrued, or somewhere in between: #1: Model it from the top. If your CEO responds to Slack from a vacay then nobody on that team believes PTO is real… Leadership silence while out > leadership availability while out. If they MUST communicate, have them keep the circle small. But then they will be impacted by the always on of PTO. #2: Build re-entry into the policy, not just the pre-planning. Most PTO breaks down on the return, 400 unread emails and a meeting-stacked first day back. EWWW. Create the habit of protecting the first day back like you protect the time off itself. Make it something EVERYONE at the company does. Like the first day back is a no-meetings day. And encourage everyone to follow that habit and watch things get better! #3: Watch usage. Unlimited PTO has zero visibility. Accrued PTO companies have the number but often ignore what it means, a pile of unused days isn't "dedication." Either way, it's a warning sign either way. Pull the data and actually look at it. Who is taking PTO will tell you a lot about the culture around your PTO. A hot tip: Unlimited PTO should not be UNTRACKED. You can have an unlimited PTO policy and still have the ability to track how much time folks are taking off. Bring it all back: PTO doesn't need a new name or a new number of days!! It needs a culture that actually backs it up. Hence why it squarely landed in the Improve bucket. Fix the behavior, not the benefit. I’m back next week with more verdicts in the HR break of build! (HUMAN) RESOURCES
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Sponsored by Hogan Assessments Why do sooo many promotions get reduced down to the guy who talks the most in meetings? 🙄 Hogan Assessments has a free guide for People Leaders who'd rather build success profiles and evaluate real potential instead of guessing based on confidence levels. Stop trusting the loudest voice and let the data inform your next promotion! 🤓 SONG OF THE WEEK 🎧 Natural, S Club 7 Who here remembers this show??? And their music??? I used to wake up on Saturday mornings to watch this show! I learned from a reader of this here newsletter that I can find some of the full episodes on Youtube. I will never not be an S Club 7 fan. I hope you enjoyed this, please let me know what you think and what other topics you'd love for me to cover. I'm allll ears. Reminder: Take care of yourself and know that I support you. | |||||||||
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