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Where are you guys finding these jobs that have large amounts of PTO?
Jobs/CareersMaybe this is true, but if you work for a large corporation, your sol. At my employer, every ful time employee starts with 2 weeks, and only those in a higher grade level can come in with 3 weeks, but they will not gain any days beyond three weeks until they would have done so if they came in with two weeks.
I work or an electric utility also, we had someone who applied for an admin spot ask for 6 weeks PTO, well that person came in with two weeks.
Everything is a give and take. At the end of the day, the company has a specific profit target they need to hit. So if you find yourself being offered more PTO, you will likely take a hit on other things like salary, the number of paid vacation days, your contribution to healthcare premiums, or 401k matching.
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2mo
engineering from what i heard almost always starts at 2 weeks pto but now that i’m applying to more experienced positions they’re offering surprisingly high amounts lol
Yeah seemed dumb to me how higher paygrades get more PTO when they're supposedly busier but that's the game.
Defense seems to offer 3-4 weeks standard with a pretty decent holiday list.
Typically, the way it works is that the PTO policy is the same for everyone (X years of service get Y PTO days), but what you can do when you switch jobs (particularly when you have more experience) is negotiate for them to set your effective years of service higher so that you get more PTO.
Something nobody can negotiate, or something only new grads can't get any movement on?
It might be due to power/utilities being somewhat geographically linked, where they're expecting long timers and not really hiring many experienced engineers (or at least having leverage in negotiations if there's not many competitors making better offers). But that's typically the motivation, if they don't match or beat candidates previous time off, they won't be able to hire experienced candidates.
So if anything, that's something for the future. If a place doesn't match your PTO, you don't take their offer, simple as.
Well, I'd have that new job with lots of PTO locked down and with a stable company that's been around awhile before I quit my current job.
Always ask, especially at small companies. The worst thing they can say is no, and even then the original offer will still be on the table.
My family friend who works in HR said their company has a policy of always offering 2 weeks up front, but also always giving 3 weeks if they ask for it. So when I got the offer for my current entry level job at a small company they offered me 2 weeks. I asked for 3 weeks and a small pay increase, and they gave it to me without much pushback.
As long as you are being respectful and reasonable, no reasonable company will retract an offer just because an applicant is trying to negotiate. They will at worst just say no to your request
yup. I just negotiated for 4 weeks of vaca time for new job starting in a few weeks.
Most large companies don't have negotiable PTO. Actually, most small ones don't either.
You have to ask at the very least. And if they say no, then fine.
3 weeks is the standard in my experience. This may be PTO or vacation with extra for sick days.
I currently have unlimited (of which I take 4-5 weeks) working in semiconductors.
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2mo
I’d reckon it’s mostly manager dependent. I personally have never had issues getting my vacation approved, but I am still not a huge fan of the system in general.
Best case, it psychologically biases employees towards not using the time, and at worst it actively keeps them from using it due to the discretionary nature of the system. If you get x weeks a year, it feels owed to you, and not a lawyer, but I think may be legally owed to you as well.
We’re starting to get pressure to avoid vacations at certain key development points, and knowing how corporations operate, this will soon become pressure to take less time in general, taking what used to be 4 or 5 weeks owed (before we went unlimited, I was 4 weeks plus sick time), to having to fight with your manager to get 3 weeks.
Like you said, performance will help. High performers get more perks generally.
I have "unlimited pto" where I work. But it's watched closely and where I work they still have "expectations" about how much you use, based on years of service and/or your perceived value to the company. As a new employee you may be able to negotiate a minimum number of weeks based on how badly they need your skills though.
I see unlimited PTO as a minus. Having unlimited means you don't really know how much PTO is OK to take before management start getting annoyed. Morever, if you decide to quit or get laid off, the company doesn't have to pay you for those unused days.
I've never heard of such a PTO situation.
My work offers unlimited PTO and I hate it! With predetermined days of PTO, I felt entitled to take them. Now I feel living at my manager’s mercy. And you can’t bank the PTO days which means another way the company is taking advantage of the employees to offset their liability.
And when you leave the company, you will cash out unused PTO hours. With unlimited PTO, you'll get nothing.
Yeah, my employer gives a fairly large amount of PO and had a really high cap.
But if you hit the max reminders to take PTO now start popping up and there is an effort to make sure people are taking a month off a year.
This is the plus side of mandatory shutdowns around Christmas and New Year's (or whenever)
People often feel like they can't take time off or there will be a mountain of work waiting for them when they get back. But if everyone else is off too, there's no one bothering you or sending emails!
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2mo
No he’s not kidding. That’s a very common sentiment you’ll find among people that have unlimited PTO at their jobs.
It is “I am taking a week off next month.” vs “may I take a week off next month? I know I am on this project but I think it should not cause any issue. If there is a need, I can still be reached at and maybe come in for a day or so. Blah,blah…”. About saving up the PTO, “I have too many PTO hours and plan to take a month off this summer.” vs “Is a month off too excessive? But I really want to go backpacking in Europe. Do you think we can work out a schedule?”
And when you leave the company, you will cash out unused PTO hours
YMMV on this one
I work at one of the big three utility in California as a normal W2 engineer and I get 3 weeks vacation, 10 sick days, 3 personal holiday days, and 10 federal holidays. So a little over 7 weeks of paid time off. This doesn't include jurry duty time which I would get 80 hours if I get called on.
If I stick around for 10 years then they'd up my vacation to 4 weeks.
Looks like I’m applying for a new job, what a dream. Was that a job you landed early out of college or later after gaining experience
Do you think this is fairly standard at most utility companies across the nation?
Americans get shit time off compared to most EU countries. My plan is to just gain enough experience that I can have enough leverage to land a job with optimal work/life balance.
Unlimited PTO is a scam 99% of the time, most people end up taking less days off because they often load you with more work to the point you can’t easily take off. Plus because you haven’t “accrued” time off, you basically have to request everytime and its not a given you’d be allowed to go versus having to spend your vacation days before years end
MOST IMPORTANTLY, depending on the state, accrued PTO is counted as earned income, as in, if you quit/get fired, they have to pay you out those PTO hours, unlimited pto was created so that they don’t have to pay you out for these hours for any reason.
During the compensation portion of the interview, I always bring up my current number of vacation days and include that I am expecting to get an additional week soon. I want them to match or beat what I currently have, else I want more money. I'm currently up to 4 weeks plus holidays. Next up, find a job where I can actually use the vacation days.
I have unlimited PTO at a ic design startup.
I probably take 20+ days off per year and most people at my company do as well.
That doesn’t include the many half days etc.
The industry kinda goes with it though. Lots of crunch time right before a tape out and then not a lot of work right after so it’s “vacation”.
WFH helps with all of this, and that most of the company is in India so I don’t have any meetings after 10am.
Ic design is already getting outsourced to India? How do they compare against American/European counterpart?
Idk if every company is. A lot is being shipped to Austin.
Analog at least is pretty talent based. So wherever that is. And the us is behind in that. Only a few schools do research anymore.
This isn't my only factor, but it is what I want to focus on in this post, so my question is, for those of you who have unlimited PTO or large amounts of PTO,
As far as I know, that only exists in the contract engineering world where you are essentially self- employed gig-worker and work set-duration (often high pressure) stints on a specific project and then have several weeks or months off while you are looking for the next one. Some love the lifestyle, to me it sounds like a Hell of a perpetual job-hunt.
Not correct, I work in a Fortune 500 engineering company and we have unlimited PTO. I know of a few others as well
How would you describe the work-life balance on the average week?
EDIT: Also, which sector, if you dont mind me asking? I know several of the seven on the list and they're all more like I described than you do for the actual Engineering personnel.
I'm in a fortune 500 aerospace company with unlimited PTO. I work 40 h/wk, rarely travel, OT is not really expected, but available if needed. Stress is low. I set my own schedule, within reason. Can work from home, if needed, even if it is the middle of the day (eg sick family, dr appt and WFH after, stuff like that).
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2mo
Not OP, but in a very similar situation. At my company it's entirely up to manager discression. Last year I used about 8 weeks or so, as did everyone else on my team.
I was told most people average like 24.5 days per year.
To u/Azrino's point, it is with manager approval, but no one on my team has been denied using PTO. We have a guy who will take a half day if it is super nice out and he has nothing on his calendar...like day of, lol. So, it's pretty lax where I'm at.
It will depend on your specific role and time of the year. There are pretty chill times just like there are crunch ones. I'm more of a junior engineer so don't have that many responsibilities yet, so I do my 40 hours with time to spare for my tasks. I cannot say the same about my boss for example.
We work in public safety communications
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2mo
It will depend on how busy you are and how much of a hard time your boss wants to give you. Unlimited means more like as much as you can take while doing your job properly. Some people take 30 days, some 15, some nothing. It also helps the company by not having to pay out unused PTO for workaholics or super busy people. I took close to 30 days last year.
Public utility - 6 weeks PTO. Accrues at ~10hrs every 2 weeks. 1 year in.
In Eu we have 5 weeks of vacation. Most countries have no limits to sick days. My company pays the first two weeks, then the government steps in. You will get some type of trouble after about a year. You get about 80% of your salary when you are sick. The government has a max amount they will pay, but most of have affordable insuranses that fills up.
Australia.
Standard is 20 days minimum, 10 days sick, 12 days public holidays, additional 10 weeks after every 7 - 15 years service. Worked at one company that was 25 days p.a. Some government positions offer 'flexi time' so for a 36 hr week you could work 3 12 hr days and have a 4 day weekend.
Some tech and start up are offering good packages - 3-4 Weeks or even some unlimited - but there are always strings attached.
Most corp in the US are still two weeks, but some are offering more.
It is a point to decide will you turn down an offer if they will not come to 3 or 4 weeks.
It took me a long time before I started insisting on 3weeks + ... luckily the first company I did this was a family owned German company and the hiring manager was German - for him it was a no brainer.
You get more ability to negotiate this as you age into the role.
For best results find a firm that is headquartered in Europe.
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2mo
lol yup. Perfectly legal to discriminate against someone for being too young - I once interviewed at a place that gave you +5 days if you were over 35.
Just make it a priority on your next job hunt.
I worked for a company based in Austria some years ago. Started with 5 weeks PTO.
Yup. Danish firm acquired my old place and I went from 20 days to 29.
Find an unlimited PTO company, preferably with remote employees. Take time off, but remain available by phone or email, and make your plans known widely way in advance. When someone ghosts for any amount of time progress stops and your absence is noticeable. If you are make sure you aren't the hold up many employers don't care about counting hours anymore. That's the 'never working / but always working' sort of model, it's not for everyone, you don't get to forget about work when you leave like with regular PTO, but you can spend more time traveling if you can keep connected.
Utilities or aerospace/gov contractors generally have the most. Utilities are a monopoly in a way in their own areas and thus pretty chill, contractors are gov
Working at a public university as a state employee, I was getting PTO at a rate of 2 days per month, plus any additional days that the state legislature would grant to avoid having to regularly raise pay. Plus, university holidays were also days off without needing to take PTO (most of the time).
Just curious, what kind of jobs do you do working at a university with an EE degree? Do you work in facilities or IT or something?
I worked at an extension center focused on renewable energy technology, policy, and implementation.
A lot of universities also have other extension centers like the IAC program: https://iac.university/
I work in the energy field with 2yrs experience and have unlimited PTO (I use about 5 weeks). Central VA
I joined a start-up. I had other offers for a lot more money but these guys put full healthcare on the table plus unlimited PTO and the deal was done. I'm going to Germany later this month just for fun!
Employee owned companies would be a decent start. I work for an A&E firm. 3 weeks starting which grows to 4 after 5 years if I recall, and gets to 5 weeks after 15. Lots of "lifers" there. Firm is approx 200 people.
Germany. For EEs, 30 days PTO is standard (at least 6 weeks), for contracts of 35 to 40 h/week. Sick leave days on top.
People say “AMERICA IS #1!!!” Nope. And this is one of those reasons. Our mental health needs to be a priority and we need a proper work life balance. /Roast me.
Like it or not, America is #1 because we work hard and take less vacation. That means more productivity and more product output, so higher GDP, at the cost of worse working condition and benefit
Go to work for the Government (Air Force in my case) 4 hours per 2 week pay period ( 13 days a year) after three years 6 hours +10 on the last pay period of the year (4 weeks) after 15 years, 26 days a year.
If you can find a company with a good culture and offers FTO, I'd advise it. Finding a good company is the trouble though. FTO is normally a scam from what I heard but it's worked well for me, we're actively encouraged to use it. I took about 20 days off my first year with the company.
I've found quite a few places that offer higher PTO are jobs where actually taking it is quite difficult.
I think 2 weeks has been the standard for years. I was shocked when I was given 15 days PTO 5 years ago out of school at a utility. I do agree that bigger utilities may have 3 weeks vs 2 weeks. I have heard that some people in start up companies have unlimited PTO. Maybe research companies that do unlimited PTO? Also, you could ask at your company if they would allow you to work remotely or take unpaid time off sometimes.
I think 2 weeks has been the standard for years. I was shocked when I was given 15 days PTO 5 years ago out of school at a utility. I do agree that bigger utilities may have 3 weeks vs 2 weeks. I have heard that some people in start up companies have unlimited PTO. Maybe research companies that do unlimited PTO? Also, you could ask at your company if they would allow you to work remotely or take unpaid time off sometimes.
Usually the European companies in USA offer higher PTOs compared to most USA companies
My company bases PTO on years in the industry. After 10 years of experience, you top out at 29 days per year. We do MEP and utility/substation engineering and our company is European based.
I worked at a utility, where we topped out at 30 days vacation plus 12 holidays. But engineers above a certain grade had to work around the clock without extra pay in case of emergencies, and bosses could generally cancel scheduled vacations in emergencies.
Government. 6 hours of annual + 4 hours sick every 2 weeks with an additional 10 days of federal holidays. And overtime can be charged as comp time. Hit that magic number of 240 hours use or lose for annual and take a month or 2 off.
I work for a university research lab and have the following time off plans:
Earn 2 days PTO each month of work = 24 days per year
8 days sick time per year
2 personal days per year
11 paid holidays per year
Now since it's a university lab, I'm actually the only EE on staff. So it's not often I feel like I can actually take PTO during major projects.
I negotiated for a 4th week for my most recent position, and can buy a 5th week if I want to. PTO is a form of compensation just like your pay and bonuses or stock options.
Come to germany. You have 30 days pto from the start.
European based companies are usually best or companies from tech-start up California. Although the “unlimited PTO” usually means “we have so much work you can’t leave”
When you apply for a new job, PTO is something you can negotiate and get more of during the offer phase.