Vacation, PTO, you say potato

The peer group I belong to recently did a comparison of vacation policies between our companies. We all varied between how much time off we provided our people. Some call it vacation accrual, some call it PTO, some have a combination. Some differ accrual amounts between exempt and non-exempt.

I was glad to see that PlastiCert was on the more generous end of the spectrum. We have both vacation accrual and PTO that we provide annually. Our people apply themselves to their responsibilities and I encourage them to take some time away. We offer 3 days of PTO to cover the last minute appointments, ask them to plan and let us know when they will be on vacation. Since I have been at PlastiCert, we have not turned down a vacation request. In fact, we have pushed people out the door to use their vacation.

I like to think it is part of our culture and reflects on the people we hire here. They are quite dedicated and outcome driven to a fault.

We modified our policy some years ago to allow people to start accruing their vacation as soon as they end their probationary period, and they are accruing at the 2 weeks per year rate. Then everybody moves up to 3 weeks at 5 years and 4 weeks after 10 years.  

Since the average tenure at PlastiCert is 14 years, we have a lot of people taking vacation time. Fortunately, all their interests vary, and we see some using it in the summer, some in the fall, some year ‘round.

What is your vacation policy? Been denied a vacation request?