Millennials would rather take secret PTO than ask their boss

Paid days off aren’t a guarantee for many Americans, but even when they get them, they pass them up.

A majority, 78%, of U.S. workers report not taking all their PTO days, and that rate is highest among Gen Z and millennial workers, according to a new Harris Poll survey of 1,170 American workers.

Young professionals say they don’t ask for time off because they feel pressured to meet deadlines and be productive, and they get nervous about asking for PTO because they don’t want to look like lazy people, says Libby Rodney, director of strategy at The Harris. Survey.

That doesn’t mean they don’t take breaks – they just don’t tell their boss about it.

Millennials in particular have found solutions to play hooky. Nearly 4 in 10 people say they have taken leave without informing their manager.

Similar shares indicate that they “move their mouse” to show that they are still active on their company messaging platforms (like Slack or Microsoft Teams) when they are not actually working, and that they have scheduled the sending a message outside of normal hours. give the impression that they are working overtime.

“There’s a huge culture of workarounds at play,” says Rodney. While Gen Z tends to be more vocal about workplaces that shame people for wanting to take time off work, millennials prefer to take matters into their own hands, but under the radar.

“They will figure out how to find an appropriate work-life balance, but that happens behind the scenes,” adds Rodney. “It’s not really a quiet stop, but more of a quiet vacation.”

When people feel the need to sneak out to take breaks, it’s a sign that their workplace doesn’t have a supportive PTO system or culture, Rodney says.

Bosses can ease this tension in several ways, she adds: They can be more transparent about what a leave request looks like, normalize PTO by taking time off as a boss, support their employees when their employees leave and impose a certain amount of work. free time.

Unlimited PTO is not necessarily the solution. Workers who receive 11 to 15 days of PTO each year are more likely to exhaust their days, Rodney says, but there is a significant drop-off once people get 16 days or more.

Instead, employers can get creative with their PTO benefits, such as offering week-long company-wide time off during major holidays, paying new hires to take vacation time before starting, or require employees to take a certain number of PTO days each quarter to pace their work. holidays throughout the year.

More generally, many Americans in the Harris Poll survey believe the United States should adopt laws common to Europe that impose limits between work hours and personal time, such as extended vacation policies (think: a month off in August), longer lunch breaks, shorter work weeks. longer than 40 hours and regulations that protect slower response times outside of working hours.

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