LinkedIn recently ran an article about “Stealth PTO” that caused a bit of a stir in the comments section. The article says according to a new poll, 78% of U.S. workers aren’t using all of their PTO – particularly Gen Z and Millennials. The discussion around this is interesting. If you’re leading a business and you haven’t heard of stealth PTO, don’t panic. Here are a few things you should think about before you worry about whether your remote employees are secretly checking their email from a hot tub in the Bahamas…
What is Stealth PTO? It’s when people take time off without telling you – whether it’s an afternoon or in some cases longer, but they’ll still appear to be working by occasionally responding to an email or setting themselves as active online to fly under the radar.
Burnout is often what causes these “fad” HR phrases like “Stealth PTO” or “Quiet Quitting” to surface in the first place. Stress, pressure to hit sales or productivity goals, unreasonable workload expectations, a lack of connection, and a lack of meaningful time off all contribute to the underlying problem of burnout, and this is a risk for employers. What’s interesting though, is that from our perspective as HR professionals, we’re not seeing this issue sweeping through our clients like LinkedIn makes it appear. In fact, we’re often seeing the opposite. Gen Z requests more time off than any of the other generations currently in the workplace, and Millennials are using their time too – not quite as much as Gen Z, but they are using it.
The larger conversation that stealth PTO presents is more around shaping a company culture and policies that serve both the business and your employees, and making expectations and rules clear to your team. If you have a fully remote workforce but you don’t have policies in place that address expectations around work hours, permissible locations to work, and putting in face time with managers, then you may have people take advantage. But the flip side to this is that flexibility and autonomy carry a lot of value with employees and are big perks of remote work, so taking a more dramatic approach by implementing strict work hours, frequent camera-on meetings, and other micromanagement strategies won’t serve you well either.
We think the best approach to minimizing stealth PTO is more about making sure you’re striking the right balance with your team by keeping them accountable and engaged, while also still providing some flexibility and work life balance so they retain some control over how they manage their time and schedule. It’s also important that you authentically encourage your team to take time off when they’ve earned it and that you promote PTO usage as an important way to recharge and encourage wellbeing. Research shows that people who take PTO regularly stay in jobs longer and report higher levels of job satisfaction, motivation, and creativity.
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