frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Last year I eliminated our PTO policy. I called it "unlimited."

https://twitter.com/gothburz/status/2011421898161144192
22•marbartolome•1h ago

Comments

wiseowise•1h ago
The kid named 4Chan finally grew up, dropped funny angle brackets, and entered workplace.
Klaster_1•1h ago
Now he's evil and steals wages.
kevin061•1h ago
This is just a shitpost sadly, not an actual executive.
wiseowise•2m ago
This is taken from an actual (confidential) executive manual.
barishnamazov•1h ago
I assume this is satire, but that aside -- many of my friends who entered into big tech as new grads with "unlimited pto" are indeed very hesitant to take it. They are worried that it'd affect how their managers see them. The same idea with showing up before your manager and leaving after they leave.
angry_octet•1h ago
Imagine trying this policy in Europe or anywhere with workplace rights.
AdrianB1•1h ago
I am trying to imagine. The end result is similar. In Europe it would be "unlimited unpaid vacation days on top of the mandatory paid vacation". The same problems will appear: self-restrict to taking it. Management would never help employees to take the days. My manager does not help me even take the mandatory legal days, it's all on me to deal with priorities and deliverables and find a way to still take vacation. With decent managers, there would be no burnout, but we are in a crisis of morals in corporate management, the job of most current managers is to make a career at the expense of the employees.
kibbul4•1h ago
/r/LinkedInLunatics
pjc50•1h ago
"Unlimited" PTO is an oddity that can only exist when you don't have statutory minimums.

https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights "Almost all people classed as workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave)."

scott_w•23m ago
True unlimited PTO can exist in the UK, though the "unlimited" PTO can't, as employees can't agree to less than the statutory minimum.

That said, unscrupulous employers try to get around this by putting stupid requirements on taking PTO that practically mean taking your legal allocation aren't possible. Things like "we need minimum staff levels to cover" and, shockingly enough, you don't have enough staff to actually give out everyone's PTO. Combine this with requiring long timeframes to book it and your manager "forgetting" you had PTO booked and insecure job contracts and you have a recipe for grinding your staff to dust.

fnoef•1h ago
I always knew that "Unlimited PTO" is beneficial to the company rather than its employees. It's the same trick of "we offer [20% lower base salary than market rate] + 2.79% equity" - it sounds like you could break the bank from equity by earning less actual money, but in reality, most of this equity does not worth the bytes it occupies on the servers.
kingstnap•1h ago
> I said, "That's not tracked."

> It is tracked.

> I have a dashboard.

> I don't share the dashboard.

Classic.

throwaway290•1h ago
I have unlimited PTO.

It's not company policy. I don't take time off.

It's not law, which says 7 days per year is legal.

I just do what I want. Like not showing up saying I'm sick or "working" from home for a week.

Or doing my stuff on my laptop at the office.

If manager asks about something I say I'm working on it.

But no one asks. They don't want to be cause of a good employee quitting.

I set conservative estimates and I do literal minimum to technically reach them.

Everybody loves this system. No one can tell I'm slacking and I'm more chill as a person.

physicsguy•55m ago
This one I always found super weird, because typically in Europe you just can't carry days over beyond the current year, so that argument for it never really held. Or at least, not many, my current employer lets me roll over 5 but they have to be used by 1st March.

In the UK we're typically by law entitled to 25 days inc. bank (i.e. public) holidays, but most 'professional' jobs will give you at least 25 days plus bank holidays giving a total of ~33ish days per year of leave. When one of the bank holidays would fall on a weekend (e.g. Christmas Day) then it's transferred to the Monday following. Very very occasionally, there are additional bank holidays added e.g. for the Royal Wedding in 2011 one was created.

Often companies will give you a few more days after a number of years of service e.g. an additional 4 days after 5 years. Public sector jobs are usually more generous again e.g. 32 days + bank holidays plus some 'closure' days meaning ~42ish days of leave.

aa-jv•3m ago
In Austria, they roll over. I recently changed jobs and cashed in my unused vacation days to cover the expenses during the transition. It worked very well, and my previous employer was happy that I stayed during the entire switch period instead of just taking 2 months of vacation days. They had no issues paying those days out, because it meant I stayed in the chair longer to train my replacements.

Washington's Covert Strike at the Heart of Iran's Power Structure

https://open.substack.com/pub/ajmals/p/us-strategic-shock-signal-to-iran
1•Gym-Berlin•2m ago•0 comments

Show HN: A Tailwind component generator focused on design quality, not AI "slop"

https://inspi.me/
1•yogourt•3m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Free tool to see how your thumbnail looks like on YouTube

https://www.awesomefreetools.xyz
1•awesomepotato•4m ago•0 comments

Alan MacMasters Hoax

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_MacMasters_hoax?wprov=sfti1
1•m-hodges•5m ago•0 comments

I fashioned each Fediverse instance into a star

https://100kstars.contained.love/
1•r0k1s_i•6m ago•0 comments

Bun Is Fast, Until Latency Matters for Next.js Workloads

https://blog.platformatic.dev/bun-is-fast-until-latency-matters-for-nextjs-workloads
1•gempir•6m ago•0 comments

Teaching RL Replay Buffers to Remember Long-Horizon Rewards (PyTorch)

https://domezsolt.substack.com/p/hippotorch-teaching-rl-agents-to
1•ashby_r•9m ago•0 comments

Web3 writing platform for Web3 writers

https://www.sigle.io/
1•janandonly•13m ago•0 comments

Which cryptexes does macOS Tahoe load?

https://eclecticlight.co/2026/01/19/which-cryptexes-does-macos-tahoe-load/
2•chmaynard•14m ago•0 comments

Looper.sh: yet another coding loop script

https://www.nibzard.com/looper-article
1•nkko•14m ago•0 comments

Why India's plan to make AI companies pay for training data should go global

https://restofworld.org/2026/india-ai-data-license-fee/
1•i7l•14m ago•0 comments

importmap.lock: A Lockfile for the Web

https://nesbitt.io/2026/01/19/importmap-lock.html
1•chmaynard•16m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Appa (POC): Self-shipping task queue

https://github.com/kxzk/appa
1•beigebrucewayne•18m ago•1 comments

Quantum 'alchemy' made feasible with excitons

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-quantum-alchemy-feasible-excitons.html
1•pseudolus•19m ago•0 comments

What's Worrying Jonathan Haidt Now?

https://calnewport.com/whats-worrying-jonathan-haidt-now/
2•chmaynard•20m ago•0 comments

40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTugyu2F0pc
2•squillion•21m ago•0 comments

China's birth rate hits record low as population continues to shrink

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79r7v7qr53o
1•pseudolus•22m ago•0 comments

DeGoogled Phones, Made in Europe

https://tuta.com/blog/degoogled-phones
2•jruohonen•22m ago•1 comments

Nvidia Contacted Anna's Archive to Access Books

https://torrentfreak.com/nvidia-contacted-annas-archive-to-secure-access-to-millions-of-pirated-b...
3•antonmks•28m ago•2 comments

Cara Menonaktifkan Akun Shopee [Spinjam] & Menghapus Akun SPinjam Shopee-Pinjam?

1•begundal•29m ago•0 comments

Grok's biggest danger isn't what it says – it's where it lives

https://restofworld.org/2026/grok-ai-danger/
1•brandrick•31m ago•1 comments

Turso is an in-process SQL database, compatible with SQLite

https://github.com/tursodatabase/turso
1•marklit•34m ago•0 comments

A retail dark pattern worked on me

https://rubenerd.com/a-dark-pattern-worked-on-me/
2•7777777phil•36m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Kacet – a freelancer marketplace with crypto-native payments

https://kacet.com/
8•wrux•39m ago•2 comments

Show HN: JSON Purrser – A JSON viewer with smart field detection

https://www.jsonpurrser.com/
1•one_man_studio•42m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Synth Data Studio Open-source synthetic data with differential privacy

https://github.com/Urz1/synthetic-data-studio
1•Sadam_H•44m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Interactive visualization of relationship mechanics in Dead Plate

https://deadplate.net/
1•causalzap•46m ago•0 comments

Smart Response Technology: Transforming Digital Interaction

https://techvastonline.blogspot.com/2026/01/smart-response-technology-transforming.html
1•Silvaaaa•47m ago•1 comments

The Google Pixel 3 Is a Good Phone. But Maybe Phones Have Gone Too Far. (2018)

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mathonan/google-pixel-3-review-android
2•viralpoetry•47m ago•0 comments

Coding in the Future

https://willleeney.com/blog/coding-in-the-future/
1•willleeney•49m ago•0 comments