SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The CEO of a San Francisco tech company has abruptly ended the company’s unlimited PTO policy, slamming it as “totally broken.” Ryan Breslow, CEO of checkouts and payment company, Bolt, made the announcement in a LinkedIn post Tuesday.
“We just killed Unlimited PTO at Bolt,” Breslow wrote. “It sounds progressive, but it’s totally broken.”
Breslow elaborated, saying that “when time off is undefined, that good ones don’t take PTO,” while “the bad ones take too much.”
“This leads to A-performer burnout. B-performer luxuries. And feelings of unfairness across the board,” he wrote.
Going forward, Breslow said the company would instead be mandating four weeks of paid vacation for all employees.
“So we’re flipping the script: no more confusion,” he wrote. “Every Bolter now gets 4 weeks of paid vacation (yes, the traditional corporate standard), with the opportunity to accrue more with tenure.”
Taking time off will not be optional, Breslow said, with the company mandating everyone to take four weeks off.
“If we’re asking people to move fast, build hard, and operate at the highest level, we need to protect their recovery time with the same intensity,” he said.
Unlimited PTO is a perk offered at many tech companies. While the policy can provide greater freedom and flexibility for employers, one commonly cited drawback is that without a set number of days employees must take off, some might not take any off.
