How to Maximize Your PTO
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The PTO you earn at your job is exactly that – earned. Burnout is real, so take the time for yourself and use your days off. If you’re like me and are travel obsessed, it’s important to be strategic on when to use your PTO so that you get the best bang for your time. I will be honest and say these strategies often don’t align with most money-saving travel tips, but this is a tradeoff I often make in the name of seeing the world. Here are all the things to keep in mind when planning your time off – after all, it’s the name of this blog for a reason.
Building Around Holiday Weekends
At Thanksgiving, my company gives us Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off. By taking PTO on Monday and Tuesday and accounting for the weekend days, I am able to take a 9-day trip for the low price of 2 vacation days. Thanksgiving and Christmas are often my biggest trips of the year for this reason. Sometimes these trips are with family and we can celebrate the holidays together, but more often than not Thomas and I travel alone and enjoy time with family elsewhere throughout the year.
Beyond the major holidays, even just 1 extra holiday day off can help extend your trip. Take a look at your company’s calendar and see if you have MLK Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, etc. off and plan your trips around those. This same tip applies if your company gives you “Summer Fridays” (aka Friday off every week of summer).
Short Weekend Trips
I take a lot of 2-day trips, leaving Friday night after work and getting back Sunday night. This has allowed me the freedom to see so many places without using PTO at all.
Take a look at your nearby airport(s) and see where you can fly direct on Friday evening flights. Living in Chicago, I am blessed with being a major hub and centrally located in the country, giving me easy access to cities around the country. When looking for ideas on where to visit, I often start with what the viable options are and go from there.
Work-ationing
Work hard, play hard, right? This doesn’t work for every trip, but if your job allows you to work remotely (like so many in the post-Covid era), you may be able to pack your laptop and work from anywhere with Wi-Fi. I did this just a couple weeks ago at a beach house in Michigan, working 9-5 and then spending the evenings with family.
One big limiting factor for most people is time zones, as your company likely expects you online between certain hours. If you’re willing to wake up earlier to work, consider working a few time zones west of where you live. Conversely, if you’d rather explore in the morning and work past sunset, you can go east.
Taking Half Days
If your company allows you to take half days, this can help expand your options on where to go, since you can take a 3PM flight instead of a 9PM one, for example.
Half days can also pair well with work-ationing to allow you some extra time to explore while still stretching those PTO days out further.
Getting More PTO
Every company has different PTO policies, but a big way to maximize your PTO is by getting more up front. If more time off is a priority to you, try to negotiate for more when you get a job offer.
When looking for a new job, companies that list “unlimited PTO” as a perk may sound very attractive, but make sure you investigate further into what the company’s norms are around that. Studies have shown that offering unlimited PTO actually decreases how much PTO an employee takes per year, so ask what is considered normal and acceptable. Ultimately, what’s most important about taking advantage of unlimited PTO is that you are still getting your work done.
Rollover PTO
When researching a company, it’s important to understand their PTO rollover policy (assuming you don’t have unlimited PTO). Some companies don’t allow for rollover, so it’s use it or lose it every year. Other companies allow for a certain amount of rollover days each year, which you can use to your advantage if you know you want to take more time off in future years. Just be sure to keep an eye on the maximum amount of PTO you can use in a year as well.
Request Your Time Off ASAP
In many roles, your company needs to find coverage for you while you’re on PTO to make sure everything continues moving forward. You should request your time off as soon as you start planning a trip, even if that’s 6+ months in advance so that it’s most likely to get approved. This is especially important around the holidays when lots of people tend to want to use PTO at the same time.