Was A Benefit

I remember when I interviewed candidates to hire for our firm, one of the questions that came up had to do with time off: vacation, sick time, flex time, etc. This was back when we tracked each of those categories separately. Now they are combined into “Paid Time Off,” or PTO. Whatever it is called, the total days of PTO is considered one of the benefits offered.

Now It’s Not

Fast forward to today and PTO remains a significant element for employees. But it should no longer be regarded as a benefit to do other things. It should now be viewed as a requirement to renew and refresh. The point of PTO is to recover from the exhaustion from your work, not to return to work to recover from your time-off activities.

The profession is too demanding. You need your time off as a requirement of the job, just like you need a computer and internet access to do your job.

• If you return from PTO and you haven’t recovered, that’s a problem.
• If you have a bank of PTO because you refused to take it, for whatever reason, that’s a problem.
• If you consider PTO as a benefit and not a professional requirement, that’s a problem.

Your Responsibility

I am somewhat overstating this point in order to make a point. You have to be responsible to refresh and renew, using a firm-provided resource. If you refuse to do so, your professional satisfaction will decline because it’s not enjoyable. All you can think about is how hard it is. You exacerbate the situation when you don’t assume the responsibility to use PTO to recover.

The remaining few months of 2021 will have plenty of stress. This is your chance to assume the responsibility to be prepared by viewing and using PTO as a requirement of the job and not as a benefit.