Paid Time Off

At last week’s company meeting, the rumors were confirmed: As of January 1, 2005, Monster is switching to a paid time-off plan. And I’m having a lot of trouble deciding whether I’m happy about it.

The deal is that sick, personal and vacation days are all put in one bank for employees to use however they see fit. In theory, this should be great. I’m pretty healthy and usually only take a couple of sick days off per year. With a paid time-off plan, I can use what previously would have been sick days to get a little extra leisure time in.

But what about those people who often get sick? They won’t want to use their PTO days to stay home, nursing themselves back to health. They’ll want to pick up some extra vacation time from the new plan as well. Will these days be so precious that they’d rather come into the office sniffling and coughing? I can already see the germ cycle will be with us for some time as people refuse to get better before coming into work. And with the shortage of flu shots this year, the timing couldn’t be worse.

Take a look at John Rossheim’s story, “The Pleasures and Perils of Paid Time-Off Plans” while I take another dose of echinacea.

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