‘Unlimited PTO’ company boss rejects employee’s PTO for court-ordered parenting, gets called out and faces team backlash: ‘It has backfired on them’

In today's competitive corporate world, full of employee-catching buzzwords, "unlimited PTO" reigns supreme. But for one unlucky tech startup employee, this motto had a small secret: the fine print.
 

The company, proudly flaunting its "flexibility," recently started grouching about employees using their unlimited PTO. New rules blossomed like weeds—sick time counted separately, doctor's appointments categorized, and management's tolerance for time off rapidly approaching zero. Unlimited, indeed.

And when the employee dared to request a measly half-day off each month to fulfill a court-ordered custody arrangement, you know, because raising a child tends to require actual time, he had to deal with unlimited inconsideration.

After approving these requests for over a year, management suddenly decided this time off was an apocalyptic blow to company productivity. The employee was told he might need to take the time unpaid or "make it up" by working weekends or coming in early. 

What management didn't expect was for the employee to stand their ground, bypass the guilt trip, and punt the nonsense straight to HR. The fallout? A department scrambling to explain why unlimited PTO apparently has its limits.

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management boss workplace-stories hr toxic-workplace manager bosses work PTO managers supervisor workplace Horrible Bosses work-life balance
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