Responsible Time Off

I noticed one thing about a position description today. It advertised “Responsible Time Off” (RTO) instead of “Unlimited Time Off” (UTO).

The central requirement is that the employee ensures their job duties and ongoing projects are covered before their departure. This model places the onus on the individual to coordinate leave with team needs and business objectives.

In places I’ve worked with Unlimited Time Off, the main problem was that employees never took enough time off. In my recent position at OSK, I frequently had to remind reports that they will burn out if their vacations consist only of taking a long weekend every few months. So I have three somewhat uninformed thoughts about the idea of Responsible Time Off:

1. This is solving for something that is rarely a problem with Unlimited Time Off, employees taking too much vacation.
2. This is solving for managers who can’t or won’t manage the teams’s needs, and making line employees responsible for what is a managerial lack.
3. This makes it really hard for employees to take vacation in many startups. After all, if the company understaffs (and too many startups are understaffed), then can’t “coordinate leave with team needs”.

Anyway, if the position I’m looking at becomes more likely, I’ll have to quiz them really hard on this before accepting. In the past, I have asked companies how many vacation days specific people have taken in the last year to see what their culture around leave really is like.