Sweat was actually starting to pool in the small of Mark’s back, a damp patch against his ergonomic chair that felt far too clinical for the internal crisis he was currently navigating. He was staring at a screen that offered him everything and nothing-the digital request form for time off. The policy at his firm was famously ‘unlimited,’ a word that usually suggests a horizon without end, yet as he looked at the calendar for the next 18 months, all he saw were cages. His manager, a man who seemed to derive sustenance from spreadsheets rather than calories, hadn’t logged a single day of leave in over 458 days. Mark’s cursor blinked with a rhythmic, mocking pulse. He wanted a week. Just 8 days, really, if you counted the weekends, to go somewhere where the air didn’t smell like ozone and industrial carpet cleaner. But the silence of the office felt heavy with the unsaid rule: you can have as much as you want, provided you want nothing at all.
I’m writing this while nursing a headache that feels like a dull chisel behind my left eye, thanks to a 5am phone call from a wrong number. Some guy named Arthur was looking for a ‘Gary’ to discuss a plumbing emergency. I tried to tell him Gary wasn’t here, but he insisted Gary was ducking him. It’s funny how we demand clarity from strangers at dawn but accept total ambiguity from the people who sign our paychecks for 28 years of our lives. That call stripped away my patience, leaving me with a jagged edge that makes me want to tear into the soft, bloated belly of corporate doublespeak. I like my job, mostly. I think the people I work with are brilliant. And yet, I despise the very mechanism they claim is a gift to my mental health. It’s a contradiction I carry every day, like a heavy stone I’ve convinced myself is a lucky charm.
The Accounting Heist: Liability Vaporized
Unlimited PTO is the ultimate accounting heist. In a traditional system, vacation time is a tangible asset; it’s a liability on the company’s balance sheet that they have to pay out when you leave. If you’ve saved up 128 hours of time, that’s a check they owe you.
The Financial Shift
Vested Liability (Fixed Plan)
Annual Savings (Unlimited Model)
But by switching to an ‘unlimited’ model, that liability vanishes into thin air. They don’t owe you anything because you haven’t ‘earned’ a specific number of days. They’ve essentially deleted a debt to their employees and rebranded it as a ‘perk.’ It is a brilliant, cold-blooded maneuver that saves mid-sized firms upwards of $888,888 a year in exit payouts. We are told we are being given freedom, but we are actually being stripped of a vested right. It’s the kind of sleight of hand that would make a Vegas magician blush, yet we celebrate it in LinkedIn posts as the pinnacle of modern culture.
The Psychological Floor
Then there is the psychological warfare. Humans are social animals; we look for benchmarks to understand what is acceptable. When a policy says ’20 days,’ you know exactly what the ceiling is. You take 18 or 19 and feel like a good soldier.
But when the ceiling is removed, the floor becomes the only visible metric. You look at your peers. You look at your boss. If they aren’t taking time, you feel like a traitor for even suggesting it. This leads to a phenomenon where employees in unlimited PTO environments actually take 8 days fewer per year than those with fixed plans. It’s a race to the bottom, fueled by a fear of being seen as the least committed person in the room. We have traded a clear contract for a murky social obligation.
The absence of a boundary is not freedom; it is a vacuum that nature-and managers-abhor.
– A Necessary Constraint
The Dollhouse Architect: Precision as Possibility
I recently spent an afternoon with Ava J.D., a dollhouse architect who operates out of a studio that smells perpetually of basswood and expensive glue. Ava doesn’t build toys; she builds microcosms. She was working on a 1:12 scale library, carefully placing 388 individual books on tiny shelves.
The Microcosm
Constraint defines creation.
The Void
Limitless leads to shapeless.
I asked her why she was so obsessed with the precision of the scale. She told me that without the constraint of the scale, the imagination has nowhere to push against. If a chair can be any size, it ceases to be a chair; it becomes a shapeless lump of wood. In her world, the boundaries are what make the creation possible. She knows exactly where the wall ends. There is an honesty in that limitation that our corporate lives desperately lack. We are told the world is our oyster, but we are given no knife to open it. Ava’s work is a reminder that beauty often lies in the definite, the agreed-upon, and the measurable.
The State of ‘Work-Lite’
This lack of measurement in our professional lives creates a perpetual state of ‘work-lite.’ We are never fully off because we never feel we have fully earned the right to be. We take a Friday off but check Slack 48 times throughout the day to ensure nobody thinks we’ve vanished. We are half-present at dinner and half-present at our desks. It’s an exhausting middle ground.
Availability: Fully On vs. Partially Present
52% Engaged
I once took a ‘vacation’ to the coast and spent 68 percent of the time responding to emails about a project that wasn’t even launching for another 8 months. I felt like a hero at the time. Looking back, I just feel like a fool who didn’t know how to close a door.
The Manifestation of Honesty: Lotis Eyewear Analogy
There is a profound disconnect between the ‘freedom’ marketed to us and the reality of how we experience it. We crave clarity. We want to know the rules of the game so we can play it well. When the rules are replaced by ‘vibes’ and ‘culture,’ the power dynamic shifts entirely to the person who defines the vibe. This is why brands that prioritize transparency and physical, tangible quality feel like such a relief. Take LOTOS EYEWEARfor example. There is no ‘unlimited’ ambiguity in a piece of master-crafted eyewear. You can see the gold, you can feel the precision of the hinge, and the value is right there in your hand. It’s a physical manifestation of honesty. There is no psychological trickery involved in a high-end product that does exactly what it says it will do. It represents a commitment to a standard, rather than a fluid policy designed to benefit the house.
Solids vs. Fluidity
Fixed time is a contract; it’s harder to ignore.
Fluidity is often unregulated and easily evaporated by whim.
In the corporate world, ‘fluidity’ is often just a synonym for ‘unregulated.’ If my vacation time is fluid, it can be evaporated by a sudden deadline or a manager’s whim. If it’s fixed, it’s a solid. Solids are harder to ignore. We need to stop falling for the allure of the infinite. The infinite is terrifying; it’s a void. What we actually need is a return to the specific. I would much rather have a contract that guarantees me 28 days of uninterrupted, guilt-free rest than an ‘unlimited’ promise that requires me to play a game of chicken with my colleagues’ work ethics. Precision is the only honest kindness we can offer one another in a professional setting.
[When everything is possible, nothing is permitted.]
The Leak and the Wrench
I think back to that 5am call from Arthur. He was frustrated because he had a leak and he needed a specific person-Gary-to fix it. He didn’t want ‘unlimited plumbing support.’ He wanted a guy with a wrench at a specific time. Our lives are built on these specificities. When we hollow them out in favor of trendy HR policies, we lose the structure that keeps our mental health from leaking.
We must begin to demand the ‘small rooms’ of Ava J.D.’s dollhouses. We need to advocate for policies that have walls, doors, and clear exits. A benefit that you feel guilty using is not a benefit; it is a debt of shame. And in a world that is increasingly trying to blur the lines between our private selves and our professional output, the most radical thing you can do is insist on a boundary.
Insist on the Boundary. Take the 8 Days.
The real trap isn’t the policy; it’s believing you are indispensable to a machine already budgeting your exit payout.
If the vacation is unlimited, then the first thing you should limit is the power your employer has over your peace of mind. Why do we keep waiting for permission that was never meant to be given?