No, this is not fake news. Kathleen Hogan in Microsoft (chief people officer) has announced this via email to US employees, explaining how it will bring about a more ‘flexible model’ to the vacation policy.
Microsoft is discarding its PTO (paid time off) vacation policy for the unlimited option of not being required to log paid leave days or accumulate vacations. The UPTO (unlimited paid time off) policies are the next best thing to keep and attract talented finance, tech, and other divisions with employee shortages.
Microsoft will launch this new policy on January 16 this year and apply it to all new staff who will no longer have to accumulate vacation time. They will keep other leave of absence categories and its ten corporate holidays. The employees will receive once-off payments for unused vacation in April. But this policy will not apply to their hourly workers and only to US staff.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, the next step was to move into a more flexible working environment hence the new DTO policy.
“How, when, and where we do our jobs has dramatically changed,” explains Hogan in the internal memo. “And as we’ve transformed, modernizing our vacation policy to a more flexible model was a natural next step.”
Microsoft isn’t the only major technology business to embrace unlimited time off. Other big tech business such as Netflix, Oracle, LinkedIn, and Salesforce all adopted their new unlimited vacation policy.
“Skilled workers know they have options and are continuing to explore opportunities for various reasons,” she said. “Perks such as unlimited time off can serve as a strong retention strategy and build trust among staff.” – Megan Slabinski (District President for Robert Half)
