With any vacation allocation, there are really two numbers to think about: 1) the technical number of PTO days you have been given; 2) the number of PTO days you actually feel at liberty to take. Often, though not always, #2 &lt; #1. When this is the case, employees will &quot;bank&quot; PTO days and get paid for them.<p>As a response, many companies are switching to &quot;unlimited&quot; plans. These look good to the uninitiated. But the real impetus for an &quot;unlimited&quot; plan is that it frees the company from having to guarantee -- or pay out for -- a minimum number of days for each employee. It&#x27;s not really about lifting the ceiling; it&#x27;s about lowering the floor.<p>I&#x27;m sure there are companies out there who really do have, and make every effort to honor, &quot;unlimited&quot; vacation plans. But I believe these companies are the exception to the rule.