
Ask HN: Why do Americans use the word PTO instead of vacation? - baxtr
I’ve recently noticed that my European colleagues use increasingly “PTO” when they want to indicate that they’re on vacation. That’s something coming from the States.<p>I personally don’t like “PTO”, since it conveys the notion that I’m being absent from work getting money, thus, I feel I have to have bad conscience about this. Where in fact, vacations are badly necessary to regenerate and thus be again more productive at work. I have the feeling that two different philosophies are at work here, but I’m unsure if that’s just a misinterpretation from my side. What do you guys think?
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chrisbennet
Vacation: Paid time off that is separate from sick time or holidays. If you
get sick, you get “extra” paid days off.

PTO: Paid time off, including vacation+sick time.

In the US, a lot a jobs don’t offer “sick days”. Instead you just get N days
to be absent from work with pay (PTO).

~~~
baxtr
Thanks! That makes sense. But still: I’m talking about how to communicate when
you are off. Instead of saying “I’m on PTO” people could say “I’m sick.” But
they don’t. Thus Information is lost, which could be useful depending on the
context

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brudgers
PTO is human resource jargon created in response to the curtailment of paid
holidays for most American workers. Years ago, most businesses closed on
Federal holidays and workers were off. Now, getting time off for "major
Federal holidays" is probably above the median.

The dearth of paid holidays, reduction of paid sick leave, and the traditional
two weeks of paid vacation a year get lumped together into "20 days PTO a
year" sounds better than "ten days vacation, four sick days, and New Years,
Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas." When
rationalized as "Why that's four weeks off per year!" management will tend to
find it easier to convince themselves of their generosity.

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eesmith
What of
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paid_time_off](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paid_time_off)
is not clear? It points out that there is no federal requirement for vacation
time (which your country may have), and gives a set of both pros and cons.

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5555624
It's a "total" number. I get X days vacation, Y days sick time, and Z days
holidays. (In my case, Z is fixed; but, I know some peopel that can choose
between Columbus Day and Veteran's Day or Columbus Day and the day after
Thanksgiving.)

X + Y + Z = PTO.

