About 50% of our PTO is Mandated. Worst company ever.
4 days in July
4 days over the Christmas break
2 days in Q2
10/20= 50%
9 replies (most recent on top)
Is the July 4th week of PTO mandatory or just strongly encouraged?
@1toy+1rkaNqXG, it depends on what country you are in. If you are in the US & Canada, it is mandatory and they will auto populate the hours into Workday for you. If you are in any other country, it is just strongly encouraged. But since it's against those company laws to force them to take the PTO, any retaliatory actions Cisco takes against anyone who doesn't take that time off can file some worker's claim against Cisco, so just how "strongly encouraged" is it really? And how many people outside the US and Canada actually take that time off vs. tell their manager to shove it and ignore it?
Is the July 4th week of PTO mandatory or just strongly encouraged?
I do agree that it should be considered against the law to mandate when employees have to take their PTO.
This has been going on for at least half a century and the votes of the bottom 90% have no influence over legislation so it's not going to change.
Yeah but are we really debating the bare minimum when other countries and companies offer 6 week minimum?
That's the public sector forcing the transfer of wealth to the bottom. Americans want to use the private sector to transfer all the wealth to the rich. All we had to do is call ourselves "job creators" and hint everyone may be rich someday and the money has been flooding in ever since. Imagine what we can take when social security is privatized and trillions are chasing the next pet rock, "now with AI!"
@bxl+1rkaNqXG, I agree that we get some extra perks like the Day for Me, our birthday, etc., but those are untracked and don't count towards our PTO balance and are not paid out as accrued when we leave the company.
Additionally, this 20 days of PTO that you think is so generous includes "sick time". Many other companies split vacation and sick time, so that you get 2 weeks (aka 10 days) of each and Cisco lumps it all into one big pool and you decide on how to use it; vacation or sick time. It's nice for those who are healthy and don't get sick often that they can use their "sick time" for vacation, staying home w/ sick kids so the spouse can work, etc., but it's not really "generous" compared to other companies when, as @vbo+1rkaNqXG says, other countries and companies offer 6 weeks min.
Even more so, Cisco only increases the "limit" that we can accrue and carry as a PTO balance, or "banked time" after 5 yrs in 5-yr increments. If you've been forced out of Cisco and return, even if HR considers you as having 6+ yrs of service, when you rejoin you start back at the min PTO accrual limit and have to wait 5 more yrs before it goes up again.
I do agree that it should be considered against the law to mandate when employees have to take their PTO. But is it worth it to fight it because Cisco could just shut down like they do and call it company holidays and reduce our PTO from 20 to 10 days to compensate.
Then there's the fact that they can't do this in other countries and "employees are highly encouraged to take PTO at this time" in those countries. I'm sure that every employee in those countries actually take that "highly suggested" time off. And if you believe that, I have some beach front property to sell you in Arizona.
Its too bad there are so many blatantly stealing PTO, by taking it and not recording the time. if there weren't then they wouldn't have to do stuff like this.
To be fair, in the "old days recession" they required 5 days each qtr be taken to keep the books balanced. Not sure why they don't do that again. Would largely keep everyone PTO neutral. Not gaining, but not losing. Keeping your job "could" be considered a bonus.
No point in arguing if Cisco is still a good employer to work for or not. If you can find better treatment, leave. If you can't, for example you are one of those dudes who have stayed here for 10+ years and lost the ability to job hop, then shut the fu-k up and go back to work.
Yeah but are we really debating the bare minimum when other countries and companies offer 6 week minimum?
yeah, worst company ever that gives you your birthday off, 1 day for me every quarter, a floating holiday, 20 days pto, hybrid remote. quit if you hate it so much, someone with a better attitude will take your place