Lemme just chime in real quick as someone at MSFT who this applies to (thoughts are my own, not a stance of the company, etc, etc.) I'm absolutely stoked. I'm well aware of the potential for this to end up reducing the number of days someone takes. I think all the ICs (individual contributors, AKA non-managers) on my team do as well. We're aware of the potential downside, so we're all going to be proactive to make sure this doesn't negatively impact us.
I personally am starting up a spreadsheet today to make sure I take the same amount of leave this year as I'd usually be owed.
The old policy tended to end the year with everyone taking most of December off for the holidays (and to burn remaining PTO that wouldn't carry over). Do I expect that to change? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
This is probably going to come down quite a bit to manager discretion, and I'm extremely pleased with my manager's stance towards taking time off. I can definitely see how there'll be folks in the company where this might hurt more. I think the broad majority of managers currently are pretty chill with letting folks take vacation when they need it, and I don't expect that to change.
Overall, I think if you're proactive, and have a halfway decent human being as a manager, you'll end up better off.
I personally am starting up a spreadsheet today to make sure I take the same amount of leave this year as I'd usually be owed.
The old policy tended to end the year with everyone taking most of December off for the holidays (and to burn remaining PTO that wouldn't carry over). Do I expect that to change? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
This is probably going to come down quite a bit to manager discretion, and I'm extremely pleased with my manager's stance towards taking time off. I can definitely see how there'll be folks in the company where this might hurt more. I think the broad majority of managers currently are pretty chill with letting folks take vacation when they need it, and I don't expect that to change.
Overall, I think if you're proactive, and have a halfway decent human being as a manager, you'll end up better off.