Younger employees at a general contracting company have started taking unpaid time off after using all their paid time off, and their manager wasn’t sure how to handle it. So, the vice president of the 21-person, $10 million-a-year company called into the “EntreLeadership” podcast recently looking for help
Time Off Should Be Structured, Not Casual
Podcast host and entrepreneur Dave Ramsey shared what they do at his company. “We give people all kinds of time off around here beyond their allotted PTO, but it goes before our HR committee and the HR committee decides if this is an act of grace,” he said. “I don’t do unpaid time off because I want to take a vacation and I’ve used up my PTO. You need to be at work. That’s why we hired you.”
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The caller admitted they never explicitly said unpaid time off wasn’t allowed. Ramsey’s response: “Who said they could do that?” followed by, “I guess we didn’t say they couldn’t.”
That, Ramsey argued, was the issue.
“This ‘I kind of work when I want to’… that’s like a part-time job or a contractor or something. If you want to do that, you need to go work a part-time job. But here, we hired you for this salary amount, and we need the work done.”
Ramsey acknowledged that some situations deserve flexibility. For example, one of his employees undergoing cancer treatment has received extra paid time off. But he drew a hard line between real emergencies and casual requests: “‘I just came off vacation and I think I want another one… I don’t really care if I get paid or not.’ That means I’ve hired the wrong person.”
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The Problem Is Growing, Especially With Younger Workers
The caller said that four of his employees did this last year, and he expects five this year. Ramsey wasn’t surprised.
When the caller noted, “It tends to be younger people,” Ramsey agreed, “Yeah, that’s what we run into,” he said. “We work from work, so you’ll just have to [quit].”
He added that this attitude often comes down to poor work ethic and entitlement. “You think you’re French or something,” Ramsey said sarcastically, referencing European norms around generous vacation policies.
Reset The Culture
Ramsey recommended a two-part solution. First, reset expectations for the entire company. Second, have one-on-one conversations with repeat offenders.
“Make an announcement: This is what we’re doing, guys. It’s getting out of control,” Ramsey said. “We are now on a PTO-only time-off, with the exception of you get approval from me, and I’ll give you approval paid or unpaid depending on what the situation is. We’re not doing a bunch of unpaid for miscellaneous stuff.”
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For those who already went over their PTO, he advised calling them in individually. “When your time runs out, you’re going to have to wait until your renewal date to take time off. ‘I’ll just take it unpaid.’ No, you don’t understand. We don’t do unpaid time off anymore.”
Ramsey emphasized that enforcing boundaries isn’t about being harsh, but about maintaining accountability and fairness across the team. “We’re kind about that. We love our people. We’re not mean to our people.”
But if the issue is poor planning or laziness, he has no patience. From his experience, employees who resist these expectations typically end up leaving the company within about six months.
He added a jab at remote work, too: “I want more flexibility and work-life balance. Translation: I want to be paid for eight hours while I really only work about four.”
Ramsey closed by encouraging the caller to take action. “You’re going to handle it well,” he said. “You sound like a very solid, mature leader.”
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