Clarification of PTO doesn't align to industry standards - Software Engineer Health Catalyst Employee Review

3.0
Apr 8, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decently transparent, executives seem to care about employees.

Cons

Executives seem to be out of touch in regards to what the industry standard is in PTO. They claim that we have flexible PTO but in the recent team meeting they clarified it to say a minimum of 10 days (does not include company holidays) and team members are to fall between 10 days to 17 days PTO a year. This does not align with the industry standard of tech giants nor the local tech companies. On average, the tech industry offers 20-25 days PTO on top of holidays. Some team members are being micromanaged somewhat in regards to how much PTO they are taking and it would be nice if executive leadership would reevaluate how much a team member should typically take as long as they are getting their work done. Just because someone on the same team decides to take the minimum PTO shouldn't mean others on the team can't take more.

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Health Catalyst Response
4y
Thank you for your review and feedback, and for your contributions in the critical role of software engineer these past 3+ years. I apologize for confusion caused by our recent communications regarding PTO time. In response to multiple team member requests to please share a "minimum" PTO that we would like every team member to always take, so that team members who struggle or feel guilty taking time off would feel strongly supported and encouraged to do so, we shared the recent communication update that we recommend a "minimum" of 28 days off per year, or just over 5 1/2 weeks between PTO and company holidays. Our benchmarking highlighted that Health Catalyst has quite a few more company holidays than most other tech companies, by approximately one week, and we also wanted to highlight flexibility that if the company holiday doesn't work as well as another day for a team member to take off, we support this. The 5 1/2 weeks was the "minimum" we wanted to communicate, and we've also shared this guideline with every people manager so that they can encourage every team member to take this time off at a minimum, in the spirit of encouraging balance and sustainability. We also communicated our support for team members to take meaningfully more than this time off, and even an expectation that it would be typical for team members to take more like 6 1/2 to 7 weeks off, total, between company holidays and additional PTO time, and still be in a strong position to meet all their work deliverables. Further, in our communication we shared support for "flexible" PTO as needed beyond this amount for special circumstances, where team members can work with their managers, with no additional approvals required beyond the team member and their direct supervisor. Our most recent benchmarking data suggested this "time off" range fell meaningfully in the "above market" category for this benefit component, which is our objective for all our benefits. I hope this further clarification is helpful. We'll emphasize the "flexibility" part in today's All Team Member meeting, and our support for team members to take meaningfully more than the "minimum", absolutely. Thanks again for your review and feedback. Best, Dan

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