re: Observations of PTO usage between Older Workers v. Younger workers

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So why even have something called FTO if you get reprimanded for using it?

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The purpose of FTO isn't for current employees, it gives us the ability to recruit talent from other companies without asking them to sacrifice the PTO rates they've accrued through seniority.

Say there's an engineer at company Y and he's a perfect fit for my team at company X. He's been with company Y for 15 years and gets 6 weeks of PTO per year. If I can only offer him 2 weeks of PTO, as a new hire, I have basically zero chance of getting him to come work for me.

FTO is becoming more and more common as companies more and more desperate for top talent. FTO, though not a defined total of days, is not supposed to be abused. 8+ weeks off in a single calendar year is certainly indicative of abuse. I'm not going to write him up or put him on a performance plan, I'm just going to ask him to keep it closer to 6-7 weeks (which was what his PTO/yr was before we moved to FTO).