“We don’t track vacation days. We trust you.”
What they mean: we eliminated a financial liability from the books. When you leave, we don’t owe you anything for unused days. And we know — because the data is clear — that people with “unlimited” PTO take less vacation than people with a fixed number.
Unlimited PTO isn’t a perk. It’s a psychological trick that saves the company money while making you feel guilty for taking a Tuesday off.
The people who designed it know this. That’s why they designed it.