PTO hacking? Vacationmaxxing? Perhaps a combined PTO-maxxing? These are the many names for a single trend floating around within the workplace today. The awkwardness of the terms aside, the trend refers to the idea of making the most of available paid time off by using the vacation days in combination with existing calendar holidays to stretch a work break out. Most recently, employee experience platform Blink kick-started the discussion on how best to turn 15 days off into nearly 50 by staggering the leave around federal holidays and weekends. Before employers grow alarmed over the new trend, it’s important to understand if employees are actually succeeding at such PTO planning.
Workers have always sought to maximize their PTO policies to ensure that they don’t waste the benefits so kindly offered by their employers, but they haven’t always turned the idea into action. Reports show that employees often skip out on using their vacation days to the full extent, regardless of how many days are available to them. If employees do indeed begin vacationmaxxing, they may have just realized how much of their earned benefits they are leaving on the table.
The new vacationmaxxing trend reimagines PTO leaves to make the most of the days available, but workers remain wary of taking too much time off. (Image: Pexels)
Are Employees Vacationmaxxing? What the Data Says
In the US, there is no defined policy on how many paid vacation days should be available to workers. Despite this, it is typically best practice for every organization to allow a few days of earned leave to spend as they please, but workers aren’t always certain if they are “allowed” to use them. A 2025 report from FlexJobs found that while the majority of its surveyed US workers had access to a PTO policy, 23% didn’t use a single day of it.
About 43% ascribed this to their heavy workloads, while 30% worried about falling behind at work. The data also showed that 29% of employees felt guilty or pressured to come in to work, while 25% feared a discouraging response from a manager. These are very real issues that dissuade employees from using benefits that are rightfully theirs.
A more recent report from Deel and a16z explored just how many vacation days employees use, particularly among startups, tech companies, and remote-first firms, relative to average population data. They found that most often, employees are not simply vacationmaxxing at all. Workers largely take one vacation day at a time. Those who do take longer breaks commit to a week of leave, followed by others who go out of the office for two weeks.
Geographically, Which Regions Are Most Likely to Succeed at Vacationmaxxing?
Data from Deel shows that workers in France are granted some of the most generous vacation policies, with 34 days on offer, yet only about 1 in 4 make the most of it. This presents us with a very clear scenario where increased leave allowances don’t always mean workers are out of the office all year round. Most continue to be restricted by the consequences of utilizing their paid time off. Workers in the US are granted around 20 vacation days, but less than 40% make use of all of their allotted time.
If anyone is vacationmaxxing and using all of their leave days, it’s workers from Norway and the UK, although only 50% of the workforce or below tend to do so. Workers in Finland and Germany are reportedly granted a similar median number of vacation days, but while just above 20% of workers in Finland used the vacation policy fully, above 40% did so in Germany. These differences are not conclusive and don’t represent the experience of every worker in the region, however, it is interesting to explore how regional and regulatory differences could be reflected in company culture.
Workers Have Always Been PTO Maxxing, in a Sense
The term vacationmaxxing or PTO-maxxing might be new, but it’s far from a new phenomenon. Many workers start their year by sitting down with the work calendars to better understand when federal holidays fall close to a weekend or if they might mistakenly be wasted on a Sunday. Workers often plan their leaves around holidays to take an extended break to visit the family, or ensure they can celebrate a birthday privately with their loved ones rather than at their desks.
Planning out leaves in advance is quite common, and many clearly tend to pick days closer to a weekend to turn a one-day leave into a three-day retreat from reality, at least. For the most part, workers are not maxing out their paid vacation days and duping their employers into giving them any more time off than they have earned. With so many changes in the workplace weighing them down, many workers are afraid to take any time away from work, which isn’t good news for employers.
Employees using their vacation days have a better chance at feeling settled and relaxed at work, enjoying the support of their employer towards their well-being. PTO planning is good for the organization as it allows the business to prepare for an employee’s vacation, rather than scramble at the last minute for a solution to an abrupt absence.
PTO-maxxing gets blamed, but the real problem is managers who still see vacation as a liability instead of a reset.
— Lagoon Labs (@LagoonLabsMv) July 3, 2026
Should HR Teams Do Something About Employees Stretching Out Their Vacation Policy?
The vacationmaxxing trend is unlikely to greatly disturb workplaces, but it isn’t impossible to regulate if it does catch on. Employees who are vacationmaxxing and PTO planning are not a threat to the organization. Workers should be free to use every single day of paid time off available to them, and if this is likely to destabilize the business, the policy and workforce numbers require review.
PTO hacking can indeed be a challenging prospect for employers, as it isn’t ideal to have all of their employees absent at once all because they are all using the same guide to maximize their PTO. Managing employees who want to take their PTO break at the same time will require organizations to set clear policies on how to approve the leave and how many employees can be out at once. Having a minimum quota and a first-come-first-served policy for approving the leave can ensure that employees keen on PTO planning can have their desired breaks approved.
This policy change can also come with efforts to better balance workloads during specific periods in the calendar year when employees are likely to request leave, such as during Christmas or the summer months. Employers should not only allow workers to use their PTO policy but also encourage it. Most workers would prefer not to strain their relationship with their employer and use their PTO in a way that doesn’t greatly hurt the organization, but still benefits them. This balance is key and can be maintained by setting some rules in place and making improvements to the company culture.
What do you think about the concept of vacationmaxxing? Share your thoughts with us in the comments. Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insights on workplace trends, layoffs, and what to expect with the advent of AI.
