Rest Without Regret: Making PTO Work for Your Culture and Bottom Line

Summer’s here, and out of office replies are blooming like daisies. Or at least, they should be.

Paid Time Off (PTO) is one of the most valuable benefits an organization can offer, but all too often, it becomes a source of stress rather than restoration. For employees, taking time off can spark anxiety about falling behind on work, missing important decisions, or returning to an overwhelming backlog of emails and tasks. There’s also the underlying worry that using PTO might signal a lack of dedication or ambition, especially in high pressure environments where overwork is normalized.

For employers, PTO can also feel tricky. Concerns about maintaining workflow, meeting deadlines, and redistributing responsibilities often make leaders reluctant to fully encourage time off, even unintentionally. The result? A cycle where people hesitate to unplug, and managers quietly brace for the disruptions that time away may bring.

According to the American Psychological Association’s 2023 Work and Well-being Survey, nearly 46% of workers said they feel stressed about taking time off, often due to heavy workloads, fear of falling behind, or perceived pressure to always be available. Yet the same report found that employees who regularly take vacations report higher job satisfaction, better performance, and lower burnout.

And beyond individual well-being, there’s another critical reason organizations, especially small businesses and nonprofits, can’t afford to ignore time off: the financial cost of burnout.

The Financial Toll of Burnout, Why PTO Is a Strategic Investment

Burnout isn’t just emotionally draining, it’s expensive. And these costs hit small businesses and nonprofits hard, where budgets and staffing are often tight.

A recent study by the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that burnout costs employers between $4,000 and $4,300 per employee per year, broken down as:

• $3,999 for non manager hourly staff

• $4,257 for non manager salaried staff

For a nonprofit or small business with just 50 employees, that adds up to around $200,000 annually in lost productivity and absenteeism, without even factoring in costs tied to turnover or lost creativity. Burnout affects work in many ways: employees have trouble focusing, make more mistakes, and are less creative. They tend to miss more work and are more likely to look for jobs elsewhere. Replacing staff takes time and money, and burnout can also hurt the organization’s reputation, making it harder to keep and attract good people, especially for mission driven groups.

How to Make PTO a Culture Builder, Not a Guilt Trip

Here are simple but powerful ways to help your team embrace time off and return better for it:

1. Leaders Go First
If leaders rarely take vacation or sneak back to their inbox mid trip, it sends an unspoken message, “Rest isn’t really allowed here.” Senior team members should model the behavior they want others to follow, whether that’s setting a clear OOO message, logging off Slack, or sharing what they’re looking forward to doing offline.

2. Make Time Off Easy to Plan
The easier it is to take PTO, the more likely people will actually use it. Share reminders about available time off, deadlines for use it or lose it policies, and steps to plan coverage in advance. Proactively normalize conversations about PTO in team meetings and check ins.

3. Model Healthy Communication Around Time Off
There’s no shame in stepping away from your inbox. Clear, thoughtful out of office replies reinforce that. Set an expectation that “unavailable” truly means unavailable. Bonus points for using friendly, human language: “I’m unplugged and recharging, and I hope you are too! I’ll reply after [date].”

4. Talk About Why Rest Matters
Sometimes we forget the why behind time off. Rest isn’t the opposite of productivity, it’s the engine for it. Share stories, research, or reflections internally about how breaks enhance performance, well-being, and retention. This isn’t fluff, it’s strategy.

5. Design Your Policies to Encourage Use
Rollovers, use it or lose it models, and unlimited PTO all send different signals. Whatever your structure, make sure it aligns with your values and actually supports employees in stepping away. Track usage data and check for equity. Are some teams or individuals not taking time off? That’s a red flag for burnout or cultural misalignment.

PTO Isn’t a Perk, It’s a Culture Builder

Encouraging time off isn’t just about preventing burnout, it’s about creating a workplace where people bring their best, most energized selves. When you treat PTO not as an afterthought but as a shared norm, everyone wins: people, teams, and the mission you serve.

Do you need help building a time off culture that actually works? Let’s talk. HR Happens can help you review policies, address burnout risks, and turn PTO into a strategic asset for your team. Contact us here.

Sources: 

2023 Work in America Survey: Workplaces as engines of psychological health and well-being 

CUNY study: Employee burnout can cost companies millions per year - Bizwomen