It's a way for companies to eliminate their vacation payout when you're fired. If you have a defined vacation policy, then by law the company is obligated to pay you out for the unused vacation days in case of termination/resignation. But in the case of an "unlimited" policy, there's no such obligation. Great for the company. Not so great for the employee.
This is the truth in my case. Having quit my last job yielded in a huge payout (5 figures). I do understand that this was basically the salary for the time off that I didn’t take. I still took decent amount of vacations but over time with PTO rollovers the balance built up to a significant amount.
> If you have a defined vacation policy, then by law the company is obligated to pay you out for the unused vacation days in case of termination/resignation
I think this is only the case if vacation is accrued. If it's a single yearly lump, it doesn't appear they have that obligation (at least, not in NYC)
