We work in a culture that does not exactly encourage the actual taking of vacation days—ever notice the snide comments you inexplicably get when you’ve (gasp!) chosen to go on a week-long vacation at some point during the year? While the Swedes get 5 weeks paid vacation and the French enjoy somewhere around 30 days off, we Americans are known to inexplicably leave our meager time-off allowances on the table. According to Bloomberg, we collectively forfeit around 222 million paid days off each year. While we don’t advocate for doing so (take a break, you deserve it!), a new startup is helping you easily view the cash value of these forsaken vacation and sick days online. PTO Exchange then helps you use them to book travel through a partnership with Priceline, deposit them into a 401k, donate them to a charitable organization, or even gift them to a co-worker who needs them more than you do (someone who is sick, for example). Again, we don’t suggest you go to work when you’re sick (in fact, we beg you to stay home and thus avoid infecting your entire office) or stay chained to your desk 52 weeks out of the year. If, however, you do fail to make use of your paid time off by actually taking time off, PTO Exchange may be a great option for getting the most of those benefits regardless.
