Each year, nearly half of U.S. workers forgo their dream vacation—like a trip to Paris or Hawaii—and instead log more hours in the office. The result: more than 700 million unused paid time off (PTO) days, according to a 2019 study.
For some employers, this culture of loving time in the office is good news for the bottom line, thanks to more than $65 billion-worth of benefits going unused. But for others, including Bill Cassidy, CEO of Lactalis U.S. Yogurt, the trend is a warning sign.
As the leader behind $750-million-a-year cooler-aisle names like Yoplait, Go-Gurt, and Siggi’s, Cassidy promotes a philosophy that runs counter to high-profile billionaires like Jensen Huang and Elon Musk, who proudly embrace 24/7 work.
Cassidy’s alternate stance is simple: “I work to live.”
“Work is an enabler to do all the other stuff that we want to accomplish in our lives,” he tells Fortune. “I love what I do. I love my family and friends more than work. But when you put the two together, you have that right level of balance.”
At a time when many CEOs view advancing technology and AI disruption as reasons to double-down on hustle culture, Cassidy said he believes striking the appropriate balance is what will lead to success for workers and leaders alike.
“To be a better leader, I also need that right amount of time to disconnect from the business, spend time with family and friends and come back—whether it’s a two-day vacation, a week’s vacation—that’s kind of irrelevant, but I come back recharge with more energy to drive the business,” he adds.
Encouraging employees to take PTO
While some business leaders may take pride in working all the time—seven days a week, with no vacations—Cassidy says that’s not a lifestyle he ever planned to embrace.
“One thing I never wanted in life was to have regrets that I did not spend the right amount of time with my kids, in particular,” he says.
In fact, even while climbing the corporate ranks, he continued to coach his kids’ football, baseball, and soccer teams—even if it meant he had to substitute responding to emails for team practice.
It’s a workplace culture he’s tried to build as CEO by encouraging all employees to use their full PTO benefits each year—and avoid being among the millions of workers who don’t.
That mindset even spilled into marketing. Earlier this year, Siggi’s launched a PTO-focused campaign with the goal of calling attention to the lack of vacation days throughout the business world. The company gave 10 winners $5,000 and a flight voucher to go take their time off—something Cassidy says all companies should encourage.
“Don’t feel as if you’re not here, work’s not going to get done,” Cassidy says. “It’s more about the culture of taking time off and it being okay to take time off.”
Younger workers in particular are taking this philosophy to heart and believe working to live is a top priority. More than 42% of all Gen Z and millennials say their managers should help set boundaries and facilitate work-life balance, according to a 2025 Deloitte study.
Striking the right PTO balance
Determining how much PTO is awarded for employees is a major consideration of many job seekers—and can even be a make-or-break factor. In fact, one survey found 1 in 5 workers would turn down a job without unlimited PTO, even though it’s only found at about 6% of companies, according to SHRM.
Beyond being an enticing perk for new-hires, unlimited PTO is viewed as something that could give companies a competitive edge. Some 57% of retail investors expressed the belief that companies offering unlimited vacation could fare better than the top 500 companies listed on the U.S. stock exchange, according to a survey by Bloomberg.
Netflix is considered one of the companies that brought the policy into the mainstream—thanks in part to an affinity for time off by its billionaire cofounder Reed Hastings. He takes around six weeks of vacation each year and hopes his employees will do the same.
“I take a lot of vacation and I’m hoping that certainly sets an example,” the former Netflix CEO said in 2015. “It is helpful. You often do your best thinking when you’re off hiking in some mountain or something. You get a different perspective on things.”
But other companies have tried unlimited PTO—and reversed course. A LinkedIn post from Ryan Breslow, the CEO of fintech startup Bolt, went viral earlier this year for announcing the death of unlimited PTO at his company due it causing more harm than good for employees.
“We just killed unlimited PTO at Bolt,” Breslow wrote. “It sounds progressive, but it’s totally broken. When time off is undefined, the good ones don’t take PTO. The bad ones take too much.”
And while Lactalis did not provide specifics of their PTO policy besides being “generous and flexible,” Cassidy said he believes the companies that thrive won’t be the ones that glorify constant work, but the ones that help employees take time off—without guilt.
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