I don't fundamentally disagree with you that yes, of course there is always some ultimate limit, nor that it's generally done in bad faith as an accounting scam to get around legal paid time balance sheet requirements. That said, I don't think you're right here:
>otherwise you'd take 100% paid time off, get a second job, and collect two paychecks in perpetuity
Even if 100% genuine, "unlimited PTO" in no way implies PTO for any reason. It's not incompatible to offer it while at the same time having eligibility requirements and other continued employment requirements. At the most simple it merely means there isn't any set limit. A 25 year veteran who gets cancer can be treated differently then someone who just skives off to go party. The latter can just as easily be fired not for exceeding some arbitrary PTO limit, but absence from work without a listed reason in the contract, defrauding the business (if they lie about it), etc.
In practice I don't think "depending on the fuzzy discretion and good will of management/HR/whomever" is a good practical deal for employees in general vs actual hard PTO which translates to money, since at scale the incentives for the business just are not normally aligned that well and even on the employee side those who abuse it will inevitably arise as well further throwing the thing into a negative spiral. It wouldn't stun me though if someone could find a few real examples of companies that had it because they wanted to offer really good sick people more time, there are lots of ideas that depend on human factors which work very badly on average but well in instances.
>otherwise you'd take 100% paid time off, get a second job, and collect two paychecks in perpetuity
Even if 100% genuine, "unlimited PTO" in no way implies PTO for any reason. It's not incompatible to offer it while at the same time having eligibility requirements and other continued employment requirements. At the most simple it merely means there isn't any set limit. A 25 year veteran who gets cancer can be treated differently then someone who just skives off to go party. The latter can just as easily be fired not for exceeding some arbitrary PTO limit, but absence from work without a listed reason in the contract, defrauding the business (if they lie about it), etc.
In practice I don't think "depending on the fuzzy discretion and good will of management/HR/whomever" is a good practical deal for employees in general vs actual hard PTO which translates to money, since at scale the incentives for the business just are not normally aligned that well and even on the employee side those who abuse it will inevitably arise as well further throwing the thing into a negative spiral. It wouldn't stun me though if someone could find a few real examples of companies that had it because they wanted to offer really good sick people more time, there are lots of ideas that depend on human factors which work very badly on average but well in instances.