What you are describing is 'no guaranteed PTO - everything is at the whim of your manager' which is a far cry from the 'unlimited PTO' narrative the employer is pushing. Calling it unlimited if it comes with limits is disingenuous and likely to cause anger and resentment as we can see here.
So you mean 'no defined limit but definitely not unlimited' or do you mean 'unlimited except with the following limitations'?
You don't have a great argument.
That's called transfer pricing and is essentially illegal in almost every jurisdiction. There are of course plenty of loopholes and ways around it and large companies such as Apple spend a fortune with the big 4 accounting firms to take advantage of every such loophole.
I am in Australia and we have had contactless payments for years. Apple Pay with an iPhone was more trouble than using a card. On the other hand since I got my Apple Watch I haven't carried credit cards with me. It started out as a 1 month experiment to see if I could survive and it has never been a problem.
I don't think you understand your "really qualified audience" very well if you thought a coordinated marketing campaign with all the other "chosen" launch partners was a good idea.
I remember a long time ago there was a team that needed some very expensive hardware from sun (think several 100k).
The manager of the group could NOT get approval for the equipment. It was a massive technicality as another department was supposed to buy setup and "run" the equipment and they refused for a number of reasons.
The manager in question figured out that he could sign a PO up to $7000. A large number of PO's later the server was to be delivered.
This, to say the least, was going to be a bigger problem. Though a space had been secured for it (in a server room no less) getting it into the building was going to be an issue.
They ended up bringing it in on a weekend, only to find the freight elevator locked, and the rack it came in unable to fit in the normal elevator for people.
The manager, his team, the sun sales man and the delivery driver took the whole thing to bits in the lobby. There were parts EVERYWHERE and a rather bemused security guard who was baffled as to why this was happening this way.
It all turned out fine in the end, the manager wasn't fired (promoted in fact), the salesman got his commission, and the team got the equipment they needed.
If I were a betting man that driver was a union guy and ended up with time and 1/2 for the insanity on a saturday!
I tried this on my first trip to 60 Hudson (a "famous" carrier hotel in Manhattan). We needed to remove a Cisco 2600 router. It's smaller than a pizza box. It fits in a backpack. I carried it under my arm.
As I step out of the elevator and into the lobby, the front desk person goes "you can't remove that equipment".
No worries, I anticipated this and have all the relevant removal paperwork. He is uninterested.
"you can't remove equipment using the passenger elevators"
But, I am in the lobby. The door is less than 20 steps. I already rode the elevator down.
"you must use the freight elevator. that is the law."
OK, I'll go back upstairs and use the freight elevator. Where is it?
"you can't operate it. you need an elevator operator"
OK, where should I wait for them? can you call one for me?
At this point, let me tell you it is Easter weekend.
"they do not work weekends, and it is a holiday weekend. they are $160/hr, minimum 4 hours, and it is double time on the weekend, plus time and a half for holidays"
OK, I'll just put it back. This piece of equipment is barely worth $400. Then I proceeded to go up the elevator, back to the datacenter, go inside, put the router in my backpack, and go back out.
And at the lobby was one of NYC finest, with one of the security people, who kindly asked me what was in my backpack. Then asked to search it. Do you have a warrant?
"I don't need a warrant. I'll just take you down to the precinct and open it there. You sure you don't have any weed in there, Mr. California?"
I went back up, put the router in the cage, went back downstairs, and used every ounce in my body not to flip the building security and his cop buddy the bird, akimbo style.
Man, every time I get annoyed by something in Chicago, New York steps in to make me feel better.
What does the guy at the front care anyways? Do the union guys pass him a $50 every time they cajole somebody in to using the freight elevator for something stupid?
I probably would have just waited till the cop left, went to the nearest shipping store, bought a box, put 5 bucks in postage on it, and addressed it to myself. Now they can't open it without exigent circumstances or a warrant.
I'm not a lawyer, so don't take this as legal advice or anything, but it's probably the next best thing to giving them the finger.
