Vacation season has a funny way of stress-testing your HR operations. The PTO policy that seemed “fine” in February suddenly turns into calendar chaos, manager side chats, inconsistent approvals, and frustrated employees by June.

If you want fewer disputes, cleaner documentation, and less last-minute scrambling, this is the right time to tighten up PTO policy best practices before requests surge. And if you’re already dealing with messy carryover rules, unclear approval authority, or spreadsheet tracking, you’re not alone.