SAVE YOUR PTO unless you are in an absolute necessary role that will not be reduced or eliminated.
Based on previous layoffs while at VZ I made it a point to max out and save my vacation and personal time year after year.
I still Took all my vacations I planned throughout the years and just combined it with weekends to minimize pto usage early on in the year so I had enough time to work my way back up to the max. My manager constantly tried to push me to use more towards the end of the year and I knew not to do that.
Thanks to that I received an extra 2+ months worth of pay in addition to severance. I strongly believe that people maxing out on vacation time year after year and having to pay out on so much vacation time was a loss to them with layoffs was the reason why the reduced the amount of hours you could max out on.
Also take your VPL!! don’t let leadership guilt trip you into not taking it they do not care! You only get that time once in your child’s life. Use it or lose it . I knew people who only took 2 weeks of VPL because they were applying for a promotion and not only did they not get the role but their leader pressured them into not taking the rest of their VPL.