Sick Days

[Calypso 464]

My husband doesn't need sick days. He leaves the house at past 10 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, comes home for lunch, resumes work around 2 p.m. and gets back home before 6 p.m. He does work from home for an hour or two on Tuesday and Friday. Weekends are free for him. He doesn't have to formally file any leave of absence even if we'd be away from town for two weeks. In a nutshell, I barely have an idea about his company's policy regarding sick days. He goes to work when he wants to. I asked him why and he said that he could finish a week's work in a few hours (he is an engineering manager).

On the other hand, in my second year as a high school teacher in the Philippines, the institution gave me the award "Perfect Attendance and Punctuality" at the end of the academic year. We had no sick pay. I woke up between 3:30 and 5 a.m. to bathe and be in school before 7 a.m. We were to leave school after 5 p.m. There was no pay for holidays or overtime. The administrators would just tell us to work "in the name of service." I quit after two years of teaching and will never take that road again.

I am basically freelancing right now.

[_Simpson_ 250]

Me being a brain surgeon doesnt really give me that option. If I even think I might be getting sick I have to take the day off.

[chri'stina 190]

PTO's make more sense than giving a set amount of sick days, IMO.

I agree because my husband hardly ever seems to get sick. He was able to use PTO at a past job for mostly just vacation. Now he has the separate sick and vacation days. What's irritating to me about some of the working world is that they offer you sick and vacation days, yet act weird when you want to use them. I never had a job with the level of benefits my husband has.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Do you take them? How often?

My office culture is pretty much "as long as you get your stuff done, we don't care if you're here or not". I don't hesitate to work from home if I think I'm coming down with something. Very rarely do I take a sick day and not even telecommute for at least half of it.

I know other people are of the "take some sudafed and suck it up" mindset. These are the people that come to the office and get the rest of us sick.

I am one of them people so if I am sick and come to work then stay away from me. At least when I was a corporate suit back then.

[jodee 30]

I get 16 days of vacation, 16 days of sick time, 4 Personal leave days, and 4 Personal holidays. Whats the difference? I don't really know to be honest, other than which ones you can cash out at the end of the fiscal year, and which ones you can carry and or lose.

As to slim's statement, I guess it is determined by the nature of your job.

Can I ask what indistry you are in.

At home in Oz,...We got 4 weeks annual leave, and 10 sick days per year, as well as 10 carers day ( for sick kids etc.). I was in finance then.

We could accrue leave too...no worries at all

[BishopM 114]

We don't have 'sick' days, just a pool of PTO (paid time off) days of which I can only carry over 10 per calendar year. I get 25 total per years so I do have enough to "call in sick" whenever I don't feel like working.

You win, I only get 20

Anyways, all my hours are billable to the client so my company is a real hardass (rightfully so) about watching sick time.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Can I ask what indistry you are in.

At home in Oz,...We got 4 weeks annual leave, and 10 sick days per year, as well as 10 carers day ( for sick kids etc.). I was in finance then.

We could accrue leave too...no worries at all

I work in law enforcement.

[Laveau 67]

I agree because my husband hardly ever seems to get sick. He was able to use PTO at a past job for mostly just vacation. Now he has the separate sick and vacation days. What's irritating to me about some of the working world is that they offer you sick and vacation days, yet act weird when you want to use them. I never had a job with the level of benefits my husband has

What does your husband do?

[Minya's wife 24]

We have PTO now as well, since about 5 years ago. It depends on years of service, but I accrue 15.4 hours each month...23 days a year. We also get about 8-9 days off for federal holidays and 3 days which go directly into an "extended" illness bank. You an access the extended illness bank, by first taking 16 hours of PTO time. (I think you also must have a doctor's note after you return.) There is also a certain amount of days that are allowed to carry over....not sure what the cap is though because I've never had too many days left over at the end of the year. If we do not plan on going to visit family I use the PTO a day or two as needed/wanted, but on those years that we do go overseas to visit family, I usually limit my days off and save them to be able to take 3-4 weeks at a time. Our vacation in August (18 work days) was completely covered by my time off, so it was nice to still be getting a paycheck while I was on vacation. It took a while to get used to the PTO when my company first changed, but now I see the benefits of it.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Minya's wife

[chri'stina 190]

What does your husband do?

He does software programming stuff.

[thongd4me 69]

I agree because my husband hardly ever seems to get sick.

He was able to use PTO at a past job for mostly just vacation.

Now he has the separate sick and vacation days.

What's irritating to me about some of the working world is

that they offer you sick and vacation days,

yet act weird when you want to use them.

I never had a job with the level of benefits my husband has.

That's "par" for the corporate culture; even though the benefits

are above-board entitlements, they are treated by management

as liabilities because they represent "down time."

Those that work for government, governmental organizations,

ngo's or non-profits usually don't have that problem.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

My PTO Rolls over at my current job so I like to bank it. But I don't get sick that often. I have called out twice in 10 years. It's lost pay one way or another so I don't like to miss work. I schedule appointments and vacation so it I do take time off.

[^_^ 5,021]

It's lost pay one way or another ...

How so?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

How so?

In the past when I was a contractor. ... A sick day = no pay

Now ... A sick day uses PTO so that's fewer hours I can cash out at the end of the year = less $$ in my pocket.

I can't cash out vacation but I can with PTO. Fwiw I can roll over PTO to vacation.

[milimelo 4,476]

No limit on the sick days but I've seen couple of people reprimanded for taking too many without notifying supervisors. Also reprimanded was the person who conveniently always gets sick on Fridays (busiest day of week) ...

I haven't taken too many this year - maybe 4 over the past 12 months. Of course, once you're past the 5 days you go on short term disability leave.

Vacation time is 2 weeks below 2 yrs of service and 21 days over. Can be taken in the next year. 6 paid federal holidays and usually offices are closed from 12/24 until 1/3 - we have to take 2 vacation days for this and the company gave us two extra holidays this year.