sick days at work?

[bigmike]

I get 12 sick days per year with carry-over. Same as vacation. After 5 years, it goes up to 15 and 15.

More than 5 consecutive days requires a Dr. note.

I don't feel guilty. If they paid me more, I would, but otherwise I see it as a benefit. We also use sick leave for regular Dr. appointments. They allow you to take the entire day for an appointment as well, if you feel it is needed.

 

[kb01]

I get 5 sick days a year and usually use all of them. It seems like we always have a sick child or a kid who needs to go to the dentist or doctor. I'll go to work when I'm ill but there isn't much we can do if a child is too sick for school or day care.

 

[rjundi]

When I worked in an office we worked in closer quarters which worked real well on our collaboration. I would send the sick ones home or banish them to the conference room.

I don't see the reason to be a hero and show up.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
When I worked in an office we worked in closer quarters which worked real well on our collaboration. I would send the sick ones home or banish them to the conference room.

I don't see the reason to be a hero and show up.


Agree. If one is coughing & sneezing all over the place, don't be a hero, stay home and don't give it to everyone else.

Your employer, and everyone else will thank you for thinking of them first.

 

[PandaBear]

If you are staying home because you are sick, you shouldn't feel bad about it. Spreading things around to your coworkers will reduce the overall productivity of the team and make you the person to blame.

I hate it when I got sick because someone want to feel less guilty and disregard actually being guilty of the consequence of spreading a flu around.

 

[opus1]

PTO = scam IMHO. It's a way for the company to say "look how much time we give you" when you're really not better off.

Case in point, my employer. When we had sick/vacation time, a new hire received 10 days of each, and your sick time could be "banked" up to a maximum of 50 days. Once I hit 40 days, I started using sick days for doctor visits, with management's knowledge and blessing.

Now we're on PTO, and a new hire gets 18 days. So off the bat, you've lost 2 days, and the most your bank can hold is 10 days. So you can try to plan for a so-called rainy day and bank time, but not too much.

I've worked in 2 places that gave you unlimited(*) sick time, the disclaimer being that if you were stupid about it, you'd invite attention from HR. One place was truly unlimited, but after 5 consecutive days you had to visit the company doctor with a note from your doctor before you were cleared to come back
and the other had "events". If you were hung-over on Monday and called off, that was an event. If you had the flu and were out for 7 days, that was "event". 3 events and HR got involved.

 

[3311]

I'm self employed. No such thing as paid sick days. And PTO what the heck is that?

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: opus1
PTO = scam IMHO. It's a way for the company to say "look how much time we give you" when you're really not better off.


It is one of the ways they use to pay you less. This + a few other cheapskate moves by my former employer's attempt make up my decision to leave them. They were wondering why one of their team has a turn over rate of an entire team within 2 years, go figure.

Example: announcing that stock options would be switched to restricted stock unit in general meeting, then oh they forgot to tell us that only senior manager and above would get 100%, and gradually reduced to none at entry level. Causing a riot in the HR meeting for the HR staff to deal with.

 

[Dave Hess]

I get 4 weeks paid vacation, plus another paid 5 days of a 'floating holiday' in which I can choose the day(s) off.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

I worked at a job tht had 8 weeks vacation per year. Back in 2001, with accrued PTO and comp days, I only worked one full week from Jan thru mid July.

Progress had patience there.

 

[3311]

No wonder why we don't build much here the US anymore, you people never work!

I get 2-4 days of a month and maybe a 3 day weekend twice per year (holidays) a year . I did take 5 days and go to Europe 6 years ago though.

 

[crinkles]

just watching viva las vegas with elvis on my 2nd day off... what a guy!

 

[65cuda]

We get 80 hours sick time, but after the third day you have to have a Dr. slip and have called in. Vacation builds from one week the first year up to four weeks I think after 20. Of course it can be more if you work more overtime. For me I don't use sick leave time because if I don't I get paid for it at 150%. So if I do get sick, and it is rare, I just use vacation time.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: 3311
No wonder why we don't build much here the US anymore, you people never work!

Only some of us. I only had 10 days of time off + sick days at one point, and unpaid overtime. If anything I ended up only using about 4 of them per year and the rest sort of turn into cash when I quit.

It is not really a union or non union thing, it is really industry specific. Many people are paid salary and are responsibility based so they are always working as long as what they are responsible for is in trouble. Some employers take advantage of that but they compensate with stocks and bonus.

Some bosses would tell their overworked employees to take time off on companies dime without putting it in the system, because they are already overworked and deserve a break. I'm luckily (and unfortunately) working for these kind of bosses at the moment.

 

[Mark72]

I work for a large insurance company and I have 180 sick days right now…4 weeks vacation per/year and 3 personal days per year. I’ve been tempted to break my fingers so I can have some time off 

 

[IndyIan]

I accumulate sick time at 2 days a month, which accumulates year by year but has no benefit unless I get really really sick and need months off.
I don't feel bad using sick days when I'm sick, usually I'm not behind the 8-ball on deadlines so a day or two once in a while isn't affecting our organization.
So far I only get 3 weeks of vacation where I can choose my time off and I get a week between Christmas and New Years.

It seems like some employers here, really want to make sure their employees don't like them very much?

 

[opus1]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
....It is one of the ways they use to pay you less. This + a few other cheapskate moves by my former employer's....


Yup. My other favorite move was one employer that offered health insurance to its employees with no premium, and you only had to pay if you wanted better coverage for your self, or if you wanted family coverage. Then they changed to "everyone pays but it's pre-tax money!!!!" scheme. My married supervisor had a staff of mostly single people and had to explain this "benefit" to us, and I went back and forth with him for about 5 minutes in a staff meeting, him arguing how this was a good thing for us because it cuts down on our taxes, me arguing that I (and the rest of us singles) am now paying for something I didn't have to before, so pre- or post-tax is moot -- I'm taking a pay cut.

I'll bet he's glad I've moved on....

 

[01rangerxl]

No, I wouldn't feel guilty about sick days if I needed them.

I rarely take a day off or a sick day though. I always go to work. Mostly my motivation is to not fall behind though. I work in a very time sensitive industry, so missing work always means playing catch up for me.

 

[wander2039]

Yeah I feel guilty sorta when I have to take either vacation or sick time. I have decent bosses and a few good coworkers so I hate putting extra burden on them. But as far as my employer concerned I don't for a couple reasons won't go into. I get almost 8 hours of vacation and 2-3 hours of sick time each paycheck. Almost 200 hours of PTO and 80 of STO. Saving up most of that for when the boy gets here in August. Part of that will be FTO which I get a week or two without touching either PTO/STO. And with our schedule we truly only work 15 days a month or 6 months a year. Figure in everything it's only 5 months a year if you use any PTO. Dang maybe it isn't so bad after all!

 

[65cuda]

Actually I think that people are hurting themselves and probably the company by not taking time off, especially when sick. If you are sick you are probably going to make some of the others sick also and you aren't as productive. Also you are more likely to make mistakes and take longer to get well. Some employers now require you to take vacation time and they are finding out that a company is better off having their employees take time off and get away from things. Then come back recharged and ready for work. I'm not a very good example since I don't take much time off either for sick or vacation, but I sure as heck don't get a guilt feeling for doing it.