Jugstore Cowboy said:

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There is always a segment of the workforce who views sick time as extra vacation days and will burn every minute of their accruals as soon as they get it.

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When i worked in a local gov't office, there were a couple ladies who systematically burned through every minute of sick time or FMLA, and would then have to come in when they were actually sick to spread it around as much as they could. One was in HR, of course.

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I had one like this I supervised. She was a 20-year employee so her leave accrual rate was really high. She came to me one day to tell me her husband was going to be having back surgery and she would need to stay home with him for about 6 weeks. Our HR was extremely lenient on these FMLA type issues, and this woman wasn't terrible productive. If she were to be gone for 6 weeks, we could manage. The problem was that after all her tenure and high accrual she only had saved up about a week of leave. She wanted to ask for donations from the leave pool. I told her to go ahead. In fact, I think I donated about 8 hours to her. The rest of that time off she was LWOP. I wanted to feel sorry for her, but she set herself up for this.

We had a young guy recently who wanted to be off a while after his wife gave birth to their first baby.

He was asking for leave donations since he didn't have any leave due to him burning thru it. His co-workers gave him a hard time about not having any leave accrued even though he knew months in advance he would need it.

One of the reasons I've built up my 6 weeks of sick leave is just in case my wife and I have a kid. My company doesn't do any type of maternity/paternity leave and my wife damn sure isn't gonna accept that I have to go straight back to work after a birth

chrisocker said:

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What company still has separate "sick days"? No one plans on being sick. And when you are sick, there is no guaranteed timeline on when you feel well enough or are no longer contagious to the point where you can return to an office. Dumbest policy ever.

And if you're not taking your PTO days, you're doing it wrong. They're there for a reason. One thing the younger generation is getting right is the same thing the Greatest Generation enjoyed: work to make a living; don't make work your living. Ain't no eulogies ever praise how great someone was at never taking a sick day/extended vacation.

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I don't think it's about the company having sick days, but the state the employee is located in. In some states employees earn PTO but also PSL (protected sick leave). I didn't even know PSL was a thing at my company because I haven't resided in a state that has it. But once I had people reporting to me in a couple of states where they get PSL, like IL and NY, that's when I found out about it. If you have PSL available in the bank and call out, then use your PSL time, it basically doesn't count against you, it can't. I don't work in HR but the way I understand it is you can't have too many unscheduled absences as long as you have PSL available, and you code that time off as PSL, the company can't even question you whether you were sick or not.

Totally agree that you should take the time off you earn and spend it doing things that matter. I will say PTO policies at different companies can shape how you view PTO. The company I work for you can hit a ceiling and if you fail to use it before you hit that you just lose those hours, but that's pretty rare since you get notified if you're getting close. I use my PTO so I've never been close to the ceiling. At some companies you have to use it by the end of the calendar or fiscal year, and you can't carry it over to the following year. Some companies have no ceiling, it just keeps accruing as long as you work there. A friend of mine's dad was able to retire a year early because he had an entire year's worth of PTO in the bank when he decided it was time.

I have not called in sick in 20 years or more.

Most companies have put hard caps on banked leave for the reason you stated. Their accountants understand the liability of having to pay all that out when people with huge leave balances leave the company. My company caps it at 168 hours at any one time. Once you hit that the payroll software stops accruing it.

Prior to that cap of 168 hours I had banked around 400 hours. When they instituted the cap, they gave us a grace period of about 6 months to use anything over 168 or lose it. That pissed a lot of managers off who had employees like me who started burning leave like crazy and weren't at work.

We don't do sick days for the office staff. If you're sick just stay home and get better.

Vacation I think everybody gets four weeks. Personally I like giving it at the beginning of the year and you have to use it that year, but I don't think our payroll system lets us set it up that way so we do something different.

Plus we take quite a few holidays. This year we are doing 11 or 12 paid holidays which I think is a lot for a smaller company.

We've been slowly bumping up the vacation and holidays over the last few years. Plan to keep chipping away.

Burdizzo said:

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Most companies have put hard caps on banked leave for the reason you stated. Their accountants understand the liability of having to pay all that out when people with huge leave balances leave the company. My company caps it at 168 hours at any one time. Once you hit that the payroll software stops accruing it.

Prior to that cap of 168 hours I had banked around 400 hours. When they instituted the cap, they gave us a grace period of about 6 months to use anything over 168 or lose it. That pissed a lot of managers off who had employees like me who started burning leave like crazy and weren't at work.

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Personally I'd prefer for our vacation time to be use it or lose it every year (or close to it with a small amount you can carry from one year to the next). I don't think our payroll system allows us to set it up like I want so we have something similar to what you're describing where there's a cap. We are changing payroll systems this year so maybe the new one will let us do it differently.

I work for a company that doesn't have a real policy for PTO. Just get your stuff done and don't come in when you don't need to.

That said, I keep track of my days off. I've called in sick two days in the last three years. I take full advantage of vacation and other PTO, but I hardly ever take off without proper notice.

Jugstore Cowboy said:

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Quote:

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There is always a segment of the workforce who views sick time as extra vacation days and will burn every minute of their accruals as soon as they get it.

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When i worked in a local gov't office, there were a couple ladies who systematically burned through every minute of sick time or FMLA, and would then have to come in when they were actually sick to spread it around as much as they could. One was in HR, of course.

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In my past life with a gov't agency, we had a 64-hour policy. When you used up 64 hours of sick leave in a single year, every time you took sick leave after that you had to provide a doctor's note or it would be converted to vacation or LWOP. Supervisors were supposed to issue "64-hour letters" and enforce the policy, but they didn't. I developed a program where my staff would issue letters and enforce the policy. In the first year, sick leave usage dropped by about 25% and we saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. Last I heard, HR told them to shut down the program I created after I left.

Ever since our company went to unlimited PTO, the amount of hrs people take off has plummeted. Since we don't have any real guidelines, everyone is afraid of being THAT guy who takes off too much time.

6 weeks of PTO each year, but no sick days.

I've taken maybe 5 sick days throughout my career.

I don't take sick days unless I am really sick and cannot sit at my desk. Last week Monday I had some tuna and was throwing up so took half day off and slept for some 16 hours and recovered in a day. Very rare.

Usually when I don't feel good, I just take a quick nap and feel better. Yes, during the work day if I don't have any meetings. I work from home so it works out.

infinity ag said:

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I don't take sick days unless I am really sick and cannot sit at my desk. Last week Monday I had some tuna and was throwing up so took half day off and slept for some 16 hours and recovered in a day. Very rare.

Usually when I don't feel good, I just take a quick nap and feel better. Yes, during the work day if I don't have any meetings. I work from home so it works out.

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Two things people should have learned during CoVID:

- Wash your hands often

- if You're sick, it is ok to stay home from work.

cr06gis said:

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Ever since our company went to unlimited PTO, the amount of hrs people take off has plummeted. Since we don't have any real guidelines, everyone is afraid of being THAT guy who takes off too much time.

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That was the plan. But that works only in America where we work ourselves to death for corporations benefit. Europeans would love unlimited days off.

We have unlimited and in 5 months I have taken only 1 day. I am planning on taking some later this year.

what a boring discussion who cares.

I'm wary of people who say they never take sick time as they have most likely have gone into work sick. Worked with one guy like that, a workaholic who didn't like doctors. He had a fever and passed out at work. He had to get medical clearance to come back.

Burdizzo said:

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infinity ag said:

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I don't take sick days unless I am really sick and cannot sit at my desk. Last week Monday I had some tuna and was throwing up so took half day off and slept for some 16 hours and recovered in a day. Very rare.

Usually when I don't feel good, I just take a quick nap and feel better. Yes, during the work day if I don't have any meetings. I work from home so it works out.

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Two things people should have learned during CoVID:

- Wash your hands often

- if You're sick, it is ok to stay home from work.

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5-6 times a month?!? nobody is that sick

Once every four years.

February 29.

wangus12 said:

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cr06gis said:

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Ever since our company went to unlimited PTO, the amount of hrs people take off has plummeted. Since we don't have any real guidelines, everyone is afraid of being THAT guy who takes off too much time.

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Pretty sure there are known studies that shows that always happens which is why companies do it.

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I'll take all the days off! are they hiring?

cr06gis said:

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Ever since our company went to unlimited PTO, the amount of hrs people take off has plummeted. Since we don't have any real guidelines, everyone is afraid of being THAT guy who takes off too much time.

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I had five weeks, company went to "unlimited", and now we are being acquired. I think due to my seniority, I may get 2.5 weeks under the new regime.

6 weeks PTO + 10 holidays + 5 floating holidays

Good policy. Working toward something similar.

Who gets six weeks? Is it based on seniority or everybody?

PlanoAg98 said:

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6 weeks PTO + 10 holidays + 5 floating holidays

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So you're a government employee?

Man…I haven't "called in sick" in like 15 years. I have a real job that treats me like an adult.

I show up when I need to show up. I leave when I need to leave. If I need a day bc I'm not feeling well or I just have some stuff I need to get done…I just don't work that day (keeping an eye on Slack in case a fire pops up).

As long as I get my stuff done (which I do), no one bothers me.

If I need more than a couple days off, I'll let my boss know I'm gonna be out, but it's never an issue. I'm still responding to emails slacks each morning/evening. And my deliverables are always delivered on time.

Today's a perfect example. Both kids are home, wife has a bunch of meetings, so I'm on dad duty. I've done about 15 minutes of work today (responding to people during kids nap time), and that's about all I'll do. I didn't tell anyone or request PTO or "call in"…I just have my work caught up, so I'm home doing what I need to do.

Wolfpac 08 said:

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Man…I haven't "called in sick" in like 15 years. I have a real job that treats me like an adult.

I show up when I need to show up. I leave when I need to leave. If I need a day bc I'm not feeling well or I just have some stuff I need to get done…I just don't work that day (keeping an eye on Slack in case a fire pops up).

As long as I get my stuff done (which I do), no one bothers me.

If I need more than a couple days off, I'll let my boss know I'm gonna be out, but it's never an issue. I'm still responding to emails slacks each morning/evening. And my deliverables are always delivered on time.

Today's a perfect example. Both kids are home, wife has a bunch of meetings, so I'm on dad duty. I've done about 15 minutes of work today (responding to people during kids nap time), and that's about all I'll do. I didn't tell anyone or request PTO or "call in"…I just have my work caught up, so I'm home doing what I need to do.

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Well, most people are expected to at least show up every day and give the courtesy of a call if they are unexpectedly out. I think that is expected of most adults.

Wolfpac 08 said:

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Man…I haven't "called in sick" in like 15 years. I have a real job that treats me like an adult.

I show up when I need to show up. I leave when I need to leave. If I need a day bc I'm not feeling well or I just have some stuff I need to get done…I just don't work that day (keeping an eye on Slack in case a fire pops up).

As long as I get my stuff done (which I do), no one bothers me.

If I need more than a couple days off, I'll let my boss know I'm gonna be out, but it's never an issue. I'm still responding to emails slacks each morning/evening. And my deliverables are always delivered on time.

Today's a perfect example. Both kids are home, wife has a bunch of meetings, so I'm on dad duty. I've done about 15 minutes of work today (responding to people during kids nap time), and that's about all I'll do. I didn't tell anyone or request PTO or "call in"…I just have my work caught up, so I'm home doing what I need to do.

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a real job lol.

Like a doctor or pilot aren't real jobs? You think they can just not show up and 'get their work done'

Your response is pretty dense. Unless you're typically wfh or typically in and out of office (like a project manager that does site visits often) I think most office jobs and certainly any job like medical field or in front of clients/customers, have an expectation to be there, and if not without notice could cause at least some concern to coworkers and or boss.

I probably won't go in office 40 or so Fridays this year, so I won't alert anyone when I don't since it's more or less the norm. But if I didn't go in on a Monday for any reason, I def would send the text to boss 'need to wfh today'.

Smittyfubar said:

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I'm just curious, because some of the people that work here seem to average 4-6 days a month. Ridiculous. There's no way some of them have any sick days left.

Is this normal now days?

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I forgot to take most of my vacation last year. I think I probably average 1-3 days a quarter not include actually vacations

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Well, most people are expected to at least show up every day and give the courtesy of a call if they are unexpectedly out. I think that is expected of most adults.

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No, most adults are expected to get their work done without needing a boss micromanaging them and keeping tabs on them.

I haven't seen my boss in over a week and I've been in office most days for at least a few hours. But I know if I shoot him a slack or a text, I'm going to get a response and he knows it's the same with me. We have a standing meeting every couple of weeks to review ongoing projects, but those are mostly just quick catch up meetings bc we're constantly collaborating, if not in person then over slack/text/email/phone.

Hell, he called me at 2:00 today and apologized for bothering me bc he heard my kids in the background.

If you get your work done and are responsive, who cares when you are or aren't in the office?

Well, yes…obviously there are a handful of real jobs that require a strict schedule like medical or pilot…those are strict specializations that require you to be in certain places at certain times to keep schedules.

That's not the situation for most people. Most people seem to, unfortunately, be working in jobs where the concern is keeping a seat warm more than getting the job done.

You sound like a real team player.

Wolfpac 08 said:

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Well, yes…obviously there are a handful of real jobs that require a strict schedule like medical or pilot…those are strict specializations that require you to be in certain places at certain times to keep schedules.

That's not the situation for most people. Most people seem to, unfortunately, be working in jobs where the concern is keeping a seat warm more than getting the job done.

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It depends upon the situation.

This thread provides a whole, new meaning to the phrase "power take off".

I've been blessed with good health. When I retired, i had a over year of sick leave accrued.

they tacked it onto my years of service to calculate my retirement benefits.