Sick Days

shep

Alright, so I'm home today nursing a legitimate flu... I woke up yesterday with a touch of a stuffy head, by noon yesterday I could barely breathe, but I suffered out the day, however, when I woke up this morning I rolled over and went back to bed, knowing full well work would be hell...

I have a laptop which I take home every night... I just got up at about 10, doing a couple of minor chores around the house (just because I have OCD and can't sit still in bed all day knowing there's chores to be done)... and I'm about to open up the laptop and start working from home....

I've got a couple of questions/thoughts on sick days that have been bugging me for a while.... this is only the 2nd sick day I've used in the last 5 years, and both of them were for legitimate sick causes... I get 80 hours of sick time a year (without the ability to bank it)....

When people are home sick, do you usually take it upon yourselves to work from home?

When you take sick days, are you legitimately sick? or are you "sick"?

if you got 80 hours of sick time every year, with no banking, would you attempt to use all of it every year?

I guess I'm a young guy who's a little old-school... but I believe in taking sick days when you are legitimately sick - sick days are not extra "vacation" days to use as you please... I see a lot of young professionals my age doing this, and it bugs the shit out of me....

thoughts?

Just wondering what some other people's thoughts are on this...

81

we ditched sick time a couple of years ago and went to pure PTO.

i can't remember the last time i took a sick day while actually being sick. i've taken a handful of mental health days over the years.

F Me In The Brain

We dont have sick days either, all days off are considered 'flex days'

Been with the company 7 1/2 years, never used a sick day.

Pretty effective policy!

peacefrompaul

I take them every week in college.

BinauralJam

We get 5 sick days a year, but if you don't take them you get paid for them at the end., before it change to this i took every sick day available every year.

rival.

that's a crap ton of sick hours that you can't bank in on at the end of the year. what is your PTO situation like? if you don't have many days, i would consider pulling a ferris bueller and using a couple sick days when you just need a day. that is two weeks a year you techically can use, that you aren't.

it's almost as if your company is dangling those days in front of everyone's face and hoping that everyone is going to use them when they are legitimately sick (like you).

my company has gone to strictly PTO days. but back when we had sick days along with PTO, we were able to bank in the 40 hours come december. they were really pretty lenient on what qualified as a sick and PTO day. days in which i was sick, i was able to swindle a PTO day and not a sick day, so come december i am still getting a check for 40 hours, not 32. i looked at that check as a little christmas bonus.

RKCNDY

Do you get paid for the 80 hours at the end of the year?

I had paid sick time, and 'floating holidays' FH were to be used for days that we wanted off, but weren't automatically paid, like the day after turkey day, Hanukkah, etc.

Depending on how my company treats me is dependent on how I use my sick days.

rick1zoo2

I stay home and work when I am sick.

Mamasan23

rick1zoo2 wrote:

I stay home and work when I am sick.

Same here. My boss loves to call me all day when I'm sick with last minute 'priorities' :fp:

rick1zoo2

Mamasan23 wrote:

rick1zoo2 wrote:

I stay home and work when I am sick.

Same here. My boss loves to call me all day when I'm sick with last minute 'priorities' :fp:

my boss is very good about those kind of things - leaving for appointments and kids' stuff, etc. she knows I'll get everything done.

now the ex, when I was sick, her sympathy didn't last too long - after a few hours of me dying on the sofa she woud say "um, how long are you going to be sick? you're still going to make dinner right?"

lukin2006

Get 11 a year ... used to be more than that and bankable, so you had to accumulate them over the years ... if you were off long term. If you did not have enough accumulated for the time off you needed ... you were placed on a very shitty short disability leave with no benefits.

The new plan is 11 days at 100 % and any days after that at 66% or 90% ... the 90 is if your off for serious medical issues. The new plan is much better. I do plan on using my 11 at 100% yearly. I've never taken 4 or 5 days off before in any year but just over the last little while the employer has become real douchy and made some ridiculous changes to our work hours because of a few bad apples ... but instead of the supervisors doing their job and getting these bad apples they're fucking everyone else :fp:.

Use your sick days if you got them ... employers anymore don't give a rats ass about their employees.

shep

I get 120 hours of PTO a year... however I had to fight for this when I joined the company. I was leaving a place where I had 120 hours PTO and I told the place I'm at now I wasn't coming over without it. Their policy for someone with my level of experience was 80 hours PTO.

I've had the discussion with HR, as earlier the year I passed the experience point where me 80 hours would have become 120, however they told me my 120 would not become 160, and were shocked that I had actually negotiated 120 when I signed on (new HR people).

The 80 hours of sick time I get just disappears at the end of the year - no payout, no banking. Next year I get a fresh 80 hours...

Company policy is if you take more than 2 days off in a row you're supposed to return with a doctors note - however I am an engineer, and since we're considered professionals, they usually don't subject us to that crap... I personally don't trust doctors since I've known people who have become them, and I like to let my immune system fight off the common cold/flu on it's own, so I probably wouldn't return with a note....

I used to have floating holidays, but they took those away when we were bought out circa 2011... now they just dump a pile of stat holidays at christmas time because most people are taking that off anyway...

I dunno... i've been more inclined to use the "sick" days as vacation days as of late, since when I take vacation I am usually going to Canada and I lose a day each way to travel to and from.... that's really rough when you only have 15 days vacation in a year....

81

shep wrote:

I get 120 hours of PTO a year... however I had to fight for this when I joined the company. I was leaving a place where I had 120 hours PTO and I told the place I'm at now I wasn't coming over without it. Their policy for someone with my level of experience was 80 hours PTO.

I've had the discussion with HR, as earlier the year I passed the experience point where me 80 hours would have become 120, however they told me my 120 would not become 160, and were shocked that I had actually negotiated 120 when I signed on (new HR people).

smart for getting the extra time off. if and when i move on, i'm doing the same thing.

RKCNDY

shep wrote:

The 80 hours of sick time I get just disappears at the end of the year - no payout, no banking. Next year I get a fresh 80 hours...

good lord! :fp:

the company is paying you to go away...USE THEM!

We would get a reminder around September, "if you have not used your FH, then please use them as soon as possible as they do not roll over, and you do not get paid for them" as in 'use it or lose it'.

your 80 hours works out to about 1 'mental health day' a month. I usually use them for a Friday and get a 3 day weekend, or add it to a Monday from a 3 day weekend to get 4 days off.

supadupa

At my current job, I absolutely do not work from home when I take a sick day. At most I'll respond to a text or two from the office. My employees are pretty good about leaving me alone.

At my last job I worked for horrible people, so I was forced to work from home when sick. I sort of had my revenge when I happened to come down with strep throat after I had given notice there, and I took a full week off work to recover. I didn't respond to a single call or email from my bosses. It felt so damn good.

Indifference71

My company is straight up PTO now which is nice. We used to have 6 sick days per year that we couldn't bank or carry over and you bet your ass that I was "sick" 6 times per year. It generally fell on a Monday or Friday.

SPEEDY MCCREADY

0 sick days
No paid time off other than vacation time.

New hires?
As of last year they receive 1 week vacation after a year.
2 weeks after 2 years.
And thats that.
They will NEVER get more than 2 weeks vacation.

2 weeks vacation
No sick days
No PTO

Its a glorious life I lead.
:P :P :P :P

In 2 more years I will have 4 weeks vacation.
And thats that.

Poncier

rick1zoo2 wrote:

now the ex, when I was sick, her sympathy didn't last too long - after a few hours of me dying on the sofa she woud say "um, how long are you going to be sick? you're still going to make dinner right?"

She sounds like a real peach, how'd you let her get away?

shep

RKCNDY wrote:

shep wrote:

The 80 hours of sick time I get just disappears at the end of the year - no payout, no banking. Next year I get a fresh 80 hours...

good lord! :fp:

the company is paying you to go away...USE THEM!

We would get a reminder around September, "if you have not used your FH, then please use them as soon as possible as they do not roll over, and you do not get paid for them" as in 'use it or lose it'.

your 80 hours works out to about 1 'mental health day' a month. I usually use them for a Friday and get a 3 day weekend, or add it to a Monday from a 3 day weekend to get 4 days off.

80 hours is actually significantly more than that if I use them on a friday...

we do flex time - the options are 8 hours x 5 days or 9 hours x 4 days and a 4 hour day on friday...

however my days monday to thrusday are more like 10-11 hours and on friday I do 5 hours.... so much work to be done and not enough people to do it...

this is why i feel so guilty taking sick days... my department is terribly understaffed and management knows it. they like to say we operate "lean"... ... there is a never ending backlog of work on my desk.... lately I've had it with the policy and started saying "it'll still be there tomorrow"....

supadupa wrote:

At my current job, I absolutely do not work from home when I take a sick day. At most I'll respond to a text or two from the office. My employees are pretty good about leaving me alone.

At my last job I worked for horrible people, so I was forced to work from home when sick. I sort of had my revenge when I happened to come down with strep throat after I had given notice there, and I took a full week off work to recover. I didn't respond to a single call or email from my bosses. It felt so damn good.

everyone at work is usually pretty good about leaving me alone (or at least in this 2nd day off they have been ).... i just have so much to do and not enough time to do it, I feel like I should be working... it's a terrible feeling...

Nami

lol i get 10 days a year plus 4 weeks vacation- going on 15yrs with same company.

I use to take one a month till they ran out, but over the last year or so, i only take one every couple of months.

fuck it anyways... they don't care about you... only their bottom line.

Plus its a sick day, your company can do without you for one day, stop working people.

jbarbian

As a teacher in my district (15 years & masters degree) we get 10 sick days a school year, one paid PTO, one unpaid PTO. The sick days used to be able to roll over to 120 days, but new employee handbook caps them at 60 days.

When my children were little and would get sick I would use 5-8 days a year. Now I only use 2-3, mostly mental health, and I always end up working at home. I teach Special Ed and the paperwork is ridiculous, plus I usually end up on the phone with the school trying to calm down one of my students (they can never deal with subs).

The district investigates sick days taken on Fridays or Mondays or near a holiday break. I've only used PTO twice, trip to Europe, and moving my daughter into college. Thinking about using them next fall again when the Badgers play ASU (family trip, my son attends ASU).

All in all it works for me, haven't been sick much and now days this seems to be a pretty generous package.