How do you guys use your sick leave?

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

So I figured my new job would give me 2 weeks of vacation time because I'm a new grad... and what place gives you more anyways? I wasn't hoping for much although my mom highlighted a part in my contract mentioning sick leave. I figured that meant crap because most engineering companies and modern tech companies incorporate PTO meaning it's all lumped into one. Cuz honestly, you don't want people taking random sick days off for the sake of using them up (I had a teacher who would be sick for extended amounts of time before she retired... yeah hooray for our broken school systems still not on a PTO concept). Well anyways I was extremely surprised when I talked to HR and asked about sick leave. 6 days a year. It's not much, but hey it's their fault for incorporating it. If people abuse it, that's not my loss.

Do you always use it for legitimate reasons? Or is it better to dip into your vacation days? Or should I be the goody goody and never use it because honestly, I rarely get sick and I've never been sick enough to miss a day of school except one day in 7th grade when I got stomach flu (I don't think its wise to show up to school when you're throwing up every few hours)... but all other sickness I've dealt with while in school.

So what's your take on it? My parents really want me to go back to Asia with them in the winter because it's something we've been doing for the past 10 - 11 years. My grandparents are old enough where they can't fly over anymore, and so it is crucial for us to go visit. My mom clearly has more vacation days and so she has no problem flying there for a typical 2 week visit or so and especially when her company pretty much shuts down during the holiday season it works out quite well. I figured I could probably afford a week's vacation at most, but that would cut severely into my vacation time, especially when I want to create a long weekend here or there. Is this where sick days come into use? Hah JK, I wouldn't ever do that....

 

[Jeff7181]

Ever wake up with a stomachache or headache? Sick day.

 

[JohnCU]

i use vacation days for hangovers, i don't feel right otherwise (ethically). if im' really sick i will use sick days though. better to use a sickday than to infect the rest of the group.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: JohnCU
i use vacation days for hangovers, i don't feel right otherwise (ethically). if im' really sick i will use sick days though. better to use a sickday than to infect the rest of the group.

Go to work for a corporation and you'll be tempted to use a sick day just because you're in a bad mood. Call it a mental health day.

 

[dighn]

I've been tempted to use sick days for non-illness reasons but so far I've resisted. That's not to say I haven't used any. If I get a bad migraine or the flu I'll use it.

 

[PrinceofWands]

I seldom have more than 2 sick/personal days at a time, and I never let vacation weeks last more than a month before taking them. It's far too likely the job will be gone and take my time with it, so I use it as I get it. Of course, I have a whopping 2 hours a month sick/personal and 20 hours a year vacation, so it's not like I have a lot to go through.

If I happen to have some when I'm sick I'll use it for that, but since it's lumped in with personal I don't feel bad about taking it just because. Even if it wasn't I'd take it just because.

 

[QTPie]

I've found myself to be sick mostly on Friday or Monday (Wed is also a good day to be sick). My manager also prefers us to let him know in advance when we will be sick. lol

 

[Goosemaster]

I save leave for special occasions and wouldn't waste it on a cold.

<---personal day today to see Steve miller and Joe Cocker

 

[dmw16]

I don't get sick days.

 

[alkemyst]

I use sick days for sick purposes. Some use them for vacations.

We used to have a policy that gave us 6 sick occurances. Each occurance was 5 business days (then short term disability could kick in)...

A significantly high population used all 30 days each year. Some had been with the company several years.

Once the policy was changed to 6 sick days. Those same people miraculously became much healthier. Unfortunately I think all are now working some place else.

This is why many companies are requiring you to provide a doctor's note (the last thing I want to go out and get when I am sick) to be paid for a sick day. We have not started this policy.

 

[kranky]

Here's the thing with sick days. If you are in a job where it causes problems when you are a sudden no-show, and if your boss doesn't like people using sick days as extra vacation days, you can end up screwing yourself.

When we have people working at a customer site for a few weeks, calling in sick is a problem since they can't do what they were supposed to do with someone out. Customers don't like that. We have to try to find someone else to cover, which rarely works out.

We have some managers who get irritated when new employees play the sick day game on Mondays/Fridays. They don't say anything about it, but it hurts the employee's reputation in the company. Other managers don't really care.

I would think in an office-based engineering job, no one would mind a whole lot if you called off sick.

 

[alkemyst]

Yeah the monday/friday crowd really kills themself esp at review. Almost all companies do attendance tracking.

We had an asshat that we all could predict his sick days as those were always days he made everyone promises to do something out of the ordinary on. It would be something like 'hey monday I am getting breakfast for everyone...what do you want?'

You knew your order would never come, even on the following day. We don't think he realized everyone knew his game.

 

[GeekDrew]

I personally use my sick time for.... sickness. Granted, there are some times that I've used sick leave and I could truly have worked -- but if I'm not feeling well, and I have sick time that I can use, and particularly if the illness could be contagious, why not take a day or two off?

I get two weeks of vacation time per year. I rarely use it all in the year that I accumulate it, but I tend to take time off in units of 4 or 5 days, so it's easier if I plan way ahead.

 

[sjwaste]

I've worked in the past for a company that gave separate sick and vacation leave. I was much more likely in that setup to take a questionable sick day. Not "I'm going drinking" sick days, but the kind where I would wake up with a really bad cold or something like that, I'd take the day and recover. The kicker with this company is that they didn't let parents use their sick days to stay home with their sick kids, which a lot of places let you do. I don't have kids, but folks were salty about that.

I work at a PTO company now. Because the time is all mine to divide up as to how I want to use it, I'm now much more likely to go to work sick, or questionably sick. After all, don't want to blow a vacation day laying in bed! However, with the parent/sick kid thing, people complain about PTO because they have to blow vacation to stay home with a sick kid.

I think neither system is perfect. With separate leave pools, people will take "mental health days" or use them as vacation, but with PTO, they'll come in sick and make everyone else around them sick. All I know is that the PTO I get now is 5 days more than my combined sick and vacation at my last job, so I'm happy.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
So I figured my new job would give me 2 weeks of vacation time because I'm a new grad... and what place gives you more anyways?

I got 3 weeks.

 

[RKS]

We have sick days with occurances and seperate vacation days. Since I work for a large organizations that couldn't care less about their employees, I show the same regard for my employers. If I'm sick of working, I call in. Since this is my last week there I am using as much sick time as possible.

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
I use sick days for sick purposes. Some use them for vacations.

We used to have a policy that gave us 6 sick occurances. Each occurance was 5 business days (then short term disability could kick in)...

A significantly high population used all 30 days each year. Some had been with the company several years.

Once the policy was changed to 6 sick days. Those same people miraculously became much healthier. Unfortunately I think all are now working some place else.

This is why many companies are requiring you to provide a doctor's note (the last thing I want to go out and get when I am sick) to be paid for a sick day. We have not started this policy.

Illegal. (At least in my state it is).

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Ever wake up with a stomachache or headache? Sick day.

Do not come in sick. I did when I first started out and people got pissed because tehy could get sick from me.

6 days seems like very few days. Most companies will give more than that but frown upon more than say 5 days of sick days.

And remember that your mental health is also important. You don't necessarily have to be coughing to be sick.

 

[JulesMaximus]

PTO, it's either scheduled (vacation) or unscheduled (sick).

 

[bignateyk]

I usually use them pretty legitimately. I figure karma would catch up with me eventually and nail me with some sort of illness where i actually needed it.

I get 5 weeks of vacation + 2 weeks of holidays on top of my 2 weeks of sick leave though.

If I have a doctors appointment I will usually take a half day of sick leave. If i'm hungover i'll take an hour or two in the morning. All in all, I probably only use about 3 or 4 days worth a year though.

 

[paulxcook]

It's been a while, probably over a year, since I used a sick day, and that was because I was vomiting and had a terrible headache. I rarely get sick and my job isn't bad so unless I'm taking vacation I go to work. I find I don't like the kind of person that used sick leave as vacation.

 

[ggnl]

We have separate sick/vacation time here. I use all my vacation hours before they expire, but I've used maybe 5 sick days in the past 2 years. Sicks days don't expire here though, and if I ever come down with a long term illness I'll get paid for medical leave as long as I have the hours left.

 

[JSSheridan]

40% of all sick days are taken on Monday or Friday.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

vacation

all my PTO is in a single bucket though. if i do get sick i use it, but i think i have only needed to skip work from sickness a couple days in the past few years. big thanks to AT member crusty for infecting everyone on the vegas trip! bastard. haaha

 

[Capt Caveman]

I only use sick days for when I'm actually sick. Any company that I worked for, frowned on people using sick days besides when they were sick.