My company offers 3 days of unjustified sick leave for things like colds or minor health issues that don’t really require seeing a doctor.
And sure enough, that guy - always that guy - got sick on Monday, then took a day off on Thursday, and now he’s sick again on Friday. Strangely, his company car reports being at a ski resort 200 miles away.
Because you know, when you’re bedridden, at least you should have a nice view out the window…
This is one of those things that just don’t make sense to me as a german. I can call in sick and if I’m able to show up in the fourth day again, then I don’t need to see a doctor at all. And the ‘sick days’ I get are infinite by law, although afaik the company can require medical attestation if I’m sick too often in order to prevent abuse.
In the US, there is no law or regulation. It’s decided company by company. We usually distinguish between vacation days and sick days, and the number of hours for each accumulate throughout the year based on the number of hours worked, with more senior employees having a higher ratio (meaning they accumulate hours faster). The total number of hours are generally capped (eg, they can’t go above 240), but they do carry over year to year. Some companies (and I believe this is required in some states, like California) must pay out the remaining vacation hours when the employee leaves the company, so that if you leave with 120 hours of vacation on the books, you get three weeks vacation pay in addition to any additional severance package. That does not hold for accumulated sick leave. These are both considered “paid time off” (PTO) because employees are paid their salary/hourly pay. When I left my last position, I did so with 240 hours of vacation that they had to pay out, which was in addition to my hiring bonus and moving allowance at my new employer. It came in handy.
Other companies do what’s called “unlimited paid time off.” This means there’s no pre-existing cap and that vacation and sick time get bundled together. It’s all at the manager’s discretion. Depending on the company, though, it can be a disadvantage. Corporate culture can be such that people are discouraged from taking time off, and there’s no vacation pay out if you leave, because you don’t have set hours on the books. Americans in general take long weekend or week-long vacations, sometimes up to two weeks. Depending on the role (and the nature of the vacation), they’ll still work some hours, because that’s often the cultural expectation.
The worst jobs - and this means the majority of service jobs - allow for either zero PTO hours, or will routinely deny employee requests to use them. The above applies to corporate jobs (eg engineers and designers), union jobs, and government work. The person making your pizza or telling you where the shoe department is probably doesn’t get those “benefits,” and if they do, they have to jump through a ridiculous number of hoops (including facing the wrath of their manager) to exercise them.
I’d like the US to have legislation to force minimum levels of PTO, and I’d like to have the culture change so one can say “I’m going to be in Greece for four weeks but will call you when I get back” rather than saying “I have stage three liver cancer and will be getting my organs replaced but I can make the meeting at ten.”
For lower paying jobs there’s usually no distinction - sick and vacation days are lumped into “PTO” (paid time off) and you’re lucky to get 2 weeks worth a year - usually by earning one every X days or just all at once time once a year.
Places often have an attendance “points system” as well where any absences not pre-approved chat you a point a day and after 5 or something you’re fired. If you’re lucky an excused (doctor note) will count the whole absence as only one point. You can only regain points after X days without an unexcused absence, or using some other metric. Often being late by some amount also costs a point.
Basically the whole thing is designed to let them fire you with cause, because someone who’s chronically calling out sick affects their bottom line. Right to work states fucking over the little guys yet again. Unions? Never heard of her. Legally exempt from this part at least are your 3 grievance leave days per dead immediate family member, so generous, and anything related to the ADA. Though they don’t have to pay you for the first week of ADA time so gawd help you if you have a chronically episodic disability and not just a long stretch of time for say an injury.
Yeah working in America suuuuuucks.
My company, which is pretty generous (by US standards) gives us 8 paid sick days per year. Up until this year we got unlimited after that with a doctors note (unpaid, bit you wouldn’t get fired for it.) This year they stopped accepting doctor notes, so if you rub out of sick time, tough shit. BUT if you’re out for over a week, FMLA or disability or some shit like that kicks in, and there ain’t fuck all they can do about it lol. And THAT shit is paid. I have a feeling they’re gonna rethink the doctors note thing next year lol.