What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day use?

[zoebartlett]

My mom and I were talking earlier about how she doesn't think it's right that I asked for 2 personal days this month. She thinks it's wrong because we get out of school at the end of the month anyway. Okay, I'll give her that. Normally, I wouldn't use two of my 3 days in one month, but I don't get to carry them over to the following year. It's use 'em or lose 'em. I should have spaced them out better than I did but since they're mine, I wasn't going to NOT use them all. The only time we're not allowed to use personal days is a day right before or after a 3 day weekend or a vacation week. That makes sense. We have to write a letter and get approval from our superintendent if a case like that should come up.

As far as sick days go, we get 10 days, I think. Maybe 12, I can't actually remember. Anyway, I usually end up using maybe 3 sick days per year. Sick days can be carried over up to a certain point. I'm not sure how many I've built up.

What's your company's policy for sick time and personal day use?

 

[Shoopy]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

At my old (corporate) job we had a standard of 10 vacation days (an extra 5 every 5 years), 2 personal days, and 5 sick days. Nothing was carried over. Sick days were for legitimate sick days only. You could not add them to vacation days.

At my new (government) job, we get 29 days. Technically the breakdown is 12 holidays, 10 personal, 5 sick and 2 personal. However you accumulate your hours and it gets deducted along the way. If you choose to work on a holiday you enter your hours as normal work days and that holiday stays in your total. I'm not sure if it gets carried over. I think the personal days an sick days do but not sure.

 

[packrat]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

Dr. lets us do whatever we want, pretty much. Tho, now if the office is closed b/c of weather (like last year we got over 5 feet of snow and the office was closed several times), we are now required to use vacation time for that, it's not just counted as an unpaid day. Can carry 100 hours thru to the next year, anything over that is lost. We don't get paid sick time separate from vacation time. Those there 10 years or more (I think that's how long) get 5 weeks paid per year. Full time gets 6 paid holidays.

My husband gets 3 weeks paid and I think..let's see, 10 paid holidays? He does get sick time but is only allotted so many hours, and it's not per year, it's total, so if you use them all you're SOL and face termination.

 

[Puppmom]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

We have one pool of PTO days (paid time off) - you use these whether you're sick, need a personal day or vacation. You can use them with or without notice although using many days with no notice is frowned upon.

I get 22 days (plus paid days when the NYSE is closed). I can *buy* 5 more. Everything is use it or lose it, except the 5 purchased days which you can be reimbursed for at the end of the year but may not carry over.

I think PTO for teachers is weird. My girlfriend gets 5 personal days and used 2 in a month and got a warning letter from school. I don't see why they think teachers don't have things come up just like those of us who work corporate jobs. You can't accomplish EVERYTHING in the summer! Besides, sh!t happens!

 

[deegee]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I taught school for 5 years, and I used maybe 1 sick day a year and no personal days. Almost at the end of my 5th year, hubby accepted a position in another state and we knew we would be relocating after the school year was over. I asked for a personal day in May to go to apartment shopping on the day that my husband had an appointment scheduled in our new town for his new job. I was denied. We had already sold our house and I had to find an apartment, so I called in sick. When I left that job, I had all of my personal days left and over 60 sick days - all lost.

I now work for state government, and have the seniority to earn 18 sick days and 21 vacation days a year, plus holidays. We can carry forward all of our sick leave and 30 vacation days each year, which is very helpful in case something comes up. We have to request vacation days at least 24 hours in advance. We get a lot of days because our pay is lousy - something like last or next to last in the country.

My hubby gets 6 holidays and 22 vacation/sick days ... and that's after 10 years of seniority. He used to get more, but his company was bought out and the new company cut holidays and vacation/sick leave. That was a real bummer.

 

[merilenda]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

We get 2 mental health days + 3 personal days per year. Mental health days can be used without notice & you can call in the day you want off. We're supposed to give 2 weeks notice for personal days. We also get vacation time, and you get more hours the longer you've worked there. Our mental health/personal days expire at the end of June and reset on July 1st. So I'm using mine to take off the last week of June!

 

[iheartscience]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I just started a new job so I'm not sure what the policies on personal days are yet, but at my last job (at a state university) we got 32 hours of personal leave and 64 hours of sick time per year. We also accumulated at a minimum 8 hours/month PTO, depending on how long we'd been there.

The days were pretty much interchangeable at both of the departments I worked in. I would just fill in whatever type I wanted to use when I turned in my time sheet. Employees can carry over the earned PTO, but not personal leave or sick time. When I went apartment hunting I used all 32 hours of personal leave because I wouldn't get paid out for it when I left, and no one cared. After I left I got paid for my accumulated PTO. There is a limit to how many hours you can get paid out (I think it's 24 days worth, so 192 hours) but I wasn't even close to hitting that.

Honestly I think employees should use all of their PTO and personal leave up. You earned it, so take it! I pretty much never use all my sick time...I don't think employees should call out just to use their sick days up. Plus after getting really sick last year, I'm too paranoid to call out in case I get really sick again. (I was horribly sick and lost my voice for a week, so I used over half of my sick time in February.)

 

[Haven]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I took this right out of our contract:

Sick Leave:
At the beginning of each academic year, each faculty member shall be credited with fifteen days of leave for full service for the academic year. Sick leave shall not accumulate to more than 390 days (3120 hours).

Sick leave may be taken in half-day increments. Occasionally, with the approval of the appropriate dean, on those times when a full-/or half-day assessment may not be warranted, one quarter sick/personal day may be assessed a faculty member who is unable to attend a scheduled meeting.

Personal Days:
Each faculty member is entitled to five College days for personal business, including the observance of religious holidays during each academic year, including summer. Personal days taken will be deducted from sick leave. Personal days may be taken in half-day increments. Faculty members will notify their dean no later than 48 hours in advance of the use of personal days and will assure proper arrangements have been made concerning classes for the day. In an emergency, notice shall be given as soon as possible to the appropriate dean. No approval or justification is required except in the following periods, when approval must be obtained from the appropriate dean or administrator:
1. Orientation week(s)
2. The first week of classes of a new semester
3. The College day before and the first College day after a scheduled holiday period
4. Evaluation days at the end of the semester
5. Two or more consecutive days

Zoe--I say take your leave whenever it suits you, especially if it is in accordance with your school's policies. I really don't think it matters that school is out at the end of this month, that time is yours to take and if you want to take it, take it. When I taught high school we had a similar policy--we could accrue sick leave but not personal days. I think we had two personal days per year, and I always took them if I had a reason to do so. I don't think there's anything impressive about people who refuse to take the benefits afforded them. Take those days and enjoy them!

 

[marcy]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

My company starts with 5 vacation days and 5 sick days. The second and third year you get two weeks of vacation and one week of sick leave. We can carry forward five sick days with no more than ten per year. After three years you get three weeks of vacation and after ten years they let you use the five sick days as planned personal days.

 

[Jennifer W]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

In Scotland, there is a statutory requirement for annual leave (to be taken anytime, but to fit with the needs of the company / service). I think it's 25 days at the moment. My leave entitlement is 35 days per year, plus 10 'floating' days - we're given these in lieu of public holidays and add them to our annual leave. We don't get allocated sick or personal days, but if we are sick, we're entitled to statutory sick pay. My own contract specifies 4 months full pay then six months half pay for long term sickness. I also work flexi-hours and may collect up to 1 full and one half day flexi leave in any 4 week period.

Now I see it written down, I'm wondering why I bother to go in at all...

ETA Zoe, take your leave whenever it suits you, if your contract entitles you to it. That's what it's there for. Teachers here don't get any discretionary leave or personal time at all - just 13 weeks per year paid school holidays (and statutory sick pay, which is a legal rather than contractual right).

 

[mayerling]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I used to work for a university in England, and I had 27 days of annual leave (basically paid holiday) to be taken whenever I wanted; I used to combine it with public holidays and be off work for weeks - nobody minds. Sick leave was unlimited, but if we were gone for more than two consecutive days per month we just had to produce a doctor's certificate explaining our absence.

 

[zoebartlett]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

Puppmom -- my husband gets a pool of PTO also. I think it's odd that they lump everything together but they've done it this way for years. I also think it's strange that for the 4th of July, for example, everyone in his dept. takes the day off, but they STILL have to take it out of their PTO bank. It's a national and federal holiday. In my opinion, that day and a few others, shouldn't be grouped in with regular PTO days.

 

[Kismet]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I have 6 regular holidays (Christmas day, New year's day, etc.), 5 floating holidays which get accrued throughout the year and are use it or lose it, 4 weeks of vacation of which I can roll from year to year but never carrying more than 21 days. And I have unlimited sick time. You will get a talking to if you abuse the sick time.

 

[vc10um]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

10 holidays per year, standard across the board
For my level of seniority:
160 hours (20 days) of Paid Vacation, earned at a rate of 6 hours every two weeks, can accumulate up to 240 hours before "use or lose".
104 hours (13 days) of Paid Sick Leave, earned at a rate of 4 hours every two weeks, can accumulate indefinitely.

We can also work "compensatory time"...up to 80 hours (10 days) which we can hold onto for up to a year. This basically means you work overtime, but instead of taking the pay for your overtime at that moment, you delay getting paid for it until you use up your stored hours. So it can essentially be looked at as buying more vacation time with sweat equity.

ETA: For actually TAKING the leave, it really depends on how strict your supervisor is. For most leave, I don't even request it, I just put it in my timesheet and my supervisor approves it. But I think we need a doctor's note or something if we take more than 2 days of sick leave in a row. Also, I obviously give him due notice when I'll be gone for a significant period of time (like 2.5 weeks for our upcoming wedding and honeymoon).

 

[stephbolt]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

We get 10 days/year of vacation (increases 5 days every 5 years), 10 days of 100% sick leave, and 10 days of 60% sick leave (meant to act as short term disability). We also get 9 standard holidays and 3 floating holidays, which basically act as vacation days. We have to use our vacation and floating holidays before the end of the year, but can carry over our sick leave to a max of 26 weeks each of 100% and 60%. Oh, and we also trade weeks being "on call" evenings/weekends/holidays for our department and for every week or holiday we are on call we earn an extra vacation day.

My boss is pretty easygoing and all my coworkers are very responsible, so if we have an appointment or something during the day that takes a few hours we aren't required to use our PTO as long as we are getting our work done. Most of my coworkers will first try and work from home if they are feeling under the weather, but if we are really sick we just take the day and in my limited time here it doesn't seem anyone is abusing it.

I was just trying to map out my vacation yesterday, I don't want to leave any of it on the table at the end of the year!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I am a teacher, too, and we were allowed to accumulate personal days up to 5. But if you lose them every year, I see absolutely nothing wrong with taking two in the same month!!!!!!!! Take them without guilt..they are YOURS!!!!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

Wow, why is it any of your mom's business how you take your time off?

My company only allows you to roll over 5 vacation days. Everything else is use it or lose it. Personal time is for whatever you want to use it for but it can't be planned in advance. Sick time can be used for either an employee illness or if the employee's child is sick, etc but cannot be planned in advance (i.e., you have to do your time sheet AFTER the day). Sick can't technically be used for vacation for this reason.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I see absolutely nothing wrong with taking 2 personal days--the timing isn't relevant, IMO. Hope all is okay, Zoe!

We have a great vacation policy--our company says its goal is to make sure nobody runs out of vacation time. I get:

19 paid holidays
3 weeks paid vacation
9 personal/flex days
9 sick days

We also get one day off for "nice weather", one day off for moving/closing on house, one day off for getting married, one day off for our birthday and a few other paid days off. We also have great maternity/paternity benefits (for the U.S.)

 

[stephbolt]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I see absolutely nothing wrong with taking 2 personal days--the timing isn't relevant, IMO. Hope all is okay, Zoe!

We have a great vacation policy--our company says its goal is to make sure nobody runs out of vacation time. I get:

19 paid holidays
3 weeks paid vacation
9 personal/flex days
9 sick days

We also get one day off for "nice weather", one day off for moving/closing on house, one day off for getting married, one day off for our birthday and a few other paid days off. We also have great maternity/paternity benefits (for the U.S.)

Wow, your company sounds great NEL! I wish I got my birthday off!

 

[princesss]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I get 21 days PTO (sick and vacation lumped together) and 11 holidays (7 set and 4 floating).

 

[zipzapgirl]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

Honestly I think employees should use all of their PTO and personal leave up. You earned it, so take it! I pretty much never use all my sick time...I don't think employees should call out just to use their sick days up. Plus after getting really sick last year, I'm too paranoid to call out in case I get really sick again. (I was horribly sick and lost my voice for a week, so I used over half of my sick time in February.)

I agree.
Use all PTO and vacation days up, especially if they are use it or lose it.
Use sick days only if you are truly sick.

If you are working those days and losing the benefits, then you are WORKING FOR FREE... I feel like I'm worth more than that!

 

[zoebartlett]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

Wow, why is it any of your mom's business how you take your time off?

My company only allows you to roll over 5 vacation days. Everything else is use it or lose it. Personal time is for whatever you want to use it for but it can't be planned in advance. Sick time can be used for either an employee illness or if the employee's child is sick, etc but cannot be planned in advance (i.e., you have to do your time sheet AFTER the day). Sick can't technically be used for vacation for this reason.

My mom and I worked under the same SAU umbrella (before she retired last year) but for different districts, if that makes sense. She was comparing my school/district to hers. She said that at her school, people never really made a point to use all their personal days before the end of the year. They didn't have a cap of 3 like my school does.

 

[zoebartlett]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I see absolutely nothing wrong with taking 2 personal days--the timing isn't relevant, IMO. Hope all is okay, Zoe!

We have a great vacation policy--our company says its goal is to make sure nobody runs out of vacation time. I get:

19 paid holidays
3 weeks paid vacation
9 personal/flex days
9 sick days

We also get one day off for "nice weather", one day off for moving/closing on house, one day off for getting married, one day off for our birthday and a few other paid days off. We also have great maternity/paternity benefits (for the U.S.)

Wow, that's great, NEL! I love how flexible your company is.

Everything's fine. I used one day already and the other one will be next Monday. My boss approved them so all is good.

 

[Haven]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

NEL--Your company really does sound flexible. How nice!

Zoe--Yay for getting those personal days approved!

I forgot to share that our working year consists of 169 days total (153 instructional days, 4 days for final student evaluations, 2 grading days, commencement, and 9 days for professional development.) We have 7 days of paid holidays.

Faculty don't have to report to work on days that they don't teach a course, so technically I won't be at work 169 days next school year because I won't be teaching on Fridays and I've scheduled all of my office hours for Monday through Thursday.

 

[zoebartlett]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

That's great, Haven. Our school year is 180 days and I think teachers work 185 or something like that. 187? I don't know. I can't keep track. I just show up when they tell me to. Our summer vacation is super short this year (7 weeks). We had 6 snow days and we had to make them all up. Some years we get a few days waived by the state but that didn't happen this year. Some years, we've even added 15 minutes to our day to make up for some of the snow days. Not this year. We're going til the 24th with kids and then teachers get out the 28th. Bummer.

 

[Haven]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

Holy moly, Zoe--you are finishing the year LATE! It does stink when snow days extend the school year because NOBODY wants to stick around that long, right?

It's so strange to teach in a school that doesn't make up for lost days, as is my current school's policy. If we have a snow day it's just gone. Wreaks havoc on my teaching schedule, I must say. My school was built on a flood plain, so we missed a day due to flooding this year, as well.

I'm definitely *actually* working many more days than the 169 stipulated in the contract, though. I may not be going to my office, but I'm at home preparing!

 

[luv2sparkle]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

My DH gets 10 Vacation days, 15 sick, and 5 personal. They can be rolled over to a certain number and then the rest are paid at
straight time in January.

They are yours, I wouldn't feel a bit bad about using two in one month. If they don't want you to do that they should allow one
or two to be carried over. I assume they are a union benefit, as a teacher you deserve every single thing you get.

 

[sparklyheart]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I accrue PTO hours based on how many hours I work.. It goes up as you stay with the company longer. I currently get about 1 1/2 days for each pay period.. So about 39 days/year. I only work 3-4 days a week though and usually get about a week long stretch off without taking vacation once every couple months. I have a small group so as long as we have everything covered, it doesn't matter when we take off. We all are pretty good about using our vacation which I feel is unusual as most people I know don't use theirs!! We have times where we are stretched thin but we are all pretty ok with it because we all know our turn for time off will come. Sick days come from our PTO. We get paid from some magic fund (aka not our PTO) for funerals and jury duty. We work holidays but which holidays and how many just depends on who wants to work what.. and no extra pay for holidays because that is considered in our salary.

As for management controlling things.. We do our own schedules and cover the work within our team. They have to approve time off but as long as we have coverage they don't care. We have to report our time off so they know how to pay. It's really the honor system though since they see us about once every couple weeks. Obviously though other people would speak up if we weren't there

One of my good friends is a teacher and she took vacation the Friday before Memorial Day but wouldn't tell any of her coworkers she was going to the beach She said it was a big deal to everyone.. The way I see it is if you have vacation and there are people to cover your spot, what's the big deal? I think it's sad when people can't ever take vacation days they have because they have to be at work or else things don't get done. Obviously there are times when you need to be there to work on projects and get things done but everyone needs a break to refresh and not get burned out!

 

[beaujolais]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

At my company they get all psycho if you ever call in next to a day off (next to a Mon. or Fri., for most people), next to a holiday you have off, or next to a day you put in for taking off.

If one does not abuse their time, I really don't agree. Do you? Do other companies do this?

Micro-managing, no?

Eeesh.

 

[DivaDiamond007]

Re: What's your company's policy for sick time/personal day

I am a paralegal at a law firm but work under only one attorney so we have no official PTO policy. I work 35 hours a week so not technically full time so, in essence, if I don't go in I don't get paid. I get paid for holidays that the courts are closed. If I need to take a few days off in a row I clear it through the attorney and check the schedule first because everything goes to hell if I'm not here. I even worked from the hospital after having my daughter! It was crazy, and I was NOT happy about it but the temp that we hired was a dud so I had to do what I had to do.