What is your sick leave like?

[mm1970]

One thing that I don't understand, is why I can't put them back to back.  Such as use short term disability, then my paid time off time, and then put in for my 12 weeks of FMLA.  But that would put me out of my job for a long time.  I asked this, and got the non helpful answer, its just not done that way.

FMLA is simply guarantee of time off with job protection, NOT guarantee of pay.

Therefore, it runs CONCURRENTLY with any "paid" leave.

You could google it in your particular state.  You will likely find policy info at a university, and those are generally very clear.  (I am in CA, and I did not know that until after I gave birth.)

In California, we have:
Pregnancy disability leave (up to 4 weeks before the birth and 6 weeks after)
FMLA
CFRA (California family rights act)
Paid family leave

PDL and PFL are the only ones that come with pay. 
FMLA and CFRA cover time off and job guarantees.

So - PDL and FMLA run concurrently
PFL and FMLA run concurrently (one is money, one is time)
CFRA and FMLA run concurrently
CFRA and PDL do NOT run concurrently.

So in the end, in CA, you could have the guaranteed time off of 4 weeks before and 6 weeks after birth (from PDL/ FMLA) and an additional 12 weeks CFRA (with no pay).

I'm not sure if that makes any sense to you or not, but just realize that "paid leave" and FMLA cover 2 different things so they run concurrently.

At my current company, they can require you to use all accumulated vacation pay before collecting paid family leave. 

[lightmyfire]

I work for a university.  We get really generous leave - 4 weeks vacay and 1 sick day per month that accrues indefinitely.  I'm never actually sick (knock, knock, wood), so it's kind of frustrating watching all that time accumulate without using it.  There is an option to donate some of it to an emergency sick bank.

[chippy]

Unlimited. In America. Thank you "research year" and academia!

[golden1]

We get 40 hours every year, forever, no increases.  If you are injured you go on disability. 

I have not experienced the culture where a contagious employee came to work because they did not want to lose a precious day of paid time off. I am sure it exists, I simply have not experienced it personally.

I have come to work sick before.  I only have 80 hours of vacation time so if I have to take 40 hours of sick time in a year, I either take a vacation day or take a day unpaid.   It is so stupid.  My workplace has a constant cold or virus going around all winter long because anyone who has kids can't afford to take sick days in case their kids get sick and they have to stay home with them.  Basically the only time anyone around here takes a sick day for themselves is if they are throwing up. 

[Helvegen]

There are no sick days per se, just a PTO slush fund of 17-32 days a year, depending on length of service. We do have STD and LTD that I guess would kick in after that.

My husband has 3 purposed sick/personal days a year, but they look down on you even taking that.

[benjenn]

We accrue 1 day of sick leave per month or 12 days per year.  These days stop accruing when you reach 120 days, or 10 years without a sick day.  So if something really bad happened, you could basically have up to 6 months off with full pay.  When you leave, you lose whatever sick time you have accrued... so when I FIRE next week, I'm leaving behind 120 days off that I could have taken over the years.  Oh well, I'm much rather be healthy!

[I'm a red panda]

I have not experienced the culture where a contagious employee came to work because they did not want to lose a precious day of paid time off. I am sure it exists, I simply have not experienced it personally.

Oh my god, I wish there was a way to stop people from coming in sick!
Not only do they do it because they don't want to lose sick days; they do it because they feel like they would get behind and need to do the work.

But you getting your work done doesn't help if you get 4 other people sick and then they don't get theirs done!

[EricP]

There are no sick days per se, just a PTO slush fund of 17-32 days a year, depending on length of service. We do have STD and LTD that I guess would kick in after that.

My husband has 3 purposed sick/personal days a year, but they look down on you even taking that.

Really?  They want sick people coming into work?  I hope I never work in that high pressure of a working environment.  IMO, every employer should have vacation, sick and personal days in separate buckets.  Sure, people will end up lying, but I don't want some employee coming into work sick so they can preserve their family vacation.  Because if people are living paycheck to paycheck, I can imagine they live "paycheck to paycheck" with their leave as well.

[missj]

I am a private industry union skilled laborer.  we get 80 hours credited per year.  100% of it rolls over into a "banked sick leave" account and it never "expires".  we can use up to 4 hours per year for routine medical/dental visits.  We can cash out up to 80 hours per year at 50% value provided that we leave at least 160 hours in banked sick leave.  If we don't cash it out, upon retirement every hour rolls over into a flexible HSA at 80% value which we can use to pay our medical premiums.

pretty sweet system!

we also have a 90 day "integrated disability management" program when you are released to light duty but cannot do your normal job, you get "matched" with work you can do for up to 90 days without a decrease in your usual wages.  after that you may have to vacate your position, but are eligible to work a different position at the reduced wage.

we also have employer paid short term and long term disability that replaces up to 50% of your wages, but that can only be used once all sick leave is depleted.

[zephyr911]

I'm a fed. I take off every time I get the sniffles.

Unless I get cancer, I'll always have more than I need, and I'll give back weeks or months worth when I quit.

[rocketpj]

I should note that while I am eligible for lots of sick time, the culture in my specific work site (within a much larger organization) is that you do not take sick time unless you are in traction.

The reason being that we are a 24/7 operation and there are only 4 of us qualified to work here safely.  So one of us with the sniffles means everyone else has to work an extra 25 hours/week to cover - with no notice. 

It's even worse in the summer or if someone gets hurt while another person is on vacation - the remaining 2 are 48 on/48 off for the duration. 

So nobody really takes a sick day unless they have a serious injury.

[mustachepungoeshere]

I am entitled to about 80 hours of sick per year, and have been accruing it over eight years.

Generally a doctor's note is required for more than two days off, but my boss never asks for it.

I only know one person in my company who has used up all their sick leave. He has a chronic illness and is now on unpaid sick leave, which means they are holding his position for him but he's not receiving any kind of company benefits.

On a side note, Australians generally have quite generous annual leave entitlements but we're notoriously stingy about using it up. My husband is sitting on eight weeks of paid annual leave (not including sick leave, carer's leave, or bereavement leave) and his only plan to use up any of it is to take one day off for a long weekend next month.

He's not accruing it for anything in particular, he just really likes his job.

[missj]

There is no crazy like small-business crazy, sometimes.

I totally agree.  I used to think it was quaint working for a small business.  it's hell.  benefits generally suck and what little benefits you are "given" are begrudgingly and often complained about if not by the owner, then by their business partners, or spouse or all of the above.

I once had a dentist give us the sob story about how our medical premiums were ruining the company and how every month he didn't know whether or not he'd have enough to cover our premiums....then quite literally 4 days later he rolled up to work in a brand new car.  Now...I could care less if he wants to treat himself to a new car.  He's the boss...he wants it, he can presumably afford it.  fine.  but spare me your freakin sob story.

This boss also had the nerve to say "we don't have sick pay, we have well pay" and what that meant was, if you called out sick you got nothing.  But if you DIDN'T call out sick then once every 6 months you got a 1 day "bonus" on your check.  He would randomly decide not to give you the well pay though sometimes even if you didn't call out sick.  For example, he expected ALL of his staff to work the same days he worked and take vacations when he took vacations.  But if you wanted a day off different from his schedule, then he might pout and guilt trip you and then allow you to have the day off.....then surprise! he withholds your well pay some odd weeks later because in his words "The point of well pay is that I need my staff to be committed to be here when I am here". so basically it is "you are mine, I own you" pay.

[OlyFish]

I think I get a day per month of paid sick leave, a day every 2 weeks of paid vacation, and if I needed to be out for a longer period than my sick and vacation leave, I would have to use short term disability (full salary, up to 3 months).

There is a limit of like 48 days accumulated vacation, no limit on sick leave.

[Need2Save]

I much prefer the paid time off system.

Wow, I do not understand preferring the paid time off system. Would you care to elaborate? I used to work for a company that used Paid Time Off and the company owner always talked about how great it was. I absolutely hated it. Any time out of the office, whether for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or jury duty all came out of the same bucket. I thought it was the worst thing ever since if I actually got sick and stayed home it meant a shorter vacation. I felt like the company, not the workers, got all the benefit and it encouraged sick people to come into the office and get everyone else sick. Also, I have been put on three juries out of four times being called in for jury duty. So that meant less vacation for me.

Typically a PTO plan in the U.S. provides only for 'personal days' like planned vacations, sick time, family doctor's appts. etc.  It is very unusual for a U.S. company to lump in Jury Duty and Holidays within a PTO plan.    Those are usually a separate allocation.   10 paid Holidays a year is also the average.

There seems to be a lot of posters from outside the U.S. on this one.  Companies in the U.S. usually also have some level of Short-Term Disability coverage which kicks in after one or two weeks.  The larger company you work for, the more likely it's only one week waiting period and typically only covers 60-80% of your weekly pay until you can return to work. You would need to use up PTO or paid-sick/vacation time, whatever kind of plan you are one, to fill in the gap.  If you are lucky, there would be Long Term Disability (typically after 13-26 weeks) if you are really in dire straights and cannot return.  At that point, employers in the U.S. usually terminate your employment too so you also have to start paying more for health coverage by going on COBRA or paying for Obamacare, depending on your circumstances.     We are very different from Countries like Germany in this way. 

Interesting to see all the differences.  Let's just stay healthy!

[Need2Save]

Seems like a huge variety in policies. For the people who mentioned some sort of disability leave, is that paid or unpaid?

Our short-term disability is 100% salary for up to 3 months, long-term is 60% salary forever (which seems insane, but I'm pretty sure is true).

100% for 3 months is crazy good!  You are lucky and I hope you never need it.  Are you sure LTD is 'forever'?  Usually policies run until you turn age 65 or your Normal Retirement Age determined by Social Security Administration, or a shortened period (like 24 months) if you become disabled after your NRD or age 65.  There is an element of anticipation that everyone would be retiring at some point in their life and fully-insured and self-insured disability plans alike almost always factor that into the Plan design.   They only 'replace' your income through when you would otherwise stop working.  I know this is not the age most people on here plan to stop working, however, because they plan to be FIRE!!!

[FarmerPete]

I work for a state government.  4 hours of sick per paycheck.  That is 13 sick days a year.  No cap on accrual.  No way to cash them out ever.  The only incentive to no use the time, is that once you hit 184 hours of banked sick leave, my LTD premiums are cut from $40 a paycheck to $10 a paycheck.  If I can accrue 500 hours of sick time, my LTD premiums go down to zero.  I'm almost to the 184 hour level.  My plan is to hit that and then start to take the occassional sick/mental leave day.  It's so common in my division, that people joke about it all the time.  No one cares.  I also get 17 days of vacation a year.  I'd favor a PTO system, as long as the combined days was equal to what you were getting before.

My last job was in the private sector.  I started out with 4 sick days a year.  When I went salary, they switched that to, "Unlimited sick days".  My boss told me that they would cover as much sick as necessary, but if they thought I was exploiting it, they would crack down on me.  My goal was to make sure I took off at least what I was getting before I switched.  I ended up taking ~6 days a year.  The same job had the most screwed up vacation system ever.  They awarded you all of your vacation on June 1st for the year.  The time you got was determined based on how much time you had worked the previous year.  I started in December.  I got zero days of vacation when I started.  June 1st rolled around, and I got 3 days deposited in my vacation account.  It wasn't until the following June that i got my full 2 weeks.  Going 1.5 years with 3 days off should be criminal.  I can't believe I agreed to that.  What crap.  I did end up with 3 weeks of vacation by the time I left 7 years later, but still.  THey also gave me crap whenever I tried to roll over a couple days from the previous year over to the new year.

[rubybeth]

I much prefer the paid time off system.

Wow, I do not understand preferring the paid time off system. Would you care to elaborate? I used to work for a company that used Paid Time Off and the company owner always talked about how great it was. I absolutely hated it. Any time out of the office, whether for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or jury duty all came out of the same bucket. I thought it was the worst thing ever since if I actually got sick and stayed home it meant a shorter vacation. I felt like the company, not the workers, got all the benefit and it encouraged sick people to come into the office and get everyone else sick. Also, I have been put on three juries out of four times being called in for jury duty. So that meant less vacation for me.

Typically a PTO plan in the U.S. provides only for 'personal days' like planned vacations, sick time, family doctor's appts. etc.  It is very unusual for a U.S. company to lump in Jury Duty and Holidays within a PTO plan.    Those are usually a separate allocation.   10 paid Holidays a year is also the average.

There seems to be a lot of posters from outside the U.S. on this one.  Companies in the U.S. usually also have some level of Short-Term Disability coverage which kicks in after one or two weeks.  The larger company you work for, the more likely it's only one week waiting period and typically only covers 60-80% of your weekly pay until you can return to work. You would need to use up PTO or paid-sick/vacation time, whatever kind of plan you are one, to fill in the gap.  If you are lucky, there would be Long Term Disability (typically after 13-26 weeks) if you are really in dire straights and cannot return.  At that point, employers in the U.S. usually terminate your employment too so you also have to start paying more for health coverage by going on COBRA or paying for Obamacare, depending on your circumstances.     We are very different from Countries like Germany in this way. 

Interesting to see all the differences.  Let's just stay healthy!

I work for a government-type entity in the US, and we have PTO for combined vacation/sick time, but we also have various leaves of absence we can take. We can also take unpaid time, but generally you have to run out of PTO in order to take this.

PTO accrual is based on years of service, so with 10 years of service, I bank more than a day every pay period, which works out to be 28 days per year, plus one personal holiday since we don't close on Columbus Day, so 29 days or nearly 6 weeks. I've never had to show a doctor's note if I've been out sick for a few days, but I did use FMLA and PTO simultaneously when I had my wisdom teeth out and was out of the office for 5 days.

I've also had paid jury leave (I had to forfeit the jury pay to get my regular pay--signing over a check for $12 was hilarious). I also have both short term and long term disability coverage, but I've never used either (knock on wood). But in the OP's scenario, I think I'd likely be tapping both disability coverages, as my PTO would have run out (I tend to use my PTO for vacations and leave only about 40 hours on the books in case of short term illness). We've also done PTO drives where fellow employees can donate time to coworkers who are sick and out of PTO.

The thing I like about the PTO system is that I can just put in my time request with no explanation, and my boss really can't ask me why I want the time off. I can tell her it's for a doctor's appointment, or I can keep it private. We used to have separate sick time and PTO, and it was a system under which abuse was pretty rampant. People would want a day off, have no vacation but lots of sick leave, and so would call in sick an hour before their shift, leaving no time to find a sub. Or they would be out of sick time and come in sick so they wouldn't use up their vacation time. And some supervisors would get nosy when you used sick time--asking questions that probably should be illegal. I think PTO allows for more privacy, less abuse, and we get a fairly generous amount. The only drawback is that you may end up taking all of your PTO when you have a sick kid, and therefore get no vacation, but that still could happen under the old system of separate time off buckets.

[mm1970]

I much prefer the paid time off system.

Wow, I do not understand preferring the paid time off system. Would you care to elaborate? I used to work for a company that used Paid Time Off and the company owner always talked about how great it was. I absolutely hated it. Any time out of the office, whether for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or jury duty all came out of the same bucket. I thought it was the worst thing ever since if I actually got sick and stayed home it meant a shorter vacation. I felt like the company, not the workers, got all the benefit and it encouraged sick people to come into the office and get everyone else sick. Also, I have been put on three juries out of four times being called in for jury duty. So that meant less vacation for me.

Typically a PTO plan in the U.S. provides only for 'personal days' like planned vacations, sick time, family doctor's appts. etc.  It is very unusual for a U.S. company to lump in Jury Duty and Holidays within a PTO plan.    Those are usually a separate allocation.   10 paid Holidays a year is also the average.

There seems to be a lot of posters from outside the U.S. on this one.  Companies in the U.S. usually also have some level of Short-Term Disability coverage which kicks in after one or two weeks.  The larger company you work for, the more likely it's only one week waiting period and typically only covers 60-80% of your weekly pay until you can return to work. You would need to use up PTO or paid-sick/vacation time, whatever kind of plan you are one, to fill in the gap.  If you are lucky, there would be Long Term Disability (typically after 13-26 weeks) if you are really in dire straights and cannot return.  At that point, employers in the U.S. usually terminate your employment too so you also have to start paying more for health coverage by going on COBRA or paying for Obamacare, depending on your circumstances.     We are very different from Countries like Germany in this way. 

Interesting to see all the differences.  Let's just stay healthy!

Every company that I have worked at has had 9 holidays.

Jury duty is separate, and is generally 1-2 weeks only.

[waffle]

None. No work, no pay. If you're going to be off for more than a couple weeks, it'll probably be a layoff. It's the nature of construction.

that depends on why you have to take the time off. If it is a qualifying event your job could be protected under fmla...

[aschmidt2930]

Unlimited and I've never used a single day. 

Not because I'm some bad ass, but because I'm a little bit of a health nut and haven't been sick in nearly four years.

[Helvegen]

There are no sick days per se, just a PTO slush fund of 17-32 days a year, depending on length of service. We do have STD and LTD that I guess would kick in after that.

My husband has 3 purposed sick/personal days a year, but they look down on you even taking that.

Really?  They want sick people coming into work?  I hope I never work in that high pressure of a working environment.  IMO, every employer should have vacation, sick and personal days in separate buckets.  Sure, people will end up lying, but I don't want some employee coming into work sick so they can preserve their family vacation.  Because if people are living paycheck to paycheck, I can imagine they live "paycheck to paycheck" with their leave as well.

Well the most best thing to me was that I worked part-time for a public institution where I would estimate 80% of all employees were part-time or contractors. They would offer PTO, flu shots and what not to FT employees, but screw the rest of us. Then they would have the balls to post signs all over the place during cold and flu season telling us to stay home when we were sick. I always felt like I was being slapped in the face every time I saw one.