Slate Magazine Says Tax the Childless, Parents Can't Save Money!

[CommonCents]

  They also always scheduled kids Dr. Appointments during work hours and used their unlimited 'sick leave' for their kids Dr Appointments.

Huh?   It's generally difficult to schedule kids' appointments outside of work hours (if possible at all), so sometime 9-5 is the norm, and standard to use one's sick leave for sick kids or kids' appointments.  Children *need* their adult parent to care for them when sick and accompany them to their appointments, it's not some frivolous choice, so it's only humane for one's employer to accommodate this.    I'm really not getting what the issue is?

emphasis is mine.  I've always understood sick time to cover YOUR sick time, not a relative or a child.   That is what personal time or PTO is for.  I think people who use sick time for anything other than being physically ill are cheating the system.

Depends on the policy and the manager's discretion.  Most of the managers I worked for had no problem with us using sick time for sick family members.

I forgot to mention that at location, they were all working customer service, and the person in question had one or two days during the standard work week in which they didn't work (and worked weekend shifts to cover the rest of the hours).    They also had shift work which earlier shifts ended and had time at the end of the day to make it to appointments, etc...

Sure - but you don't know what's going on those other days.  Might have a second job, might not have the kids those days, etc.  I try to give people the benefit of the doubt unless they're clearly slacking, and then, well that's the manager's issue to deal with.

Also, the latest appointment I can get with my doctor is 3:30, which is a bit frustrating.  Much easier to leave work an hour early to make a 4:30 apt than to leave in the middle of the day!

[enigmaT120]

  For those that work for the U.S. government, you can use your accrued sick leave for your own needs, to provide general care for a family member (like a sick child), provide care to a family member with a serious health condition (for example, taking care of your elderly mother who is dying), make funeral arrangements, and for adoption-related purposes (this is not maternity leave; it's leave to consult attorneys, pick up the child, appointments with adoption agencies, etc.).

But they have recently provided an incentive to not abuse sick leave:  any hours you have remaining when you retire will be counted toward your years of service for calculating your retirement pension. 

[lisahi]

  For those that work for the U.S. government, you can use your accrued sick leave for your own needs, to provide general care for a family member (like a sick child), provide care to a family member with a serious health condition (for example, taking care of your elderly mother who is dying), make funeral arrangements, and for adoption-related purposes (this is not maternity leave; it's leave to consult attorneys, pick up the child, appointments with adoption agencies, etc.).

But they have recently provided an incentive to not abuse sick leave:  any hours you have remaining when you retire will be counted toward your years of service for calculating your retirement pension.

Oh, I know that. And it's not technically an incentive not to "abuse" sick leave. If you're using sick leave for a proper reason, you're not technically abusing it. The program incentivizes using the least amount of sick leave as you can. For example, if you have a cold but can work, they want to provide you a nice benefit if you come to work (that is, unless you're in close quarters and are liable to get everybody else sick). If you have a broken leg but can hobble to work and perform your duties, then come to work and you'll keep that sweet, sweet sick leave balance. It's an incentive not to call in sick when it really isn't necessary, even if it's technically okay to call in sick per policy.

[BlueHouse]

Depends on the policy and the manager's discretion.  Most of the managers I worked for had no problem with us using sick time for sick family members.

The trend I've seen over the past decade or so is for every worker to get the same exact benefit for number of days off. Might be a combined twenty days for vacation, sick, personal, etc. they just call it "Paid Time Off". To me, it always seemed the most fair because everyone got the same benefit. But if you use 10 of those days taking care of a sick family member, that means 10 fewer days of vacation time.
Now, I'm self employed and can also take off whenever I want - but I don't get paid for hours I don't work.  Is the "PTO" concept still popular out there, or was that a regional thing? 

Do any parents out there think that single parents should get more sick days because there is not a spouse to share the burden with?  Do any singletons think they should get extra days because they have to do 100% of house related things ?  I feel like I am taking advantage (and missing a lot of work) when I have to leave work for deliveries, house maintenance things, installations, etc that most 2-person households would split up. Even though I don't get paid for that time, I'm not at the office and that inconveniences my coworkers.

[Insanity]

Depends on the policy and the manager's discretion.  Most of the managers I worked for had no problem with us using sick time for sick family members.

The trend I've seen over the past decade or so is for every worker to get the same exact benefit for number of days off. Might be a combined twenty days for vacation, sick, personal, etc. they just call it "Paid Time Off". To me, it always seemed the most fair because everyone got the same benefit. But if you use 10 of those days taking care of a sick family member, that means 10 fewer days of vacation time.
Now, I'm self employed and can also take off whenever I want - but I don't get paid for hours I don't work.  Is the "PTO" concept still popular out there, or was that a regional thing? 

Do any parents out there think that single parents should get more sick days because there is not a spouse to share the burden with?  Do any singletons think they should get extra days because they have to do 100% of house related things ?  I feel like I am taking advantage (and missing a lot of work) when I have to leave work for deliveries, house maintenance things, installations, etc that most 2-person households would split up. Even though I don't get paid for that time, I'm not at the office and that inconveniences my coworkers.

I'd really like to see some studies out there to see how many people take advantage of the "we don't track time off" type of employment.  I know of a few companies (smaller) that do that and they don't have a single problem with it.  If it gets abused, they have dealt with it in the context of the person not getting their work done or the amount of work that is defined for the level of their position.  If they are getting the work done, then the management hasn't cared if they take a little more time off.

[mm1970]

  They also always scheduled kids Dr. Appointments during work hours and used their unlimited 'sick leave' for their kids Dr Appointments.

Huh?   It's generally difficult to schedule kids' appointments outside of work hours (if possible at all), so sometime 9-5 is the norm, and standard to use one's sick leave for sick kids or kids' appointments.  Children *need* their adult parent to care for them when sick and accompany them to their appointments, it's not some frivolous choice, so it's only humane for one's employer to accommodate this.    I'm really not getting what the issue is?

emphasis is mine.  I've always understood sick time to cover YOUR sick time, not a relative or a child.   That is what personal time or PTO is for.  I think people who use sick time for anything other than being physically ill are cheating the system.

Depends on where you work.  At my last company, with unlimited sick time, they specified that up to 3 days could be used for your sick children.
At my current company, with limited PTO, you use it for whatever you want. 

But we've gone through a few different iterations.  When we had "unlimited" sick time, you could use it for your kids.
When we had 5 days a year sick time (before we went to PTO), you could use it for your kid.

And now, it's the law, that if you get sick time awarded, companies HAVE to let you use at least half of it for your kid (or spouse, parent, etc.)  I'm in California.

[Gin1984]

  They also always scheduled kids Dr. Appointments during work hours and used their unlimited 'sick leave' for their kids Dr Appointments.

Huh?   It's generally difficult to schedule kids' appointments outside of work hours (if possible at all), so sometime 9-5 is the norm, and standard to use one's sick leave for sick kids or kids' appointments.  Children *need* their adult parent to care for them when sick and accompany them to their appointments, it's not some frivolous choice, so it's only humane for one's employer to accommodate this.    I'm really not getting what the issue is?

emphasis is mine.  I've always understood sick time to cover YOUR sick time, not a relative or a child.   That is what personal time or PTO is for.  I think people who use sick time for anything other than being physically ill are cheating the system.

Depends on where you work.  At my last company, with unlimited sick time, they specified that up to 3 days could be used for your sick children.
At my current company, with limited PTO, you use it for whatever you want. 

But we've gone through a few different iterations.  When we had "unlimited" sick time, you could use it for your kids.
When we had 5 days a year sick time (before we went to PTO), you could use it for your kid.

And now, it's the law, that if you get sick time awarded, companies HAVE to let you use at least half of it for your kid (or spouse, parent, etc.)  I'm in California.

When did THAT happen?  I left Ca about five years back and it was not that way then.  Very cool.

[mm1970]

  They also always scheduled kids Dr. Appointments during work hours and used their unlimited 'sick leave' for their kids Dr Appointments.

Huh?   It's generally difficult to schedule kids' appointments outside of work hours (if possible at all), so sometime 9-5 is the norm, and standard to use one's sick leave for sick kids or kids' appointments.  Children *need* their adult parent to care for them when sick and accompany them to their appointments, it's not some frivolous choice, so it's only humane for one's employer to accommodate this.    I'm really not getting what the issue is?

emphasis is mine.  I've always understood sick time to cover YOUR sick time, not a relative or a child.   That is what personal time or PTO is for.  I think people who use sick time for anything other than being physically ill are cheating the system.

Depends on where you work.  At my last company, with unlimited sick time, they specified that up to 3 days could be used for your sick children.
At my current company, with limited PTO, you use it for whatever you want. 

But we've gone through a few different iterations.  When we had "unlimited" sick time, you could use it for your kids.
When we had 5 days a year sick time (before we went to PTO), you could use it for your kid.

And now, it's the law, that if you get sick time awarded, companies HAVE to let you use at least half of it for your kid (or spouse, parent, etc.)  I'm in California.

When did THAT happen?  I left Ca about five years back and it was not that way then.  Very cool.

Pretty recently.  Because I started noticing it mentioned in our employee handbook, and then I looked it up.