Acceptable number of sick days per year?

[lizabu]

At my work we get 10 sick days a year. I'm using them. If you don't use them you lose them. We get another 10 bright and shiny sick days in January

 

[SC Minnie]

We dont' have a 'sick' days. If you are out sick you still get paid if you're salaried. What's excessive is up to you supervisor. To me more than 5 incidences in 12 months is excessive.

We have some people here that were out sick at least several days a month. When their manager made them start taking vacation days all of the sudden they or they child wasn't sick as much, or they were able to find alternative care.

One of my friends here hasn't worked a full month in years. She's at a job that someone has to cover all day - receptionist. And when she's out 'sick' she's out for 3-4 days at the time but no one ever says anything to her.

 

[spacemountainmom]

We dont' have a 'sick' days. If you are out sick you still get paid if you're salaried. What's excessive is up to you supervisor. To me more than 5 incidences in 12 months is excessive.

We have some people here that were out sick at least several days a month. When their manager made them start taking vacation days all of the sudden they or they child wasn't sick as much, or they were able to find alternative care.

One of my friends here hasn't worked a full month in years. She's at a job that someone has to cover all day - receptionist. And when she's out 'sick' she's out for 3-4 days at the time but no one ever says anything to her.

Sounds like where I work - my co-worker has taken 6 sick days in the 59 days since school started. It's also funny how no one seems to notice that every time he calls in sick, the school receptionist's son is sick too. Unfortunately, there really is only one or two subs who can cover these positions, so it is mostly my department that is left short-handed.

 

[MrsDuck]

I voted for 6-7 days.

 

[bettymae1121]

I company gives 12 sick days (paid) per year, anything you don't use gets banked for future use. The idea is that you'll use some and bank some, incase you get a major illness sometime in the future.

In 12 years I've banked 20 weeks of sick leave! Now I get to use them to take a fully paid maternity leave next year!

My co-worker, on the other hand, uses most if not all of her sick days each year so has very little banked. She's been here the same number of years I have. She is single with no kids, so she's not using them to take care of sick family members either. I think she just likes to take a lot of "mental health days".

 

[DebbieB]

My company does not have "sick days", we have PTO (vacation). Once you hit a 6th consecutive day, then it goes to short term disability and requires medical documentation. They gave us 8 extra days when we switched from sick days to PTO. If you are not sick, then you gained time off! Which results in people coming in sick as a dog. If you have 4 or 5 occurrences of unscheduled PTO (calling off without advance notice), you can be subject to discipline. Even when we had sick days, it was measured by occurrences rather than number of days.

 

[dngnb8]

So my friend and I were discussing what is an "acceptable" number of sick days a person could take off a year for being ill. Not paid of course- just an I'm sick day and can't make it into work. At what point are absences excessive and what are realistic?

FMLA says 12 weeks. I will go with that

 

[ZellyB]

FMLA says 12 weeks. I will go with that

This is a general misunderstanding of FMLA. FMLA can only be used for qualifying illnesses, so just general short-term illness doesn't typically qualify that time off for FMLA. Also, FMLA does not apply to all employees or employers.

Our company provides 9 sick days per year and those are banked yearly for a total up to 60 days. However, an employee cannot access their sick days until they have been out over 3 consecutive days at which time they begin using sick days. The first 3 days come out of their vacation days. If they have no vacation days, they are off without pay. On the 5th absence period we begin the disciplinary process. On the 8th absence period in a year you can be fired assuming none of the absences qualify for FMLA.

 

[goofyernmost]

FMLA says 12 weeks. I will go with that

What FMLA says and what is right is not always the same. The problem is that the government, in all it's glory, gets pretty liberal. I agree that it is a fairly good thing that one has their position protected if a real, genuine illness, family or otherwise, should happen.

The bad part is that they don't set up any clear guidelines to protect the employer and then we all wonder why companies are outsourcing their labor force. I have seen massive abuse of the FMLA system and it is extremely costly for business. A business hires people to do a specific job. If they aren't there the job either doesn't get done or someone else has to do it. The business cannot hire someone to replace the missing person because they have to leave that position open for when the FMLA person returns. That means that they usually have to pay time and a half to workers to cover the position. A very costly situation. I guess that when it was structured they assumed that everyone was honest...in today's world that is a pretty foolish thing to assume. At least with FMLA, you can plan to have the position covered and are not scrambling at the last minute to fill it.

 

[Disneylvr]

IMO, sicks days are for when YOU are really ILL. In 16 years of works, I dont know if I've even used 5 sick days.

If you are REALLY sick, then I dont know when it should be considered excessive. I'm sure some people call in for just the sniffles and others try to fight thru is an end up making the whole office sick.

Vacation or something of the like is for when you have to stay home with a sick kid....your office (at least in most cases) is not going to pay you to stay home for a family member.

Not true, at least around here. My workplace added it to our personnel policy a few years ago (because so many other businesses allow it) that staff members WERE allowed to use sick days to take care of a sick family member as long as they are living in the same household. I earn 12 sick days a year and DH and I take turns staying home with a sick child since his workplace also allows the use of sick days to be home with an ill child. A doctor's note is only required when an illness lasts more than 3 days for both ourselves OR a sick child. I am also covered for intermittent FMLA since our daughter has a disability.

 

[dngnb8]

What FMLA says and what is right is not always the same. The problem is that the government, in all it's glory, gets pretty liberal. I agree that it is a fairly good thing that one has their position protected if a real, genuine illness, family or otherwise, should happen.

The bad part is that they don't set up any clear guidelines to protect the employer and then we all wonder why companies are outsourcing their labor force. I have seen massive abuse of the FMLA system and it is extremely costly for business. A business hires people to do a specific job. If they aren't there the job either doesn't get done or someone else has to do it. The business cannot hire someone to replace the missing person because they have to leave that position open for when the FMLA person returns. That means that they usually have to pay time and a half to workers to cover the position. A very costly situation. I guess that when it was structured they assumed that everyone was honest...in today's world that is a pretty foolish thing to assume. At least with FMLA, you can plan to have the position covered and are not scrambling at the last minute to fill it.

Until the law changes, I will go with 12 weeks.

 

[AllisonK]

I have 4 sick days and 4 personal days but absolutely cannot take them, so I'll lose them at the end of the year. I tried taking a personal day back in September and was told no, I can't use my personal days at all and had to work a Sunday to make up for missing a Wednesday (when there were two people working on the Wednesday, which is completely normal for a Wednesday).

They are letting me carry over my vacation days to next year, since I started in June and my days don't kick in until tomorrow and there's no way I could take a vacation this month. But I only have until March to use them. (Don't even get me started on how mad my coworkers are that I can carry my days over because I'm new and it's impossible to take vacation in December, yet they just didn't take all of their days and aren't allowed to carry them over - I couldn't take them because I didn't have them - they just didn't take theirs and want to keep them...)

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

We get 15 days PTO which includes planned and unplanned. So that's vacation and sick together--and I think that's sad I had the flu in January, a bad allergic reaction in August... and I had to knock time off of our Honeymoon

At a previous employer we had our 18 days vacation and 6 days sick time.

 

[Music City Mama]

I have 3 colleagues who hold the same position as me. Two of us have been employed here for the same length of time (11 years), and get a considerable amount of paid vacation (5 weeks -- this does NOT include paid company holidays like Thanksgiving, etc.). While we accrue 12 sick days per year, I don't think it is intended for you to use them all UNLESS you have some type of prolonged illness or surgery, etc. (of course, if you have to take extended time off due to a surgery, birth of a child, care of immediate family member, etc., FMLA and short-term disability kick in).

Neither of my 3 colleagues have small kids (2 have adult children -- 1 is single). I have 2 small kids. I have taken 5 sick days this year (3 were for a surgery -- so really 2 "sick" days). We are allowed to use sick days for a sick child. Fortunately, my kids rarely get sick (and neither do I).

The other 3 have taken around 10 sick days (give or take 2 days). One is obese and smokes so she does get sick more often, but I know she still takes advantage. One of the others calls in every other month for menstrual cramps (funny how this always happens on a Friday or Monday). And the other one I know just downright lies (she jokes about it).

So my one co-worker who gets 5 weeks paid vacation also takes 2 weeks paid sick time. While she is "entitled" to take this, I personally find it excessive.

 

[scrapquitler]

I have not read previous answers.

I think that anything more than a handful in a year is excessive, unless you have a long term illness.

I also think that what is acceptible vs. excessive depends on the work situation. A small buisness where you are the main person doing your job, requires you to be there more than a large factory production line where everyone is doing the same exact job. KWIM? Some people's absence at work is going to be a lot more noticeable than someone in a less unique position.

If your employer gives you paid sick days, then whatever number they grant you per year is what is 'allowable' If you don't get paid sick days, then I think you need to be much more careful and cautious about calling in sick because it looks bad to the employer and could contribute to lower annual reviews.

Personally, I never ever take a sick day if it can be avoided. In all my adult life, I think I called in sick about three times, mostly because I have to actually BE sick before I will use a sick day (I would NOT use one because I wanted to go to the beach or just because I felt like I wanted a day off).

 

[indimom]

We get 15 days PTO which includes planned and unplanned. So that's vacation and sick together--and I think that's sad I had the flu in January, a bad allergic reaction in August... and I had to knock time off of our Honeymoon

At a previous employer we had our 18 days vacation and 6 days sick time.

DH currently gets 15 days PTO also. This is to cover vacations/sick days/everything. It certainly sounds like it should be enough. But, the last two years he was cutting it close. And we didn't take any vacation this year.

This thread got me wondering and I had to check. JUST our daughter had 26 medical appointments this year. She has two more scheduled before the year is out. She's not driving yet so someone has to take her to these appointments. And that's just one family member out of four.

Next year, both kids will be seeing the orthodontist monthly and DD will still have appointments every six weeks with the specialist. That's a lot of time off just for 'maintenance issues'. I can certainly see how people dealing with cancer or a chronic illness could run into a wall real quick.

How much time is enough?? It really can be relative.

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

DH currently gets 15 days PTO also. This is to cover vacations/sick days/everything. It certainly sounds like it should be enough. But, the last two years he was cutting it close. And we didn't take any vacation this year.

This thread got me wondering and I had to check. JUST our daughter had 26 medical appointments this year. She has two more scheduled before the year is out. She's not driving yet so someone has to take her to these appointments. And that's just one family member out of four.

Next year, both kids will be seeing the orthodontist monthly and DD will still have appointments every six weeks with the specialist. That's a lot of time off just for 'maintenance issues'. I can certainly see how people dealing with cancer or a chronic illness could run into a wall real quick.

How much time is enough?? It really can be relative.

Yeah, it definately doesn't feel like enough. I've come in when I'm sick, had to make up time in lunches, miss out on things I wanted to go to, etc. I've thought about looking for another company with better offerings---plus the drive to downtown Cincinnati is painful every day.

 

[brerrabbit]

There are a lot of reasons I love my job and where I work. I have not taken a sick day in over four years and as far as what is acceptable I think that is a purely situational basis. How sick are you, what you can afford to miss, can you do the job from home, what is your companies policy on telecommuting, etc.

That being said reading from my Leave information page I get, if needed and justified based on my medical issue,

12 weeks at year at full pay
40 weeks at year at half pay
104 weeks at no pay

If the injury or condition is occupationally related then it is

26 weeks of full pay
26 weeks of half pay
104 weeks of no pay

I roll four weeks of vacation a year, and get four weeks a year, so in any year I could take up to eight weeks but would only have four the next. I keep four in reserve. I have 4 weeks of vacation in a bank that I cannot use, but will be paid out to me upon leaving the company because of retirement, resigning, or being let go for other reasons.

I will also say that I am not a member of any union, have a professional job and am compensated very well. I have a very good medical plan, retirement plan, discounted stock purchase plan, and a 401K plan on top of the retirement plan that the company contributes 10% of my pay a month to.

I thank God frequently for the job I have and as a result of what I do have, take very few if any sick days. It's a good motivator to get out of bed every day.

And yes I work in the Energy Business.

 

[Spoodleink]

So my friend and I were discussing what is an "acceptable" number of sick days a person could take off a year for being ill. Not paid of course- just an I'm sick day and can't make it into work. At what point are absences excessive and what are realistic?

At my previous company I got 10 sick days a year. I only used a few the first 4 years I was there. During my 4th year I got Mono and was out for two weeks and was also out an other couple of days.

The pattern really matters I know people who regularly call out Mondays or Fridays or how are calling out sick several times a month. If some one gets hit by a bad illness or just has a bad winter getting hit with every bug that's different that people who abuse sick days.

 

[Spoodleink]

What FMLA says and what is right is not always the same. The problem is that the government, in all it's glory, gets pretty liberal. I agree that it is a fairly good thing that one has their position protected if a real, genuine illness, family or otherwise, should happen.

The bad part is that they don't set up any clear guidelines to protect the employer and then we all wonder why companies are outsourcing their labor force. I have seen massive abuse of the FMLA system and it is extremely costly for business. A business hires people to do a specific job. If they aren't there the job either doesn't get done or someone else has to do it. The business cannot hire someone to replace the missing person because they have to leave that position open for when the FMLA person returns. That means that they usually have to pay time and a half to workers to cover the position. A very costly situation. I guess that when it was structured they assumed that everyone was honest...in today's world that is a pretty foolish thing to assume. At least with FMLA, you can plan to have the position covered and are not scrambling at the last minute to fill it.

They can hire a temp that's what every company I've worked has done to cover FMLA. And I'm pretty sure FMLA requires so kind of documentation. You can't just say my spouse is sick and be out for 12 weeks.