Average sick days

[daisyduck123]

I am amazed that some people get 10-12 sick days a year. If you are really sick that many days every year, you have one weak immune system.

As a public school teacher , I get 1 sick day/month....which means 10/year.

These are also to be used for when one of your children has a doctor's appt, dentist appt, or is sick. Teachers go thru these days very quicklly.

 

[JoanGirardi]

My employer does the PTO thing as well. Our extended sick bank hours don't kick in until we've been out 5 consecutive days, which usually doesn't happen unless you're going out on disability--I last used "sick" hours when my 15 year old daughter was born! They track which PTO hours are used as scheduled vacation time and which are from unscheduled call-ins to use as far as disciplining employees who call in too much. I'm with a previous poster--I used much more sick time for my kids being sick than I ever expect to use for myself! All those ear infections and stomach bugs added up.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I work for a major corporation. We used to have unlimited sick days, but that got abused. Then we switched to 10 sick days. More recently, we switched to a combined PTO policy. I get 6 weeks of time off each year to be used for vacation, sickness, running errands, or just not wanting to go into work. In a couple of years, that'll increase to 7 weeks. It's based on age and ranges from 3 to 7 weeks.

We can also work a 9/80 schedule that allows us to work 9 hour days M-Th and 8 hours every other Friday. The other Friday, we are off. That allows you to get lots of stuff done without needing to dip into your PTO. I still work most of my off Fridays (I love my job), but its great to be able to take them off when I'm tired or have lots of non-work stuff to do.

 

[Kath2003]

I am amazed that some people get 10-12 sick days a year. If you are really sick that many days every year, you have one weak immune system.

I had that amount of days off last school year. I'm a teacher and I got EVERYTHING going.

I get plenty of sick leave, more than anyone I've seen post on this board. England's a bit different to the USA in its approach to sick leave and healthcare, though....

 

[englishteacha]

We get paid leave, to be used for illness of ourselves or family members, or personal business (not vacation, though). We get 18 days a year and it rolls over. As a teacher in the north, where illness runs rampant in the winter, I'm glad for the 18 days. Maternity time also comes out of our paid leave, but as I'm not a new mom I'm not exactly sure how that works if you don't have 6 weeks banked (like if you've only been teaching a couple years in our district).

ETA: This year our district is "cracking down" on people coming in to school sick, both kids and adults. Especially with the flu this year, you must be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school/work. It seems to be making a difference because while individuals are out an extra day or two, fewer folks seem to be out at a time.

 

[mjkacmom]

DH gets unlimited (he has a senior position in a very large company and has been there for 20 years), and averages 1 every 2 years.

 

[kidzmom3]

at my work we do the pto system (paid time off), it can be used for Holidays off, vacation time, and employee sickness. There is not provision for staying home with sick children. So, if thats what your doing, keep it to yourself! Otherwise you may lose your job!

 

[taylor1293]

I'm also a teacher.

I get 10 a year. 5 of which can be used for personal days.

My husband works for a small business. Their employee's get no sick or personal days.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I get 12 per year, but unless I am really, really sick and document it, I wouldn't be able to keep my job if I actually took them. The days are banked from year to year and can be used all at once in the event of a serious illness or disability.

 

[Tina]

My company also gives 10 sick days per year. These can be used for personal illness, caring for a family member who is ill, doctor appointments, mental health days, etc. We don't get personal days, but we do get 13 to 20 days of vacation (depending on how long you've been with the company).

 

[Tinkerbell58]

I work for county government. We get 15 sick days a year and these days can accumulate. I've only used my allotment two times; pregnancy and birth of DS and DD.

We don't have state disability.

 

[skw444]

My company also uses PTO and we get 28 days to use however we want...personal, sick, or vacation.

 

[Feralpeg]

What about if you need to have surgery or something? I've only been at my current job just under 4 years and I have 6 weeks of sick time banked that carries over forever and increases every year. It also is quickly earned back if you use it. I also get 3 weeks of vacation every year as well as "E-time" instead of overtime. The vacation must be used and the E-time must be down to 80 hours by a certain date or they have to pay. NOBODY gets paid. But man, I sure do get a lot of paid time off!

When I had my DD, I was getting 4 weeks of vacation each year. We were allowed to carry over up to 3 weeks from the prior year. I carried over two weeks and took my 4 week of vacation to make 6 weeks for my maternity leave. We did not have short term disability at the time.

By the time I was 50 years old and needing a hysterectomy, we could add short term disability coverage to our optional benefits. When it became available, I started paying for it monthly through my regular paycheck. It was a small amount per month, but it came in very handy when I needed surgery. The short term disability only paid 60 percent of my salary, but that managed to get me through the 6 weeks I was off for the surgery without taking up my entire savings.

 

[DMickey28]

My DH does not get any sick days. He gets 15 personal/vacation days. He works from home so that makes a difference, if he is sick he just doesn't do much. He travels a lot so the time evens out in the end.

This is also a very large well known international company.

 

[dizchick]

I work for a large university. We are very fortunate - we get 15 sick days a year, 12 days of annual leave, 4 days of personal/family leave, 2 days of community service leave, plus we close for almost 2 weeks during our winter break and it's paid time off! Also, if we work over 40 hrs in any week we either receive overtime leave or pay (and I'm a salaried employee - it just has to be approved in advance). All that said, the pay school wide is lower than what it should be. I'd rather make more $$ and have less time off. However, they do pay for your school if you'd like to go. I'm almost done w/ grad school and it's been entirely paid for by the university. So, I can't complain at all!

 

[Carly_Roach]

Small company here. 10 vacation days, 5 sick days. No increase for how long you've been with the company. None carry over.

 

[blanq]

I have not read all the responses, but I do have a suggestion for the OP. Instead of trying to get your boss to increase the number of sick days, my suggestion would be that you ask him to consider revamping your traditional vacation/sick plan to a PTO (paid time off) plan. PTO can be used for sick OR vacation, giving you more flexibility with your time off. If this isn't an option, perhaps asking if you can carry forward your sick leave from one year to the next, would allow you to build up some time if you had a longer term illness. If that isn't an option either, then find yourself a short term disability policy (which I would recommend regardless of the plan you have at work, but since you work in the insurance industry you probably already know this). Finally, I assume you can use vacation tome when you are sick, if you run out of sick time.

I work in government, for many years we had the traditional sick/vacation plan, although vacation would increase with years of service, our sick leave did not, and that is not an unusual pratice in ANY industry. We happened to receive about 12 days of sick leave per year, no matter how long you had been there. Many people, like me, had oodles of sick leave that we would likely never use. When we transitioned to PTO, all new employees had to have that plan, but exisitng employees had the option of keeping the traditional plan, or going to PTO. I went to PTO.

The conversion to the PTO plan meant that I lost a bit more per month, in terms of total hours, than if I had kept the traditional plan, but I gained oodles of flexibility in how I use my time. In February I will have been with my employee for 20 years, and my PTO goes to 11.23 hours accrued per payperiod, so I will be earning more than an employee with 20 years of service who has the traditional sick/vacation plan. I will have about 7 weeks of time available to me each year. With our PTO plan, we can carry forward 500 hours from year to year. I currently have about 400 hours on the books (I also have about 400 hours of sick leave that I carried forward into my PTO plan).

I am a supervisor, and it has been amazing to watch how people manage their time when they have PTO. They naturally save their time for vacation, and minimize the time they call in sick. Employees who continue to have the traditional sick/vacaation plan, take more sick time. I guess this leads to another discussion about people calling in sick when they are not, but I promise I won't go there and clutter up this thread with a big debate!

 

[Minnesota!]

I get 144 vacation hours a year (goes up 8 hours each year of service...starts at 80 hours for a new hire), plus 80 hours of personal, and you can carry over up to 40 hours a year.

So anyway, at the beginning of 2010, I will have 224 hours to use however I want. You can use them interchangably, for whatever you want.

However, I always use all my vaca first in case there is that off chance I will have some personal left to carry over. I am carrying over 6 hours this year. I work for a very large ins. company.

DH gets 120 hours of vacation, 24 hours of sick time, and he accrues 8 hours of vacation for every 6 hours of OT he works (1 - 2 times a month). So in essence, he has about 240 hours to use each year. He works for a very small company - less then 20 employees. The pay might not be stellar, but the ins and PTO benefits are!

ETA - we do have "extended illness" hours, too. Which means if we are out for 5+ days, instead of STD, this is what kicks in. Again, its based on time at the company. I get 400 hours at the beginning of 2010. Was very nice when on maternity leave! STD didn't kick in until week 12!

 

[Judy in Texas]

One thing to consider with the PTO system is management expects us to forecast our vacation well ahead of time. There are 30 people in my group and we are only allowed 5 people out at a time, We have already had the first round of forecasting for 2010. Taking unscheduled days off is a necessity if you are really sick; but, highly frowned upon if they are a regular occurence. Calling in sick regularly on Mondays, Fridays, and the days before/after already scheduled vacation is unfair to the people who back you up and a fire-able offense.

We do have short term disability for surgeries, etc; but, we must take all available PTO prior to it kicking in. A bummer if surgery/illness is earlier in the year.

 

[aprilgail2]

I work for county government.
We don't have state disability.

We dont get state disability either- I took out a private disability policy to cover me.

One thing to consider with the PTO system is management expects us to forecast our vacation well ahead of time. There are 30 people in my group and we are only allowed 5 people out at a time, We have already had the first round of forecasting for 2010. .

We had to pick ALL our 2010 vacation in October of this year--and it is NOT changeable- what you pick you get....VERY hard to plan for things a year away! We are not allowed to take our sick time to care for a sick child either, you are supposed to use your personal days for that---though they never ask for any proof or anything when you are sick so we all take off to take care of the kids!