Should parents be allowed to use sick days when their kids are sick?

[DebbieB]

My company used to have 3 "family care" days per year. About 3 years ago they did away with family care, sick days, floating holidays, everything is paid time off. I used to have 20 vacation days, plus 2 floating holidays, 3 family care (I have over 25 years with the company). There really wasn't a set limit on sick days but you became under disiplinary rules after 5 occurrences in a year. Now I have 30 PTO. If you are off for an illness, on the 6th day it becomes short term disability (with medical verification).

 

[Metsfan520]

We have no sick days and no vacation days, just paid time off days. I can use them for whatever reason.

Same with us.

 

[MM27]

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If you're dealing with a mental health issue, you are sick.. Mental health problems are illnesses..

I'm not talking about people with mental health issues, I'm talking about, and the other thread was about, mental health days. You know, "I'm stressed out at work this week, I think I need a mental health day"

My district gives us two family leave days a year. I have never used them because I don't have kids and I would feel guilty and feel like I was jinxing someone if I said someone else was sick, like my mom. One of the other teachers told me I was dumb for not using them because they don't carry over like our sick days do. So essentially, I've lost 18 days of sick time in my 9 years there. I wonder if I can use them to take my dog to the vet?

 

[C.Ann]

I'm not talking about people with mental health issues, I'm talking about, and the other thread was about, mental health days. You know, "I'm stressed out at work this week, I think I need a mental health day"

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Gotcha.. Mental health days that are job related and mental health illnesses are definitely 2 different things..

 

[Liberty Belle]

Wow. I don't see how they can employ teachers who are also parents, then. I usually save most of my sick days for when my kids are sick. It is allowed in our district, too.

 

[Liberty Belle]

The way I read the question is that you should use vacation or personal days. Or get grandma to come over.

We do not get vacation days and we get one personal day a year. The personal day needs to be scheduled at least three days in advance, though.

 

[daisax]

We get "benefit time." So much earned per week depending on your grade, plus I think some base number of automatic time. You can use it to be sick or to go to WDW. And if you don't use it, it rolls over into extended sick leave (what you'd use for a long term illness/accident) or you can cash it in for $$.

It actually is a very efficient system, because people are motivated to come to work and to schedule their time off. Unscheduled time off costs companies more in terms of employee productivity than scheduled time off, so it's win-win.

We do have to take 200 hrs/year, however. That includes holidays. If you don't schedule them, you get a letter telling you you'd better, or else. Not sure what happens if you don't.

 

[englishteacha]

We get "paid leave time" as well. It is for our own sick days, or that of a family member, and for "business that cannot be conducted outside of the school day." It is NOT vacation time. When my MIL, my dad, and my DH were all ill, I was able to take time off to take care of them. Until this year, many of my leave days were used to care for my loved ones. This year, I had my gall bladder out, so I used a chunk of them.

 

[Mysteria]

I work for the federal government and, at least in my agency, the policy is that you can use your sick leave to care for immediate family members illnesses. This includes doctor's appointments that you have to take them to. It sort of stems from the Family Medical Leave Act where 12 weeks of unpaid leave can be granted to care for a family member. While this policy of using your sick leave is not really part of it, I guess they figured that it logically goes hand-in-hand with it.

My DH too. FMLA is an absolute part of the time he can take off. If he doesn't have the time to take though it will be unpaid. For example they can't deny him the time to take me to day surgery but if he's used all his time off they don't have to pay him for it.

 

[ahutton]

I work for the federal government and, at least in my agency, the policy is that you can use your sick leave to care for immediate family members illnesses. This includes doctor's appointments that you have to take them to. It sort of stems from the Family Medical Leave Act where 12 weeks of unpaid leave can be granted to care for a family member. While this policy of using your sick leave is not really part of it, I guess they figured that it logically goes hand-in-hand with it.

I work for a private company, and our policy is much the same. If it were a "long term" issue that would fall under FMLA then you can use sick time to be compensated for days off. Sick kids, parents, spouses all qualify the same as if I'm sick.

FMLA says I can have up to 12 weeks for these things, my company policy says I can use my hours/days to be compensated.

 

[Boo'sMom]

Our personnel policy allows us to use our sick days (22 a year) to care for sick family members...oftentimes though, we use vacation days because we can't bank those like we can sick days. We get 22 sick and 22 vacation days a year, but we can't keep more than 44 vacation days on the books, sick days don't have a limit.