Would you use all of your sick days if you are leaving a job?

[disneychic2]

I wouldn't use left over sick days. What about your co-workers? It may leave them in a tight spot. I know where DH works, when someone is out sick it gives them so much added work!

 

[Diegosmom]

I work for a small company and the verbal policy is...if you are sick stay home...we dont have say 5 days or whatever it is just if you are sick dont come to work (and the upper mamagement is salery so we still get our regular check). But if I only took 1 day this year I wont know in dec that I have 4 days left...kind of a pain especially since in 2009 my husband was out of the country for 8 months and I have no family that is local so when DS was sick (or his daycare closed, they had a bunch of breakins) I would have to call out (FYI when I wasnt sick I would actually work from home and put in my 8 hours). Well my Oct I had been out of the office about 21 days (we get 10 vacation days) and I was told I could not take another day off...but in all the other years I have worked for this company I have only taken 1 or 2 days off for me being sick and no more then 2 for DS being sick (again I would work my 8 hours at home these days). So I guess the policy was if you are sick stay out but dont take more then x days off...love my company lol...

But if we did have sick days I would take maybe 1 or 2 but that was it.

At my old job I actually lost my vacation time (they policy was written weird, like technically you only earned the full time by Dec 31 but you could take it during the year,...it was weird) If I had taken it the week before I put my notice in I would have been all set but I didnt realize. After my boss turned my notice in to HR he found this out and told me if he knew he would have had me take my week and then put in my notice. But anyway I just wanted out of there lol. I didnt use any sick time during my 2 week notice though. I might have but I had just had the flu and was out like 3 days before I put my notice in.

Wow I will stop writing my book now ...lol

 

[stevenpensacola]

I would not do anything which would "burn any bridges".

Make sure you leave with class.

 

[tiggspring]

After I watched my co worker lose 6mo pay I began calling out when ever I was sick, headache etc. Then I was using them for what they were intended for. I think many of us tough it out then our coworkers get sick and we are not as productive. When you use it as you go along then the delema of what to do with sick time is no longer an issue and your co workers can handle a day here or there when you are out.

DH gets PTO which we love. Takes the guilt out of taking what is rightfully yours.

 

[Pakey]

No I would not. I'm on salary so it doesn't matter. At our company, unusued sick leave gets paid out every year with the Christmas bonuses to all of the hourly employees.

 

[cluvsdisney]

I would use as many as I could without causing a real hardship for my co-workers with the transition. Granted we don't get many but unpaid sick days are not paid out to employees - at the end of the year, at retirement nor termination.

 

[design_mom]

Not to derail the thread but it would be interesting to see some studies on work habits between traditional time off policies and PTO. (There probably are some. I just haven't looked for them.)

My company has vacation/personal days. Like Diegosmom's company, we don't have specific sick time for salaried workers. The policy is "if you're sick, stay home." Managers are within their rights to request a doctor's note for any sick day taken -- but generally don't unless they think someone is abusing the policy.

I know several people who have PTO instead of separate time. However, they seem to plan it all as vacation time and don't want to use any of it as sick time. (That is, they plan their whole year of travel etc, counting on using all their PTO days. Then, if they get sick, they have to decide between going to work sick, or canceling a vacation, so they go to work sick -- or claim to be working from home, but don't actually do much work.)

It'd be kind of nice to have sick time added to my vacation time (since I am rarely sick). However, I kind of like the idea that if I am sick, or need to have surgery, etc, that won't dip into my vacation days.

Previously (before my company was purchased by another company), we had vacation/personal days, sick leave, and a separate family illness leave -- so when your *kids* were sick, or you had to take an elderly parent to the doctor, or your husband had surgery, etc. -- you could take some time off. I'm not sure what kind of "day" that would count as now. Thankfully (knock wood) my kids have been healthy since the policy changed.

 

[LukenDC]

Not unless I was sick.

 

[Aisling]

I wouldn't use left over sick days. What about your co-workers? It may leave them in a tight spot. I know where DH works, when someone is out sick it gives them so much added work!

I agree with this. Even if i were leaving because I couldn't stand the whole lot of them, I still wouldn't use my sick days. I'd just count my time until I'm out of there. It would make me feel better about myself as an employee if I did it this way.

 

[jeepgirl30]

I would take 1 or maybe 2. Everyone has different situations. Here, we only get 3 sick days per year, use or loose. No banking. You may NOT use a sick day for doctor appts or for minor surgeries. yes I said NOT allowed. That must be vacation time. If you have a doc appt at say 9:00 am. You have to take a 1/2 day vacation at minimum. Now some managers will say just come in late and make up the time but if our HR person finds out it is a battle!

I travel some for work. A lot of times i have to leave on sundays. I get no comp time. Once I had to leave on a sunday where monday was a holiday my manager told me to take the friday prior off as my holiday. The HR person caught wind of it and all heck broke out. We went back and forth for a long time over it. I ended up losing a vacation day.

So yea, i take my 3 days sick or not.

 

[Kath2003]

In the UK, if you're sick for more than a week, most employers insist thatyou need a doctor's note to get your sick pay (you are entitled to some sick pay by law if you work more than ~16 hours/week, even if your employer doesn't choose to offer it).

To summarise, no I wouldn't "use them up" because you'd have to be genuinely sick, or really good at faking it, to convince a medical professional to give you this note. Plus - it makes a mockery of a system which I think is a really good one, I don't want to lose it so I'm not going to abuse it. YMMV.

 

[disneyquestions]

Yes. I was let go, and got screwed out of the 10 personal/sick days that I had coming to me. Right before my last day, I had to take half a day (should have taken the entire day off) and didn't use any of my sick days, just lost the $$$. Regret that decision now.

 

[KAMLEM]

It is already on the books as an outstanding payment on their balance sheet. You are not CHEATING your employer.

Maybe your employer does it this way but not all do. Where I work now we have PTO and it is accrued monthly on the books. As you take your time the accrual is reduced so in this case the money is there. At my last place of employment we were given unlimited sick time unless it was abused. This was never on the books.

I don't think it's simply a question of whether you are "CHEATING" your employer, it's a matter of work ethic as well.

 

[tlbwriter]

I wouldn't use left over sick days. What about your co-workers? It may leave them in a tight spot. I know where DH works, when someone is out sick it gives them so much added work!

But that depends on the job. Nobody does my job but me (there are several people with the same job but we work on our own projects). If I'm sick, no one else has to cover for me. I just have to catch up on my own.

My company has vacation/personal days. Like Diegosmom's company, we don't have specific sick time for salaried workers. The policy is "if you're sick, stay home." Managers are within their rights to request a doctor's note for any sick day taken -- but generally don't unless they think someone is abusing the policy.

What do they do if someone needs extended time off, like for a long illness, surgery, or maternity leave?

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

OP, I would not use them if I wasn't sick.

We are given PTO, sick time, and vacation time. If we run out of sick time, we can use a vacation day or PTO hours. Oh, and we are also given a floating holiday to use any day within the calendar year, but we do have to request that at least 10 days prior. We lose any PTO time left on our Anniversary, we can carry over a certain amout of sick time as well as vacation days, up to a certain point amount, but I hardly, if ever have sick time left. I think our company is pretty generous with these benefits.

Suzanne

 

[design_mom]

What do they do if someone needs extended time off, like for a long illness, surgery, or maternity leave?

I believe after 5 consecutive sick days, you are switched to "short term disability." I have a coworker who just got back from maternity leave, and one who will be having surgery next month, and that's what's happening for both of them. I think "sick time" pays at 100% of salary and short-term disability pays at a certain percentage of your pay (but I am not sure exactly what it is. I am sure it's in my benefits info somewhere, but I have never used it.)

 

[tlbwriter]

I believe after 5 consecutive sick days, you are switched to "short term disability." I have a coworker who just got back from maternity leave, and one who will be having surgery next month, and that's what's happening for both of them. I think "sick time" pays at 100% of salary and short-term disability pays at a certain percentage of your pay (but I am not sure exactly what it is. I am sure it's in my benefits info somewhere, but I have never used it.)

In that case, I prefer having dedicated sick leave. When I took maternity leave and when I had surgery, I had enough sick leave banked so that I could get full pay during my time out of work.

 

[design_mom]

In that case, I prefer having dedicated sick leave. When I took maternity leave and when I had surgery, I had enough sick leave banked so that I could get full pay during my time out of work.

Even when our company had dedicated sick leave, you couldn't "bank it." I think we got 2 weeks per year, but you couldn't carry it over from one year to the next, so there'd by no way to save up to cover the whole leave with sick time. Maternity leave/surgery was still short term disability.

But I think, under my sister's PTO plan, she'd have to use all of her PTO before she could go to disability... which would mean that surgery/maternity leave would eat up her entire PTO budget and she couldn't take any other time off during the year. I wouldn't like that either.

 

[Schmeck]

There's a great chance that I am getting laid off in a month. In the past I would schedule doctor appointments for after work, etc, but now I am using up a few of my sick days for appts that I have put off for so long. We can use sick days for doctor's appts. I have quite a few saved up from the past 8years, and will not get compensation for any of them when I am let go.

I also have one personal day to use up, but I'm not sure I have a need for it, so it will most likely not get used.

 

[tazdev3225]

I would and I did. I worked for the city and we roll over unused time. When you retire sick time is paid out 3 to 1. I was going out early on a disability retirement so my supervisor actually told me to "sick out" until I only had 3 days left before seeing medical for the retirement approval, which was approved. I wasn't sick but I was not physically able to do my job.