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

[chicagodisneyfan]

Of course not!

It strikes me as dishonest and not the way I would wish to leave a job.

 

[Allison]

Dont flame me but yes I would use at least some if not all if I hadnt given notice maybe a day or two if I had.. Why? First this is part of your benifits. Employers determine your pay based in part by how much your benifits cost them. ie I have 20,000 for this employee minus what Im willing to give in benifits (say $5000) so I will offer them 15,000. It is already on the books as an outstanding payment on their balance sheet. You are not CHEATING your employer.

This is a business/benifit decison not a moral one. It is YOUR money.

No, it is not on the books as an outstanding payment. If it's not a liability that is paid out upon termination, it's not a liability that needs to be booked on the financial statements.

And it is NOT your money if the policy is that it is not paid out if not used.

 

[NaLisa]

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.

It worked similarly at my former employer but included salaried employees. Everyone got a certain dollar amount for each sick day not taken, and it was paid along with Christmas bonus. Cut down on the resentment some people felt at those who regularly took sick days, and probably made some people think twice about taking off if they weren't actually sick.

 

[WDSearcher]

I've used one sick day in 22 years of work, and it kind of bugs me every year when I lose that time. But I look at it as "contingency time". Hours that I earn to use "just in case", but not hours that I can use for "whatever".

In the case of leaving a job, however, I'd probably use one or two if I didn't have any personal time or vacation left. Although I'd likely tell my boss I was doing so. "I need an extra day to deal with ________, so I'm going to use a sick day on Tuesday. Is that okay?" In my company, I'd easily get a go-ahead, as long as I wasn't leaving a Tuesday deliverable undone. But I wouldn't keep calling in sick just to use the days. Last thing I'd want on my HR record is eight days of sick time right before I left.

 

[tlbwriter]

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.

We're able to bank a great deal of sick leave, which worked for me, since my 12 week maternity leave and 8 weeks after surgery were completely paid by sick leave.

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.

We have separate sick and vacation time (nothing is labeled "PTO," that's just vacation time and you can take a full or part day). For long term medical issues like surgery or maternity leave, you use your sick leave until it's used up, and then you use vacation time. I think we can't go on disability unless/until all of our time is used up.

 

[m&m's mom]

No, I would not but then again, I have been at my company for 20 years and have only called in sick 2 days- and we do not have PTO. I have begged and pleaded for PTO because it would benefit those of us who do not call in sick but I work for a very large international company so not easy to change anything.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Yes. I have. And if I ever go back to work, I would do it again if we were treated poorly when we had to use our sick time.

I knew I was going to be leaving my job several months before I actually turned in my notice. They had always treated people like they were lying when they called in sick or had to leave or be out because of a sick child. As a supervisor, I never treated my people like that but I got treated like that by my supervisor.

Getting to take my vacation time was like pulling teeth.

I was completely fed up so you can darn well bet I used every second of time I was entitled to and started using it up before I gave my notice and finished using my last 2 sick days the last week of my notice. It's not like I was going to be paid for it if I didn't take it.

I also believe companies should lump everything together and call it Paid time off. Seems silly to seperate time off into sick, vacation and personal.

 

[design_mom]

We have separate sick and vacation time (nothing is labeled "PTO," that's just vacation time and you can take a full or part day). For long term medical issues like surgery or maternity leave, you use your sick leave until it's used up, and then you use vacation time. I think we can't go on disability unless/until all of our time is used up.

That's nice that you are able to bank sick time. None of the companies I've worked for have allowed you to do that. It's always been a yearly allotment that doesn't roll forward.

I think at my company you probably *can* use vacation time before going to disability if you want to maintain full pay... but you don't *have to*. And with our current "no specific sick time" policy, I believe that your sick time basically resets after each incident. If you're out of the office a couple of days for a cold, nothing happens. If you're out 5+ days you will likely be moved to disability (unless you've made other arrangements, like vacation days), but you never use up all of your sick time. (Although they could start asking for doctor's notes if they think you're abusing it.)

 

[tomthebarncat]

Actually, the last American company I worked for had a policy about this very thing. When I gave my two weeks notice I was informed by HR, that if I called in sick at all during those two weeks, I would need medical documentation. If I did not provide it, then I would be coded a do not rehire, something that can follow me forever. My sister told me that she does ask this when checking references, if a potential employee is coded a do not rehire, she then inquires if it is company policy to not rehire former employees. If the answer is yes, no problems, if the answer is no, she then scrutinizes potential employee a little harder and more than likely will pass on offering them a job.

 

[ctinct]

I've actually thought about this a bit lately because I am starting to accumulate a bit of sick time. If you leave for another job, you are not paid for any of it. If you retire, you are eligible for a certain # of them to be paid to you, but the rest are lost. However, we are able to donate sick time to co-workers who have depleted their time. If I know I'm leaving far enough in advance, I am going to donate them, even if I do not know the person at all. They surely won't do me much good.

That said, I wish we had a choice of being paid yearly for some of them, at least, with the option to let some of them accumulate. I KNOW there are people I work with who call out when they are not sick, putting an extra burden on the rest of us. It kind of burns me that they are sitting home getting paid for a day off, while I am accumulating a ton of sick days I'll probably never use. (Although it is good to have them, I guess, in case of a major illness.) I like the idea of PTO thing, but I do see how it could lead to people coming in to work sick if they want to use the time for vacations, appts. etc.

 

[aprilgail2]

We get 12 sick days a year and can bank them year to year and sell them back to the company at the end when you retire--you can end up with a 20,000+ check. But I tend to take all 12 of mine every year so if I have any left before I retire I will be using every last one of them prior to retiring!

 

[brerrabbit]

I have actually had to deal with the costs associated with leave time in my job and can tell you that it is a problem that faces a lot of companies and has made a lot of them as well as public employers change their policies over the years. Companies do not "make money" when you don't take sick leave. Most companies and the accepted accounting treatment does it this way. They accrue for your vacation time either on the first day of the year or on an as you go basis. Lets say you get three weeks or 120 hours of vacation a year. The company will either expense the entire 120 hours on the first accounting day of the year and take the hit to expense or accrue 10 hours a month and spread the expense out over twelve months. When it comes to sick leave most companies will look at employee attendence as a whole and determine the cost of actual sick leave taken each year is and then adjust for the new year and accrue 1/12 of that a month in the current year. They do not expense everyones sick leave as the belief is not everyone will take all of their sick leave.

Public jobs like with the government, police and fire departments are a little different. They let employees accrue the leave over the years. The accrue each year the only problem is when you leave they used to pay you at your last pay grade. Even though some of those hours may have been accrued from early in your career when you made very little money. In Houston at least that changed after a Fire Chief resigned. He had gone to the fire academy at 17 years old and risen through the ranks of chief. He was paid something like $200k a year. After 42 years he call it quits and had accrued vacation and sick leave of over two years. They were forced to pay him over $400,000. Soon after the city council changed the rule and said you would be paid out at the rate it was accrued and you had to take it in the order you earned it. That way actual expenditures matched the actual accruals.

 

[Disney Doll]

No I would not, unless I was actually sick.

 

[cassie]

My company allowed us 8 days a year sick/personal time. In January, any unused s/p time was returned by way of check. I worked there for 32 years and never used up any time, except once for surgery, and I liked getting the cash back in January. Good spending money at Disney.

I just retired at the end of this past January and manage to use up all my s/p during the month as I wouldn't get any pay for it. Just accrued vacation pay is given out. After 32 years I feel entitiled to it.

 

[Respect]

Yes I would use them. I don't feel like I owe anything to my employer.

 

[Planogirl]

We have sick time and FTO but it's incredibly hard to get approved time off of any kind. I've started using sick time when I need time off just because otherwise I might be told no and my company never questions unplanned sick time. I hate it but I don't know what else I can do in some cases.

As for using sick time when you quit, I might do so before I give notice but not after. Unless I was really sick of course.

 

[Respect]

As for using sick time when you quit, I might do so before I give notice but not after. Unless I was really sick of course.

Right that is the key thing. If you know you're going to quit, use all your sick days (tell them you have Mono). They won't question it.

Then once you come back to work, give your 2 weeks.

 

[Big Cuddly Bear]

Probably not. I might be wanting a reference from that company in the future, and why leave my employer with a bad taste in his mouth? Plus, it just seems wrong.

You have a company this still gives references? Most of them do not do that anymore for fear of a lawsuit.

And yes, I have taken most, but probably not all, in my last job of 19 years. Hey, they were laying people off, so if they have no loyalty, I am not going to give much back.

 

[Allison]

Yes. I have. And if I ever go back to work, I would do it again if we were treated poorly when we had to use our sick time.

I knew I was going to be leaving my job several months before I actually turned in my notice. They had always treated people like they were lying when they called in sick or had to leave or be out because of a sick child. As a supervisor, I never treated my people like that but I got treated like that by my supervisor.

Getting to take my vacation time was like pulling teeth.

I was completely fed up so you can darn well bet I used every second of time I was entitled to and started using it up before I gave my notice and finished using my last 2 sick days the last week of my notice. It's not like I was going to be paid for it if I didn't take it.

I also believe companies should lump everything together and call it Paid time off. Seems silly to seperate time off into sick, vacation and personal.

Apparently, they were right.

 

[gracie1]

Dont flame me but yes I would use at least some if not all if I hadnt given notice maybe a day or two if I had.. Why? First this is part of your benifits. Employers determine your pay based in part by how much your benifits cost them. ie I have 20,000 for this employee minus what Im willing to give in benifits (say $5000) so I will offer them 15,000. It is already on the books as an outstanding payment on their balance sheet. You are not CHEATING your employer.

About 10 years into my career I learned my lesson. I was a workaholic never using sick days at the hospital I worked at. Then a coworker who never used a day in 15 years got laid off with 6months in the bank.. The employer took 6 month pay and put it right back in their books. It was a determining factor in layoff..Do you layoff and employee who makes more and you get a 6month salery boost to your books or a young kid who makes less and has nothing in the bank? They picked money over talent and loyalty.

This is a business/benifit decison not a moral one. It is YOUR money.

That being said if I had two weeks benifit and only two weeks left I wouldnt use them all. If I worked for a very small business that had been good to me and would be hurt I would be aware of the impact. However the bigger the business the more they seem to nickle a dime their employees. They treat it like a business decision and so should you.

Totally agree with you! I would use some as well, if not all. When our company switched from having a manager to a management company, we lost all of our sick time. Some people had 700 hours and I had like 500 hours. Weeks before the switch, I used like two sick days a week and left a few hours early everyday. Your not abusing the sick time, their actually abusing you by keeping your part of your salary!
So yes, I say start using some sick time.