Hi,

My new employer whisked me through a lot of the job specifics, and one quote was along the lines of
*Actual numbers might be off.

I nodded at the time, have I misunderstood, but is it normal to use 'sick days' as extra holiday?

Sick leave is not normally used as extra holiday, but can be used for doctor's appointments or to look after sick family members. So if you've used up your ten days' leave with appointments and looking after your kid's bout with the flu, and then YOU get the flu, they'd rather you ask them for more time than try to come to work while sick.

People tend to use sick days as vacation days (i.e. they call in sick when they are not really sick).

The company I work for had a problem with this, so years ago they lumped vacation and sick time all into one lump "Paid Time Off". You get the time off for whatever reason you want, personal, sick, vacation, whatever.

If you have something like surgery where you will be out with doctor's orders, there is something we have called "Paid Time Illness". You have to back this up with the doctor's orders that you are not to be at work.

15 days of vacation PLUS 10 days of sick leave is really, really good for your first year there!

Rene

And so do people usually bring in a doctors note or call in sick each day?

I assume they don't just call in on Monday and say "erm, I'm sick and I won't be back till next Monday morning "

No, they don't predict ahead like that. LOL

You'll have to ask the company what their policy is on needing a doctor's note when you take sick leave. But around here, at my company, people just call in day to day. They might even say "I don't feel well today, I'm taking today and tomorrow off to recover".

Rene

Dh uses his as a mental health day, when he's sick and tired of his coworkers and wants some peace and quiet.
Or like yesterday when he broke down on the way to work, being late accrues penalty points and sick doesn't. Get enough points you get fired.

Employers tend to get very suspicious if you keep using sick time and often will then ask you to bring in a doctors note if there is a pattern that shows you may be abusing sick time. If you use all your sick days as personal time then you do get sick you will have to take time off unpaid. Dont forget that you probably will also get at least 11 paid holiday days as well as your vacation time.

Our company gives us 8 paid holidays a year.

Rene

I worked with a girl from South Africa last year and she made it her mission to have one sick day off every two weeks.! She got away with it for 9 months and then was shocked when she wanted to transfer to the Toronto office and not only did they say no but didn't renew her visa either. We had 20 days vacation, 11 paid Bank Holidays and 10 sick days.

Depends on the employer, they might let you take more time off but unpaid, or they might require you take short term disability and whatever provisions that fall under.

The requirement for doctors note and how long you are sick before needing one depends on the company and potentially the state.

Most states have zero holiday/sick time requirements.

I work for state government and at entry level we earn 8 hours a month of sick leave and 8 hours a month of vacation leave, we also get 24 hours personal time a year. On top of there there are federal holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, memorial day etc. So that's 12 days of vacation a year, but you can use personal leave for vacation too, bringing it up to 15 days. Personal leave can be used for doctors appointments and other stuff that comes up.

People do tend to take sick days when they aren't sick, but you have to keep it quiet, like tack it onto a weekend or something, but if you take a whole week off that might look suspect if you aren't actually ill. Just be smart about it, and don't leave your co-workers in the lurch. If they get pissed off they might complain and you could get found out.

It will depend on the employer. In some places they say "sick days" are for when you are sick and when you try to use them as vacation days, you may actually be terminated for abusing the system / fraud. In others sick days actually get added up such that when you leave you get paid for the un-used sick days.

With the exception of public employees (firemen, teachers, etc) there are generally no laws on how many / few days you get off for vacation or sick days.

[QUOTE=lgabriel73;10251591]Employers tend to get very suspicious if you keep using sick time and often will then ask you to bring in a doctors note if there is a pattern that shows you may be abusing sick time. If you use all your sick days as personal time then you do get sick you will have to take time off unpaid. Dont forget that you probably will also get at least 11 paid holiday days as well as your vacation time.[/QUOTE]

I only get 6 paid holidays a year - cheap B*******ds!!!!

Would be interested to know if any US companies employee mantaining a bradford factor of their employees.

I had to maintain this a team I managed in the UK for a while and it definately is an eye opener and catches "trends"

My boss recently told me Ihave 5 vacation days and 3.5 sick days left this year, so get them booked asap.....