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How? You haul yourself to a doctor and get a note/return to work slip.
No sane person would go to a doctor for a cold or when simply feeling bad. The doctor/clinic won't do anything besides taking your money. They will just send you home and tell you to rest and drink a lot of water. Unfortunately many people think like you. That's why some companies have such stupid policies.
My issue is I only get 2 weeks vacation and I never use sick days and we don’t have personal days. I want to take a trip to europe, which would leave me with 1-2 vacation days left for the year, which is hardly enough. What are your thoughts on using sick days if I need a Friday or Monday off for something?
Check your employee manual about their policies. Some say you can't use sick days with vacation days.
Ask your employer if you can take additional time off unpaid.
Or go get a job which starts people off with 3 weeks of paid vacation if it's that important to you. Or you could watch some travel documentaries from the comfort of your own home.
No sane person would go to a doctor for a cold or when simply feeling bad. The doctor/clinic won't do anything besides taking your money. They will just send you home and tell you to rest and drink a lot of water. Unfortunately many people think like you. That's why some companies have such stupid policies.
No, companies have stupid policies because there are those who abuse the policies. So go ahead and not provide one it requested to and see what happens.
In my working life (just under 50 years) I was asked for proof of illness three times, once when I was a factory laborer and had the flu. I was out for a week then but made the mistake of going back for one day and then took off the next day. That created two absence occurrences with a 30 day period which triggered the contractual requirement for a note. There were no sick days there. No work, no pay.
The other two times were towards the end of my teaching career. The one was when some sort of crud was going around and absenteeism was hitting 30%. The other was after a summer time cardiac event, which my Principal would never found out about except he called to get his password to access the AP scores and Mrs. NBP told him I was in the hospital.
The request at the beginning of the school year was payback for my being unavailable to give him his password.
Sick days vs vacation days aren't a good policy, especially when people start having kids. People with children take sick days for their children which is 'not fair' to people without kids, so people without kids end up taking sick days for other reasons.
The easy answer is for a company to go to PTO days, not vacation and sick days and just avoid dealing with any of this.
OP, to your point, when I had vacation vs sick days, what constitutes a 'sick day' is a fairly subjective term. I've never worked anywhere that required doctors notes for sick days, and I probably would never work somewhere that has so little trust in their employees.
The easy answer is for a company to go to PTO days, not vacation and sick days and just avoid dealing with any of this.
There was another discussion about this. It creates another issue - people don't take a PTO day when sick because they don't want to waste their vacation, so they go to work and get everyone else sick.
How do you bring proof for a simple cold when you feel terrible and just need time to rest? Also it's not a good idea to go to work and get everyone else sick.
Those who abuse the system would be the ones expected to do this, I imagine.
There's a school of thought that says "if you're too sick to go to work you should see a doctor".
Those who abuse the system would be the ones expected to do this, I imagine.
There's a school of thought that says "if you're too sick to go to work you should see a doctor".
If you are sick no matter if you are "too sick" or just a little sick, you are contagious, so it's better for everyone else if you stay home.
I took a sick day a week ago for not feeling well. I had all of the minor cold symptoms, cough, sneeze, headache a bit of fever, and I was dizzy because of pressure on my eardrums. I called in sick for one day, slept for most of it and had my wife pick up over the counter meds.
It wasnt worth going to the doctor, if I had dvenbeen able to get a same day appointment. Under your company’s plan I would have been docked a day if pay, or dragged my sick backside into the office to sneeze on people.
No you wouldn't. For one day out with no doctor visit you would have used either Personal Time (40 hours given every July 1, and which we have to use up before we get to use our Sick Time anyway), or you could have used Vacation Time, which you would have been constantly accruing on a weekly basis until you reached 200 hours. Both Personal and Vacation can be used for any absence. I've never not been paid when I have called in sick, and I usually charge it to my Vacation, because I will accrue those 8 hours back in 3 weeks (I accrue 2.77 hours/week of Vacation Time).
LOL. I would have to be desperate to take a position at such a company. I work in an office...with other people. Being at work "with sniffles" is one way to become very unpopular. If you are sick, you are encouraged to GO HOME and stay there until you are well.
Right... that's why the majority of the people I work with have a 30+ year work history. I'm at 16.5 years myself. Right now I have 480 hours of Sick Time (the maximum allowed, and I have all of it because I've never had an illness serious enough to justify using it), 20 hours of Personal (I receive 40 hours every July 1, and they have to be used up by the following July 1), and 159.80 hours of Vacation Time accrued (constantly accruing weekly at 2.77 hours per). I put in, and was approved for, all 5 weeks of Vacation I want to take off for this year, including 2 weeks next month, and we don't do that "list your 1st and 2nd choices" BS.
Like I said to someone else, I've never not gotten paid for any day I've called in sick. I've always charged it to my Vacation Time because I'll get those hours accrued back faster than any other type of PTO. Our Sick Time policy is set up for the precise reason that it prevents Sick Time abuse, because we require documentation that it is an ailment that will require on-going care, or is serious enough to justify a lengthy absence from work.
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