Where I work is the same way, on paper. In real life though the boss knows where everyone is at, and if you carry a few days into (or even borrow a few from) next year it's really just no big deal. Several weeks would be a problem, but one is not.

The understood policy is that you have to actually be sick. But everyone plays the game. There've been times when HR just let me use a few sick days over xmas holiday instead of taking unpaid days though. They are generally "cool" about that sort of stuff.

As a company they can't say "hell yea! take off a free day when you don't feel like coming in and just use a sick day!", but they don't require doctors forms or anything. It's an honor system type thing.

As a company they can't say "hell yea! take off a free day when you don't feel like coming in and just use a sick day!"

Why not? Our old company did and I never saw a problem with it.

Because we have vacation time and personal days allotted for that. If they were to lump the sick days and vacation time into one, then yeah, i agree with you. Then you just have a pool of days to do with what you wish. But, the bad side of that is if someone is legitimately sick for two weeks... then they get screwed out of having any vacation. I for one would much rather have it the way it is than to risk something like that. I've been sick for two weeks at a time in the past.

Yeah, I see. In our current company, there are no "personal days", just sick days, holidays, and vacation days.

What happens if you are sick for more than 10 days, do you not get paid ? Sound like a benefit of living in the UK finally...

Not sure. I'm guessing you could then take some sort of sick leave or disability?... i doubt they would just cut you off. I'd have to ask what the policy is on that though.

What happens if you are sick for more than 10 days, do you not get paid ?

Pretty much, at least at my company. My wife had surgery so I took sick leave to help her get back on her feet. After all my sick leave I had to start taking vacation time and working odd hours to make it all up. But that's the way it goes I suppose.

Here it 10hrs/mo up to 10yrs service, 12hrs/mo>15yrs, 14hrs/mo>20yrs, and 16hrs/mo after 25. Sick leave is 8hr/mo. no accrual limit. Vacation accrual is limited to amount that can be accrued in 24 mos. The supervisors make special visits to encourage some use of leave time if you loose any accrual.

Unused sick leave becomes additional service time when caculating retirement.

No buying or selling but, you may xfer sick leave to others with great need.

No buying or selling but, you may xfer sick leave to others with great need.

Now THAT is a great idea. Very cool indeed.

Since everyone else is posting, I get zero hours sick leave, zero hours vacation, and unpaid enforced holidays. Great, huh?

Since everyone else is posting, I get zero hours sick leave, zero hours vacation, and unpaid enforced holidays

Me too, like most IT contractors. Though I am paid well and my last six month contract lasted six years. I hope the current six month contract doesn't last that long as I'm not really enjoying it.

Since everyone else is posting

OK, why not...

You guys probably won't believe this, but I don't even *know* what my benefits are as far as time off goes.

I think I get two or three weeks vacation, but in the past ten years I've only taken about 10 days off of work (most of that was to go pick up the ShoWagon in New Hampshire and drive it back to Alaska.)

I did take half a day's sick leave when I had hernia repair surgery (I scheduled the surgery for a Friday afternoon so I'd have the weekend to recuperate.) There are maybe 8 or 10 days a year they don't let me come to work because of some holiday or something.

I am good enough at what I do, and have been doing it long enough and reliably enough, that I can do pretty much what I want here at work. If I want to take three hours in the afternoon to go over to the stereo shop, nobody will say a thing or even wonder where I've gone. If I want to play DOOM or Quake3 on my computer in the middle of the afternoon, the boss will come over and make fun of me because I let Xaero kill me yet again in the final level.

The money's not great, but it's enough to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly and pay for what few toys (empeg; ShoWagon; a few odds and ends) that I covet, and barring any really unforseen circumstances (hyperinflation to pay for President Bush's adventuring in Iraq comes to mind) I could quit working tomorrow and live the rest of my life in modest comfort.

It's not so much that I like my job. I revel in my job. I would much rather spend time here at work than face the uncertainties and discomforts of vacationing in some strange place where I'd have to make decisions in unknown circumstances and they wouldn't cook the food the way my Mommy used to make it.

The old saying about "...nobody on his death bed ever said 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office' " may not really apply to me.

And yes, I do have an appreciation of just how incredibly fortunate I am to be in such a position.

tanstaafl.

yes, but them that habitually burn off every hour they get, find little sympathy.

In reply to:

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No buying or selling but, you may xfer sick leave to others with great need.

Now THAT is a great idea. Very cool indeed.

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There is also something here called Family Sick Leave.

It's just regular sick leave when used to deal with an ailing family member. Very popular with the single parents.

Accounting for whether use is personal/family is part of timecarding.
There is a limit of 240 hrs use per year. I don't know any who came close to that.

edit: 240 limited also by accrual.

Tony

Do you have more about that "No loss of accrued time in Calif."

Unfortunately, I don't have any more information on it other than what I said above. I couild very well be completely wrong about it, since it was a point of contention when the new company took over ten years ago and the laws may have changed since then.

For those not aware of the situation in the UK, this is how I understand it to be:

Typical holiday provision is 20 days, with 25 increasingly common (most of the jobs I've had offered 25 days). These are paid at full salary. Longer service or contract negoations will often result in more holiday. I've never heard of any company offering reduced holiday to new staff, however it is common that you can't take any time off for the first three month probationary period.

Most companies won't rollover time without special arrangement and will reserve the right to make you take at least part of your holiday when they tell you to and at short notice (ie. if there's not much work on).

There are no personal days/duvet days/etc, just sick days (larger companies might offer personal days, but the're just sick days that you don't have to pretend to be sick for).

A company can't set a limit for the number of sick days you take, but they'll start asking questions if you take too many as it will be affecting their business. Some operate on 'sick events' so if you take a day off, you might as wekk take a full week, as they count consecutive days as one event.

As far as I am aware, there is no obligation for a company to pay you for a sick day, but many do so out of goodwill. If you have more than 5 days off, you can claim benefit (minimum wage) from the state.

There are various laws that protect genuinely sick people from losing their job, but I'm not aware of the details.