Sick while on vacation... Get vacation days back?

[holden]

So it we take a sick day but get all healthy by noon, but don't go back into the office, do we have to use up half a vacation day?

I think I heard one time that the benefits (insurance) company is actually that one that pays you out on sick days. The employer pays a bulk amount for all it's employees ahead of time, obviously something less than # of employees x max sicks days, because it's unlikely everybody will use all their sick days.

[eblend]

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Additionally because you are in a union, I'd pursue it fully.

I'm not in the union at all, I think someone assumed that or mentioned it earlier in the thread, but that doesn't apply to me at all.

At my place we get some number of sick days, I don't know how many, but I think in my 3 years here I have used two or three total, so I don't know what the policy actually is, nothing I ever have to worry about. At my old job it was 3 consecutive days where you could go without a sick note, at 4th day you needed a sick note and contact insurance, as it becomes a short term disability and the insurance company starts to pay vs your employer.

Anyways, talked to the boss this morning, and he said that he had to follow up with a few HR people and gave me the low down. In the states, for our company, it's absolutely not a thing, but in Calgary (each office has it's own HR), the top HR lady said it's absolutely a thing and that I should get credited, so I am getting credited my vacation days back. I looked at the calendar and it seems like my sickness was from Feb 14th to the 19th, which was a long weekend, so really I only get two days back, despite my boss being willing to give me 5 days, but I think he wasn't aware that it fell over the weekend.

Anyways, I will get 2 days back so that's pretty good, considering I didn't think this was even a thing. And like a few people pointed out, good companies provide all kinds of perks for their employees, and I work at one of these, so we have nap rooms, showers, breakfast at work etc, no complaints from me.

And I do love my job, and I look forward to coming every day, my team is great, we shoot the shits often, we all get along, doesn't feel like work really, despite getting lots of shit done. If I had unlimited vacation like some places do, I wouldn't take it all, like someone mentioned, you take advantage of that policy, you will not progress quickly in your career, simply because you are part time at best. Sometimes on vacation I look forward to going back to work, but maybe it's just me and my job, definitely wasn't the case when I worked at the government.

[dandia89]

i think people scoffing at it like it's such a stupid idea are the people that are apart of a poor work culture, or generally have flexible work schedules that doesn't really effect them. There are way too many times people just move on not confront an uncomfortable topic because they don't want to look like the squeaky wheel.

[TurboMedic]

Always funny union bashing in these types of threads. I have the ability to do this as well, and it has nothing to do with entitlement. Yah its a perk of the job. But I work in health care and do have limited sick time, and attendance management if you're absent too much (and that line is really low). I'll tell you what I don't have, I don't have bonuses, I don't have christmas parties, I don't have profit shares, etc. So its all a trade off.

And you don't have to like unions, and you don't have to be in a union, but even when you're not in one, you benefit from them. Your private sector non union jobs will have things in place to be comparable to a unionized job, for competitive sake. Don't think for a second that these "cushy government jobs" wouldn't be a shit show without unions. The government is a terrible employer.

[dirtsniffer]

Not really the point of this thread, or the derail topic, but I'm pretty sure that apples to apples private industry doesn't compete with government jobs.

[ExtraSlow]

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Not really the point of this thread, or the derail topic, but I'm pretty sure that apples to apples private industry doesn't compete with government jobs.

There are a lot of government jobs that compete directly with private industry. Governments have a lot of "general office" type jobs, accounting, IT, technicians etc.

[freshvibes]

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Wow the butthurt on this is hilarious. This is standard practice a lot of places, but it isn't even a perk. You get nothing extra for it. Yay! Got my vacation days back........... But now I have less sick days to use for the year. It's all even at the end of the year regardless how you code your time off. And honestly, I'd rather have the sick days left over, because you can use sick time whenever the hell you need it. Doesn't need to be requested and approved like vacation time. So if I was sick on vacation, I'd just let it lie, and then use my sick time as more days off whenever I feel like it.

Bingo.

We're allocated 15 sick days + 15 vacation days every year. The sick days carry over and any unused vacation days gets paid out at the end of year. We have guys that use up everything they have and guys that won't use any of it. The boss doesn't care how it's spent since it'll all be paid out eventually.

[dirtsniffer]

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There are a lot of government jobs that compete directly with private industry. Governments have a lot of "general office" type jobs, accounting, IT, technicians etc.

Sorry I meant that generally that private companies can't compete with the public sector regarding total comp

[Sugarphreak]

...

[rx7boi]

I never understood why sick days carried over. You should only use em if you need to and IMO it's not something that needs to accrue over time unlike vacation entitlement.

I know some nurses that have 6 months of sick time banked up over years and it's pretty ridiculous but I guess some job "perks" make more sense than others.

[jwslam]

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I never understood why sick days carried over. You should only use em if you need to and IMO it's not something that needs to accrue over time unlike vacation entitlement.

I know some nurses that have 6 months of sick time banked up over years and it's pretty ridiculous but I guess some job "perks" make more sense than others.

It's a pretty good perk if you end up on disability I guess?

Off note: we should have a poll to see who is OK with using sick days as flex days.

[D'z Nutz]

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I never understood why sick days carried over. You should only use em if you need to and IMO it's not something that needs to accrue over time unlike vacation entitlement.

I know some nurses that have 6 months of sick time banked up over years and it's pretty ridiculous but I guess some job "perks" make more sense than others.

Sick days are carried over where I work. Since I never get sick and I've been here for 17 years, I've hit the max and literally cannot accrue anymore. I have 490 hours of 100% coverage and 420 hours of 70% coverage (and 28 hours of "family illness").

The last time I used sick days was in September when I got hit by a car on the way to work. The day after the accident I had originally scheduled as a vacation day, but had to use a sick day while recovering instead

[ExtraSlow]

I guess one legit way to use up all that accumulated sick time is if you get a serious accident or illness. Using all that up before you have to start going to short-term disability would be great, and I think probably a lot less HR paperwork too.

[dandia89]

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It is a case by case thing IMO. I agree that some places you wouldn't want to speak up.

However it doesn't always indicate you having a poor work culture or bad flexibility. For me it is the opposite... my employer typically has my back. If I really need a day off, even if I have no sick days or vacation time they will still figure out a way to help me out. So I don't need to get super petty with my vacation hours.

In my case it is more like I don't want to be a squeaky wheel for the sake of being a squeaky wheel. I don't like it when people make my life hard for no reason, so I am not going to go out of my way to make other peoples life hard over something so trivial. Claiming sick time on your vacation honestly sounds like a hassle, and I prefer to be focused on the big picture.


That is just my take on it anyway. Again, depends on your situation more than anything.

This is a good point. I think I'd act the same, because I don't think it matters as much to me. I never really use my vacation time and I have the flexibility to work at home. At the same time, I'd understand if my co-worker who doesn't have the same flexibility went and asked. I wouldn't think less of him or think he's squeezing the company. Maybe that's his 'big picture'. Not sure where he's at. The replied on this thread really surprised me how judgmental some people can be.

[Misterman]

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It's a pretty good perk if you end up on disability I guess?

Off note: we should have a poll to see who is OK with using sick days as flex days.

It depends on the system really. If an employer sets up a use it or lose system for sick days, then by all means you better use them whether you're sick or not. If your company just has a policy to not show up to work sick, no questions asked, then it's kind of unethical to abuse that and use it for time off.

The problem is employers fear of conflict. They come up with these silly policies like being allowed 7 sick days a year, when nobody can control how often or how long they get sick for. It's a broken premise right from the get go, and sets up the employee to abuse it and use every one of those allowable sick days. Whereas if you just had a policy of allowing employees to stay home when they are sick, and not putting a cap on the amount of time. Then you'd have the large majority of employees doing exactly that, and a few bad apples that are taking 20 sick days in a year. Even letting the abusers slide, your overall sick time cost is lower. But if I was an employer and had an employee abusing that, I'd be having a meeting with them that would involve them either proving they had cancer or being fired. However most employers are afraid to address this, so they come up with the prior mentioned use it or lose it policies that hurt everyone and cost more money in the long run.

[HiTempguy1]

I'd do it. I think it's a bit silly that due to luck of the draw, I'd need to take my vacation time to be sick.

Should you not take a sick day if you are hungover from the night before? What about if you broke your arm doing something stupid and missed a day of work because of it?

I guess my problem with not taking the sick time, is that you are basically categorizing different types of "sickness", which seems silly.

Maximum amounts of sick days are absolutely necessary. Great way to spot problem employees. I RARELY take sick days, I took some at the beginning of the year as the cold knocked me down hard.

[colsankey]

Am i alone in thinking sick and hungover are not even remotely the same? I saw someone earlier mention taking a sick day for a headache, and now a sick day for hung over?

[lasimmon]

I stay home when I'm sick. Its just work. People aren't dying if I stay home. Important things can still be communicated by email/phone so whats the big deal?

My CEO sends people home who come to work sick. Fuck off with getting the rest of us sick because of your pride.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Am i alone in thinking sick and hungover are not even remotely the same? I saw someone earlier mention taking a sick day for a headache, and now a sick day for hung over?

Lots of people go to the emergency room with hangovers and headaches from hangovers, and they get seen by a doctor too - it's quite ridiculous, but our tax dollars pay for it all day long.

I agree with you that anything self-induced (and not contagious) should not be a reason to miss work or under-perform at work. If you know you are useless when hungover, don't get hammered on a work night. A sick day for a hangover is the same as just deciding not to come into work that day in my mind - that would be a vacation day.

[Disoblige]

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Lots of people go to the emergency room with hangovers and headaches from hangovers, and they get seen by a doctor too - it's quite ridiculous, but our tax dollars pay for it all day long.

Faith in humanity, lost.