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Vacation time should be combined with sick time

At work, should your allotted vacation days and sick days be combined, or managed separately?

  • Keep them separate!

    Votes: 462 70.6%

  • Combine them!

    Votes: 192 29.4%
  • Total voters
    654
  • Poll closed .

Deleted member 19844

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,500
United States
I'm sitting on 16 sick days that I have to use randomly (and lie about being sick) because I don't get sick much (2 sick days used in the past 3 years).

At my old job, vacation time and sick time were combined and it was great! I had 32 vacation days each year because of that.

It should just be a "paid time off" bucket for you to use as you see fit.

What do you think?
 
Meows

Meows

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,399
I like it being separated like that in case an emergency happens or if my family is sick. It kind of just piles up but my workplace is very lenient and accommodating. No doctors notes or anything.
 
Silence

Silence

Member
Oct 27, 2017
663
United States
Some places, it is combined (United States). Also, lots of workers don't get sick time.

If they did combine them, we'd probably just get less of both.
 
Meatfist

Meatfist

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,290
I could get behind that. The worst is when companies pay out PTO when you leave, but not sick time... if I got a new offer I'd probably mysteriously get the flu before putting in my 2 weeks
 

Deleted member 12224

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,113
Having separate sick days and vacation days allows you to earn more overall time.

In companies where it's simply Paid Time Off (PTO), you're not getting the combination of vacation days and sick days. If where you worked moved to a PTO system, you'd probably get your old vacation days number with maybe 10-20% more to compensate for lack of sick days.
 
Alric

Alric

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,944
Been like that at my place for 15 years or so. We use PTO, so can use it for sick, absent, vacation. We do have a separate 4 days to use for personal holidays too.
 
JK-Money

JK-Money

Attempt to circumvent a ban with an alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,558
TreadTalks said:
I'm sitting on 16 sick days that I have to use randomly (and lie about being sick) because I don't get sick much (2 sick days used in the past 3 years).

At my old job, vacation time and sick time were combined and it was great! I had 32 vacation days each year because of that.

It should just be a "paid time off" bucket for you to use as you see fit.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Keep it as sick days you never know when you are really sick or something you cant control happens in your life and you'll be lucky to have those days
 
Reckheim

Reckheim

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
9,365
I agree, people around me taking sick days like nobodies business and i'm just sitting here like a doofus.
 
mhayes86

mhayes86

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,244
Maryland
Sick days and PTO were combined at a previous job, and beginning next year, my current job is doing the same. I also don't get sick very often, so having the extra PTO to use at my discretion definitely helps.
 
Bigkrev

Bigkrev

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,304
We get separate pools- you can use sick time with zero notice (but you need a doctors note if you are out more than 2 days in a row), but vacation days need to be submitted at least a week ahead of time. We also get paid out 100% of our vacation days upon leaving, but only a percentage of sick
 
opus

opus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,296
Combined PTO means people come into the office when they're sick instead of staying home because they save those days for vacations. No thanks.

We get unlimited sick time, and generous vacation time, and they encourage us to use both of them.
 
fanboi

fanboi

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,702
Sweden
No, you should have unlimited sick days. If you are sick you are sick.

And add mandatory 20 days vacation per day.
 
Aranjah

Aranjah

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,185
If the new combined total of days is the same as the vacation + sick days were before, then sure, combine them.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the usual thing is to just cut the sick days and make the vacation days be used for both, though, at least in the US.

They're already combined for me, though.
 
Robin

Robin

Restless Insomniac
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,502
This is mostly how it is where I work. We still have two pools but it's very easy to use sick time for anything else.
 
Dylan

Dylan

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,260
What? No.

Being sick isn't a day off. It's a day when you feel like shit and don't want to infect your coworkers.

Why should somebody have less vacation because they caught a virus?

You aren't "sitting" on a bunch of unused sick days, you are just a lucky person who didn't get sick.
 
Hollywood Duo

Hollywood Duo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,740
Yeah absolutely not. If I'm out with the flu for a week I'm not interested in losing out on a whole vacation.
 
dots

dots

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,889
At my job they are combined and expire at the end of the year so you have to hope you don't get sick at the end of the year if you used all your time or lose the days if you didn't.
 
PMS341

PMS341

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt-account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
6,634
They should be separated but also proportional. Filling out a "Vacation Time" sheet after being bedridden feels a bit disingenuous, yeah? Not that anyone in America outside of CEOs and upper management actually get an appropriate amount of time off anyways.
 
Sephzilla

Sephzilla

Herald of Stoptimus Crime
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,493
Combining them is a terrible idea because all it does is encourage people to come into work sick in order to save their vacation time
 
Bear

Bear

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,859
I've had it both ways. Mine are divided currently and it sucks because I barely was sick this year.
 
Fart Master

Fart Master

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
10,322
A dumpster
Hayvic said:
But if you don't have sick days left and you have to stay at home you don't get paid?
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Yep, although I think either the government or local governments offer sick days too but employers never talk about that. Oh and this is considered something that good jobs have rather then standard since tons of industry have zero regulations and companies like Walmart especially avoid ever hiring anyone for real so they can avoid paying benefits.
 
Razgriz417

Razgriz417

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,105
our org has no sick days, just PTO though I doubt you'll get 16 sick days added right into PTO if they're combined
 
Dan Thunder

Dan Thunder

Member
Nov 2, 2017
14,017
The whole notion of having a set amount of sick days is just alien to me. If you're sick you're sick, having a quota makes no sense as you can't be sick until you hit a certain amount of days and then magically not be poorly for the rest of the year!

EDIT: Wish we did though. I haven't had a sick day in 13 years. I could take over 7 months off as holiday in that case!
 
Replicant

Replicant

Attempted to circumvent a ban with an alt
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,380
MN
Fuck no, you don't combine them. My sick time accumulates. I have roughly 8 weeks of sick time a year. 3 weeks of vacation. 3 personal days.
 

Deleted member 26394

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 30, 2017
231
TreadTalks said:
I'm sitting on 16 sick days that I have to use randomly (and lie about being sick) because I don't get sick much (2 sick days used in the past 3 years).

At my old job, vacation time and sick time were combined and it was great! I had 32 vacation days each year because of that.

It should just be a "paid time off" bucket for you to use as you see fit.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I have 20 PAID vacation days (just as every other working person in my country,) I have 10 PAID national holidays (just as every other person in my country.) If I'm sick for less than 30 days in a row, I get full pay from my boss. If it last longer, I can slightly less from the nationally funded insurance.

So nah, your system and thus idea suck.
 
MikeProtagonist

MikeProtagonist

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,290
31 vacation days per year here and unlimited* sick days.

* You don't get paid for the first sick day, but if you fall ill again within a couple of days or if there's a chronic illness that makes you have more than 10 sick leaves, you will get paid** for any extra.

** You get a decent*** percentage of your standard pay depending on how many days you've been away.

*** A word describing social security that the US can only dream of, but hey, freedom.
 
Violence Jack

Violence Jack

Drive-in Mutant
Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,663
So many people at my company were complaining about lack of PTO time (if you've been here less than 5 years, you get 10 PTO days and 5 sick days, and most bosses want a doctor's note if you have to use more than one sick day consecutively) that they finally combined them starting in 2019. So we all just get 15 days to use however we want. It's good for people like me that are salaried, and have the ability to work from home if need be. But it's a raw deal for the hourly workers who will flat out lose money if they or their children get sick and have used up all of their PTO time.
 

see5harp

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
4,435
Depends on your situation. For me, when you retire they convert all of your unused sick leave into service credit. Vacation does not convert this way and you are paid out in a lump sum. So I'd rather just keep them separate since you get less total if combined.
 
Angelus Errare

Angelus Errare

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,573
Racoon City
Until you get really sick and are in the hospital or out of commission for an extended amount of time. Happened to a coworker, always bragged he never got sick, until he got in an accident, spent 3 weeks hospital/bedridden at home.

People had to volunteer their PTO to him. I didn't but others did.
 
LastCaress

LastCaress

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
1,680
Sick days is a weird concept. If you're sick and have proof from a doctor, then you don't have to work.
 

QuigleyMcShine

Member
Jan 29, 2018
9,386
It's combined at my company. It results in everyone using a week and a half off at the end of December that they saved in case they got sick.
 
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