In the U.S. employers have many ways of dealing with sick employees, some provide paid time off while others do not. Even those companies that offer paid sick leave have different programs. The first company I worked for out of college had separate sick leave and vacation time. All employees were given 1 week of paid sick time per year. My current employer has a different program, sick and vacation time is combined under the umbrella term called “paid time off” or PTO. At a minimum you get 3 weeks of PTO per year, how you use it is up to you. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type, for both employee and employer.
The Traditional Separate Sick Leave
The traditional paid sick leave looks something like this, your employers grants you a specific amount of time per year that you can be out sick and still get paid. If you are out of work for any other reason, like vacation, that time has to come from somewhere else. For employers this has several benefits:
1) Unused sick leave is generally not paid to the employee when they leave the company, unlike vacation time
2) With separate sick leave ill employees are likely to use the time and stay home rather than come in both unproductive and infectious
Of course there are drawbacks for employers as well, for one it’s another program to administer and track. This has an effect on business overhead. Also, employees have a tendency to abuse the system, calling in sick when they are in fact healthy. This happens because sick leave tends to be use it or lose it, you won’t get a bonus for never calling in sick and you won’t get paid for that time either.
Paid Time Off – Sick and Vacation Time Combined
A lot of employers have moved to a paid time off or PTO system that combines sick and vacation leave under one roof. It doesn’t matter why you are absent, the time gets charged to one account per employee. Many employers like this system because it is simpler to implement and track and less prone to abuse. Of course the drawback is that unused time is paid out to the employee when they leave the company, so it could cost more than having a separate sick leave that doesn’t get paid out.
It’s similarly a mixed bag for employees, on the positive side you potentially end up with more vacation time per year (provided you don’t get ill). Also you get the benefit of being paid out for any unused time when you quit the company. Unfortunately, if you do happen to get sick often, there goes your vacation. Also, with PTO you are likely to drag yourself in to work sick rather than lose precious vacation time.
My Own Experience
What has prompted me to look at this issue – well I am sick right now. I came down with some sort of flu/cold bug over the weekend and it’s persisted into the work week. I took Monday off hoping to beat back the big bad bug, but I returned to work on Tuesday. Since our time off is combined with vacation time, any days I miss due to illness are days I can’t use for vacation. With a wedding and honeymoon coming up this year, I’m trying to save up as many days as possible. If we had separate sick leave I would likely have stayed home another day or two to get better. FYI – our company does have a policy for serious, protracted illnesses. If you are hospitalized for more than 5 days, you can start charging the time to a separate account that has no limits and isn’t linked to your PTO. They aren’t completely heartless.
Which System is Better?
There is no perfect system when it comes to sick employees. Both PTO and separate sick leave have benefits and drawbacks for all parties, employers have to make the decision about what works best for their business environment. Most companies agree that having sick employees in the workplace is a bad idea. Allowing employees to take time off to recuperate, even if they must be paid to do so, usually benefits the business as a whole. Whatever the program your company has, make sure you understand your benefits to get full use of them.
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5 comments:
Ny previous company had no sick leave -- they just said "if you are sick, stay home. If you aren't, be here." But we got paid.
It was an honor system. I think that is nice because... technically you have unlimited sick days -- but if you don't use it all, you don't feel like you are "wasting it" by coming to work every day.
I only used a few days a year. This was in the Midwest though, where people are generally very honest and hardworking (by sterotype!)
My company offers separate sick time, 5 days per year. The employees I manage often have a soft-abuse system. They do contract/service work for various clients that changes day-to-day. If they don't have enough hours to equal an 8-hr day, they may use vacation or sick time to fill up balance.
As we have days without work for our core permanent employees, more and more of them are using their sick and vacation days to make up the slack. I generally turn a blind-eye to this.
Our company also allows people to go into a deficit with sick time and vacation - in Oct/Nov everyone came down with (at least we think it was) swine flu, and lots of people missed 3-5 days. We're a small company (50 or so employees), so it's pretty flexible.
In a tough economy like this, if you're out sick too long, they'll eliminate your position.
John DeFlumeri Jr
my current job offers no sick time. I get 5 paid vacation days per year.
I would be happy with what your job offers!
Some employees treat sick leave as an extra allotment of vacation days. Crack down by requiring employees to call in each day they are ill, requiring a doctor's note for serious illnesses, and monitoring patterns of sick leave use. Do you have employees who only seem to call in sick on Mondays and Fridays? Do some employees claim illness at the end of every year, in an effort to take advantage of unused sick time? Counsel these employees about proper use of sick leave and discipline those who abuse the system.
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