How does your company handle sick time?

[MeanLaureen]

Dawn.. I did file FMLA with my company to protect me for sporadic absenses and appointments. They never had a problem with anything until this new boss decided to become a pain in the rear.

I can't believe I am giving up vacation time to take care of an accident that happened at their stupid meeting.

This same boss wrote me up (first time I've ever been written up in 21 yrs) because of two things.. one, she said I was preplanning taking days off and calling in sick. She said I did this because one week in January when I was really suffering from a lot of pain with the AOSD I asked one of my parttime employees that works morning shifts at another place in my mall to stop by everyday and check and see if we needed help. I figured that if it got too bad I would ask her to stay and I could go to my doctor. Of course on Friday I woke up and literally could not move. I called my assistant and told him it would be okay because xxx will be stopping by to see if you need help. My boss said that since I arranged for her to check in everyday I must have been trying to cheat the company by taking a day off and calling it a sick day. When I let her know that I by no means appreciated being called a liar about being sick she then turned the write up into saying that I didn't call her and tell her. In our op's manual it states that exempt employees (salaried employee - me) must file an attendance record when they have to take a sick day and send it to their boss. (which I did) If they are sick BEYOND one day they need to notify them by phone. I was gone one day but she still wrote me up.

I can't believe that my beloved company of 21 years has turned into this miserable place to work. I give that woman above and beyond what the other managers that are not dealing with health issues give.

 

[DonnaS]

That's awful Laureen.

I had problems because of migraines with the place I worked for 10 years. I ended up having my doctor write a note to put in my personnel file stating all that I do to minimize my migraines and time off from work.

It was really only my direct supervisor who gave me problems, but that was enough.

 

[Cindy B]

My Dh's company must be pretty generous then. He started with three weeks vacation, and have the option to buy/sell one more extra week.

He has about 25 sick days he hasn't used. I think he accrues them monthly, or something to that effect. I think its one per month or a fraction thereof. (It its twelve a year, its one per year, its its 10 per year, its like almost one day per month)


He's only called out sick once in the three years he has been there. However, he has some other employees that abuse the sick time (usually calling with hangovers every Monday morning). As soon as they run out of sick time, they have to start using vacation.

As for the kids being sick, I'm sure he would have gotten paid for a sick day if the kids were sick. Right now, I am home, so thats not an issue.

 

[RUDisney]

We give 5 sick days per year to non-exempt (hourly) employees. Exempt employees have unlimited time off, but unless they have been hospitalized, no one uses but one or two each year, and only when really needed.

As for time off for dr's appointments, we tell people to make up their time, if they can. Let's face it, if you take 1/2 hour lunch instead of an hour, or you stay late for a day or two, you can make up your time quickly.

As for personal time, there is no policy allowing it, although it is really at the discretion of the supervisor. I use an extra day off sometimes, or a gift certificate to a restaurant at other times, as an incentive to keep my best employees motivated. Sometimes, I just buy donuts.

Your boss sounds like an idiot. Oops, $.25 in the cuss can, we don't use that "i" word in our house... kids taught me that idiot is a bad word. Anyway, so it fits here. I think sometimes a new boss who doesn't know, or want to know your history with the company will not see all of the good that you do, but will nitpik on things that should really not be an issue.

As for FMLA, I thought that the company can make you take your vacation and sick time first, which counts as FMLA time because you're using it for your, or someone else's, ailment. Then, the rest of the time is considered FMLA. I could be wrong, but that's how it was explained to me when we used time for our adoptions.

 

[Potato Stix]

Don't you fall under the ADA act? Is that of any help to you?

 

[Kelsie]

All time I take off is coded as Vacation time.

 

[GoldenGate]

I earn 4 hours of sick leave every pay period (26 pay periods per year) and 8 hours of annual leave per pay period.

 

[jsmith]

Both my DH's company and Mine have employee managed time policies-we each accure so much time off (I get 16 hours per month and he gets 24) that can be used as needed-whether you call in sick, or take vacation. In both of our insdustries we this works well since you can take all the time as sick time if you need to with out penalty, although in both cases after a week is used short term disability kicks in. For us its great because we don't use alot of sick time so the extra can be additional vacation days.

 

[suzannen]

I can't believe how strict some folks companies are.

I have 5 weeks paid vacation plus 14 paid holidays; 2 religious days; early closings on Friday in the summer and 15 sick days (although I use only 1 or 2 a year). Doctors or dentist appointments aren't counted as anything and if your kids are sick, they believe you should stay home with them - they simply count them as one of the employee's sick days. If an employee has a real medical problem, they will work with the employee to see what sort of disability or part-time arrangement needs to be worked out.

It may be because I work for a non-profit foundation so they usually have great benefits. One of my closest friends also with a non-profit has been dealing with breast cancer and missing a lot of work and she says her bosses and fellow employees have been only supportive about her time away for the last 2 years.

Sorry you are having to deal with such jerks while having health concerns.

 

[Disney Doll]

I am a staff nurse at the hospital. We cannot make medical appointments for during our shifts hours, as then our patients would have to be covered by the other staff nurses, who already have their own patients to cover, so that, in effect, their load would be doubled. On occasion, it is possible to make an appointment for the end of the shift, and leave a FEW minutes early, but we are given Personal time for that, not sick time. If a non-illness related emergency arises, and we have to leave, we use Personal time. If we are sick, we call out for the whole shift. If we get sick at work and have to leave, then we get sick time. We usually avoid like the plague (no pun intended!)getting sick and leaving work early, because again, the unit is then left short of nurses, thus increasing everyone's workload.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by MeanLaureen
I can't believe that my beloved company of 21 years has turned into this miserable place to work. I give that woman above and beyond

A lot of people are feeling that way about their companies these days. Also, the not-for-profits I've worked for in FL are even worse. Someone above apparently lucked out with them. And I'm sure it differs a lot from state to state. FL is a LOUSY right-to-work state.