Paid Time Off vs. Vacation time and sick pay

How many of you still separate vacation time and sick time vs. just allowing hours or days of paid time off?

I have not seen too many jobs anymore that offer any vacation, sick time or holiday pay at least not around here. I have never had a paid day off in my life, it seems kinda cool but even when I had a job none of them offered anything like that.

We get X amount of paid time off , they ask for 3 days advance notice if you know ahead of time when you will use it . If you are sick then call up and tell them you are sick and you use your time off.

There was some talk in Milwaukee, WI about requiring employers to offer sick days. This spawned a changed over at many companies to offer vacation/sick day system. Many call it PTO, Paid Time Off. I'm honestly not sure if that ever passed in Milwaukee or not but decided I would just go the PTO route for my company.

That means that because vacation time and sick time are in the same pool a person could use all of there vacation as sick time. So if an employer is required to offer 4 sick days a year 5 days of PTO would cover it. Of course in that scenario if an employee were to use 4 days of PTO as sick time they would only have 1 day left to use as vacation time.

I'm not that tight on the PTO I offer. If an employee has 2 weeks of 'vacation' coming they get that plus a couple of days, all as PTO.

Holidays paid for the day , duh.
4 personal emergency "oh poop" days, used as needed, must call in before the end of working day.
5 sick days, must call in 30 min. before starting time.
1-4 weeks vacation time dependent on years of service.
Vacation time must be requested in writing 2 weeks before and management reserves the right to say no, this is not a good week, pick another.
If not used all leftover days are paid at the end of the year.

All are for full-time only, the high-school co-ops get jack.
Holidays start after 90 days.
Reduced number of personal and sick days for the first year, no vacation days until one year.

Bob

We tried the paid time off thing a few years ago. Not having "sick days" caused guys to show up sick making everyone else sick. They didn't want to use the time off for when they were sick. We went back to separate vacation/ sick time.

Current company does strictly PTO. I get 80 hours a year.

Former company gave 3 personal days and 10 vacation days per year. With tenure, the 10 vacation days grew to 15 and then topped out at 20 vacation days per year.

Sounds like Bob offers a sweet setup. I would love to be faced with the decision to take the vacation day now or get paid for it at the end of theyear.

kpotter said:

I have not seen too many jobs anymore that offer any vacation, sick time or holiday pay at least not around here. I have never had a paid day off in my life, it seems kinda cool but even when I had a job none of them offered anything like that.

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No offense but you must have worked for some real crap holes. Here in this area, it's pretty much standard for paid holidays, Vacation and some form of PTO or sick leave. Benefits are just part of doing business. The companies that don't offer benefits, get the left over crap machinists.

I have been at my current place 10 years - 20 days vacation+ 10 paid holidays + 6 days paid sick leave

Seems the current trend is just straight PTO days/ hours. Makes it easier to track for the employer and apparently limits some legal issues as well.

gator12 said:

We tried the paid time off thing a few years ago. Not having "sick days" caused guys to show up sick making everyone else sick. They didn't want to use the time off for when they were sick. We went back to separate vacation/ sick time.

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The problem I see, is people just call in as opposed to schedule their days, because they are ALL SICK DAYS.

Your guys think they are all vaction days, different strokes I guess.

Working in the states sucks, Here its law you get 4 weeks paid minimum for a full time position. Most offer more, partner who works in a local care home gets 5 weeks. Sick ontop of that, but here in the uk anything over 3 days you normally need a doctors note then get statutory sick pay which is bugger all.

Being self employed means none of the above applys of cause :-(

It depends on the state. I am not sure if it applies equally to hourly or salary. I got cauth on it in PA. If you take 3 days off sick, then you have to have a doctors excusse. If no doctors note, they can't let you back in the plant. I talked to a coworker years ago here in IN. They said, if over three days, then a doctors note to clear you for work. Presently, just vac days, one floater and get to bank two weeks.

At my day job, we just moved from a vacation/sick system to a PTO system.

Sick days or PTO, we've all called in sick so we could go fishing, hunting, goofing off, etc. Isn't that what sick days are for? Hell, you go to work sick so you don't lose any time to use when you feel well.

Dcrouch said:

Sick days or PTO, we've all called in sick so we could go fishing, hunting, goofing off, etc. Isn't that what sick days are for? Hell, you go to work sick so you don't lose any time to use when you feel well.

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It is supposed to work both ways.

If your sick, your sick and don't come in...just call to let us know whats up. A last minute call screws the schedule to hell in a small shop...but if a person is sick or a family member is sick or an emergency comes up you suck it up as a boss/ management and deal...

A personal day should be different. Wanna hit the beach on a Friday or go fishing, hunting...just work on your car...go right ahead...but that can be planned for a day when the work load is a light, planned when somebody else is not out on vacation. When someone can cover the position. Basically a little advance notice for personal days is important....unless your in a shop that can cover your position.

So what happens if you realy get sick in the US
Say 8 months after a caraccident
Not covered one way or the other

peter from holland

We get zero sick days, and 40 hours per year of service up to 120 hours max. Then one point per week that we come in on time working scheduled hours which is the equivalent to one hour paid off, so 52 extra hours a year.

Seems to work quite well, first year is rough though.

My company's sick leave policy (should say the co. I work for) is tough to beat: I get 6 weeks paid vacation after 30 yrs. The normal schedule works like this: 1st. year to 3 yr. employees get 2 weeks vac paid with the option of buying another week on payroll deduct; 4 yr thru 10 yr get 3 weeks off paid with the option of purchasing a 4th week; 10 thru 20 yr you get 4 weeks off paid with the option of purchasing the 5th week; 20 thru 30 yr and you get 5 weeks off with the option of buying the 6th week. 30 yrs + and you get the 6 weeks off paid with no option to purchase a 7th. Sick leave: 1st day off is paid. There is an amount of time off with full pay which varies with longevity, after 20 years you can get 6 mos. off with full pay, work another month and the 6 months begins anew. Many people use that before retirement to get new knees, shoulders, etc. Some people abuse it terribly, most are pretty good about it. I have 16 years perfect attendance, 10 years consecutive but 3 interruptions in 32 years for surgeries and a stroke. Kids always brought junk home from school and we were encouraged to stay home rather than spread bugs. Attendance better with the kids out on their own. Each of your absences is an 'incident.' Even though an absence is more than 1 day it is still 1 incident. For instance, and electrician fell from a ladder at home the other day and hammered his knee, basically destroying it, his absence will be 1 incident, though probably months long with surgery(s) and physical therapy. A 1 day absence for the 24 hr. flu is also 1 incident. An absence for 4 shifts requires a doctor's note and a company doctor release. Like I say, some abuse it terribly but there is a kind of protection racket: most employees want to keep this plan and realize that abuse will get it taken away so there is some not so subtle self-policing that goes on for those who abuse it. Who knows what happens in the future however; my mother wanted me to be a soothsayer but I couldn't see the future in it. KQ

peterve said:

So what happens if you realy get sick in the US
Say 8 months after a caraccident
Not covered one way or the other

peter from holland

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I'm guessing the duck is not a big star in Holland?
Bob

Long ago and far away, we used to get up to ten days of sick time a year at megacorp. Then, due to some abuse and studies that showed that 40% of all sick days were on Mondays and Fridays, management decided that taking sick time would become the basis for no pay raises, layoffs, etc. We had the the 357 rule, after 3 sick days in a calendar year, one would get a verbal warning, after 5 days, a written warning and after 7 days, a notice of discipline (time off without pay, 90 day notice or fired). Three days in a row required a doctors note or don't bother coming in. Even with a doctors note, it appeared that year end raises were negatively affected. So, like gator12 said, everyone came in sick as a dog, hacking and coughing and spewing germs everywhere. I recall one time, everyone in our section was sick with the flu at work, it sounded like a hospital ward. Productivity was zero to negative. In the long run, I think the policy hurt the company more than it helped.