Should companies offer more sick time?

I get 10 days of paid sick time per year to use as I wish (doctor's visits or rest days), not counting the other 10 days of vacation I get. And trust me, people here use their sick days... I really think it depends on the company and how much they value their employees as to the benefits they get!

I don't get sick days, but I do get 26 paid days of vacation a year on top of holidays. I do have the option to work from home if I am sick, but not too sick for work. That way I can avoid using my vacation days when I am not too sick to work but worried about getting my co-workers sick.

I like having a general "paid-time-off" (PTO) instead of it being split into vacation/sick. And, while I do agree that people should stay home while sick because I don't want your germs, I'm more than likely the one in the office while miserably sick. Don't know why I do that though.

Also, my feeling is that it depends on how the boss and the boss's boss do things . . . if they don't stay home sick than it's very unlikely their employees will. Just kinda breeds that environment.

Good post. I have worked for the same company for 26 yrs, lots of different positions in the company. Funny thing that I found.. When I was in an hourly job--and my pay was the same no matter what-- I noticed that my coworkers (and I )really used the "sick days" to the max. We were alloted X amt of sick days at full pay. But, when I went into Sales, and the pay is based on what you do each day.. the orders you put in, meetings with the customers, etc--and your pay increased (we were on Salary plus Quota/commission)-- nobody was ever too sick to work. Because in Sales, you need to be there each day.. and when you worked it directly affected your paycheck. There were no more germs/sickness in the hourly department than there was in the Sales dept. Just food (low calorie) for thought.

We don't have "sick days." We have PTO that can be used for any reason, and I feel it's a pretty generous amount. We don't really have a problem with people coming to work sick, and that may be why ... nobody really has to worry about running out of PTO.

my firm has a pretty generous pto policy as well. we still get people who come to work sick because they want to save their pto for their precious vacations. i don't care how much time you provide, people will still mismanage it to no end.

No, companies should offer more wellness time so their employees live more healthy lifestyles and are not prone to illnesses. just my $.02

While I agree with this, not everybody is going to do this. And the same people will be coming in and doing the same thing.
The people who do tend to get sick and then spread it are the people who take sh*tty care of themselves.

I'm lucky I have a reasonably good immune system, but I'm tired of hearing this crap!!!

I eat very healthy and I exercise. I rarely get actual illnesses. But I do have a week or so every year where I have allergies so bad (only the last few years this has developed) that I can't breathe and can barely keep my eyes open. I also get migraines from time to time that no amount of healthy living is going to rid me of entirely.

On top of that, no matter how well you take care of yourself, you're still going to get sick every once in a while. And if you have small children, it's even worse. I never got sick so often as when my daughter started pre-K.

Nice idea, but incredibly unrealistic.

I have had sick pay at my last 2 jobs but have only ever taken off probably 3-4 days total over 7 years, where as other people would take advantage and make sure they used up every sick day whether they were ill or not.

im now self employed so if i dont work i dont get paid, my husband gets no sick pay because his boss knows that people will take the p*ss with it, even when he was in a road accident and obviously unable to work he got nothing!

I think a few days should be provided for all employees, anything above that should be at the discretion of the employer or require evidence from Dr that the person is ill to ensure that sick days ar only used for when people are genuinely sick and not just hungover / feeling lazy / had to attend the same long lost relatives funeral 15 times! The money would be better spent providing benefits such as discounted gym memberships to keep employees healthier!

I like the idea of PTO vs. sick days. This encourages people not to call in sick for a minor headache, but also keeps people from using sick days just so they don't lose them at the end of the year.

When I managed a group of people, I would send someone home who appeared to be too sick to be productive or if they appeared contagious. I'd let them decide if they wanted to use PTO, "make up" their time, or just be docked. That seemed fair.

Regarding whether a company should offer more sick days just depends on how much they're already offering.

I wish more places would send people home when they're ill... People who are martyrs and show up not matter what is oozing from their bodies are a peeve of mine. IE, store clerks hacking all over my groceries, or a former coworker who was so proud of her "I don't take time off" status, but she'd literally sit next to the radiator huddled under a blanket. Yeah, you're HERE, but you're not WORKING. Go home and stop spreading your germs.

Amen to that! Go the *kitten* home with your sick azz!

Amen to that! Go the *kitten* home with your sick azz!

But to be fair, some people cannot afford to get docked. If more companies would be willing to let employees "make up" time, I think this would help. It was difficult for me to make an employee go home when she had no PTO/sick days, was a single parent, and was barely living paycheck to paycheck.

Several years ago now, my company released a study about how presenteeism (coming into the office when sick) is 3-4 times more costly to companies than absenteeism. The same day the study was released, they changed the policy from having unlimited sick days (generally not abused by most people) to 6 sick days a year.

Generally, I did not go anywhere near my number of yearly sick days because I can work from home, but there was one year I got severe bronchitis in March and then H1N1 in November. Being as I am an asthmatic, they got me on Tamiflu right away so that only kept me out of work for 4 days. (And let me tell you, I was so sick, I could barely drag myself into the doctor's office less than 24 hours after first exhibiting mild symptoms. It came on quickly.) I had to use vacation days that year for sick days. Ticked me off royally.

Even though I wash my hands religiously, I still manage to pick up multiple colds a year and they all somehow go straight to my lungs. Even with being much healthier I still wound up with bronchitis late last winter. (I found exercise last fall, and then started working with a dietitian early this year.)

And, I'm sorry, but rested, happy people make better employees than those who are in the office every single workday every single year.

Thank you! Happy, healthy employees produce more. You'd think it was rocket science the way some CEO's run their companies.

I wish more places would send people home when they're ill... People who are martyrs and show up not matter what is oozing from their bodies are a peeve of mine. IE, store clerks hacking all over my groceries, or a former coworker who was so proud of her "I don't take time off" status, but she'd literally sit next to the radiator huddled under a blanket. Yeah, you're HERE, but you're not WORKING. Go home and stop spreading your germs.

Amen to that! Go the *kitten* home with your sick azz!

A couple years ago I had been really sick on and off, which lead to me having to have an emergency appendectomy. I got short-term disability for the month that I had to stay home to recover, but as soon as I got back to work I got the flu (temp over 100), and then had one of my incisions not heal properly. I was, literally, oozing, but couldn't take any more time off because I had been sick so much (migraines, stomachaches - they think it was due to my appendix starting to go). Anyway, my manager kept telling me I was lying, even when an abscess burst and I was bleeding all over the place AT WORK. He finally let me go home after I started crying and begging him to let me go. So yeah, I was nearly fired because I was bleeding from my stomach... Oh, and notes from doctors? Nope. Notes from surgeons? Nope. Glad I'm no longer there. Gave me high blood pressure working there, too. Thinking about that hell raises it back up, heh.

Unfortunately offering more sick time involves re-budgeting everything as a whole... if they cant afford to add more, then be thankful you have any to begin with.


I work for a for a Corporate Food-related entity where our contract is at a private university. From day-one, we earn PTO that we can use after 30 days of full time employment. I earn about 8-9 hours per month of PTO that can be used for anything....

I pay $25.09/week for a comprehensive PPO plan with no deductibles or coinsurances AND it stays that low because of preventative medical programs Im participating with thanks to documentation proving it.


We receive about 13 paid holidays - and the best part is that if the holiday falls on a day we are normally scheduled, its DOUBLE TIME... you get the 8 hours you work, and the 8 hours of the holiday.

Because we are around food 24/7, illness is actually taken very seriously where many situations might require removal from the food environment.

There is no way my company could offer more sick time, otherwise, that $25.09/week insurance plan would increase up the WAZOO.... Im glad with what we have been given for a benefits package!


Staff has been excellent at doing their best, while working with a cold, they take the necessary precautions... but, there was one time a few weeks ago, I nearly fell over and could not get back up to a standing position... my ears felt like they had blown up in full pain in 0-seconds... I told management that I needed to get to the doctors right away because I was extremely sick and could barely hear anything (thought I had a blown eardrum it was so bad).... Turned out that I had a full blown inner ear infection that caused a VERY bad case of Vertigo.... Had to get on some strong antibiotics and the meclizine as well.

Figuring on the fact it was the day before my two days off, I would bring in a doctor's note just to prove how serious it really was, and they looked at me and said "seriously Melanie, you were definitely a hurting puppy, we know you werent faking it... go home and we will see you in the next couple days and if you need an extra day, call us the day before you are due..."

I was so grateful for their understanding....