It really depends on your company's policy, and how your manager enforces it. We used to have both sick leave and vacation time, before our company combined it into a single bank. Sick leave expired, whereas vacation time hit an accrual ceiling. Sick leave could be used in hourly increments, whereas vacation had to be used in 4 hour minimum chunks. There were reasons to hold onto a little bit of both, so I dipped into both banks while I was out.

Keep in mind, when you return to work, your child will get sick a lot if they're in daycare, so having flexible leave hours on hand (usually sick leave) is really nice to have.

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to research the rules where you work and then decide whether that's your best option.

I am a supervisor and have had a number of staff use up all their sick leave and some even take advanced sick leave for the birth of a child.

I am first using up almost all of my sick leave (all but 16 hours) for my maternity leave, then claiming paid parental leave to stretch my time off longer than the 12 paid weeks I get. I would caution against coming back to work with no leave, but if you'll have some vacation time banked that you can use in lieu of sick, then that works.

All of this.
It is always important to do your own research on the rules for your organization, and it is a terrible idea to return from mat leave with no leave available. You might not need any/much, but if you do, it will just make everyone unhappy to be scrambling. Ask me how I know.

I think you need to research the rules where you work and then decide whether that's your best option.

I am a supervisor and have had a number of staff use up all their sick leave and some even take advanced sick leave for the birth of a child.

I am first using up almost all of my sick leave (all but 16 hours) for my maternity leave, then claiming paid parental leave to stretch my time off longer than the 12 paid weeks I get. I would caution against coming back to work with no leave, but if you'll have some vacation time banked that you can use in lieu of sick, then that works.

Yes, I did sick and unpaid with a few vacation.

Assuming you are a private-sector employee, that is probably an okay idea. But agree - what are the conditions on taking vacation? Can you take it last minute if you or the baby is sick?

Anonymous wrote:YUP that's standard. Fun, right?!

Unless you’re a fed, in which case you can only use 6 weeks of sick leave, or 8 with a doctors note. You can take annual/vacation after that. At least before last month. Now feds have parental leave, but that wasn’t available when I had my kids.

What is the benefit of saving sick time when you can just use vacation to cover sick if you need it. Now, if they will not allow you to use vacation to cover sick time, it might be an issue. But in general, you always want to use up your use it or lose it time before the time that will always be paid out.

YUP that's standard. Fun, right?!

I had to use all my accumulated sick and exhaust my vacation balance before my short term disability (that I paid for) kicked in.

That's half the reason I never went back after maternity leave.

Have you double checked that your vacation policy allows you to take time for any reason? Meaning if you tell your boss you are sick, and then book vacation time, does the policy really allow you to use vacation? Will you be on leave during the sick time expiration window?

How much vacation time will you have when you return? Are you able to take some of the time unpaid? How much leave do you accrue monthly?

I would want to have at least two weeks of leave available upon my return. But if you spouse can cover any time off for the baby once you return, a week may be more palatable to you.

My work presented me their idea of how I’ll cover my maternity leave and it includes using up all my sick hours. They said it’s because sick hours expire while vacation does not, so I’ll have a few vacation days left if I need sick time upon return.

Does this sound right? Should I be pushing back to save some sick hours?