We are a very rich country boasting about our wealth and sense of superiority, yet deep inside we are terrified to take many days off when sick. The American experience is quite fascinating and strange at the same time..

I usually get sick twice a year, so I average 5 sick days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:0

Haven't taken a sick day in 14 years

There's one of you in every office.

Lol, these people and the ones who are always up against use or lose leave are people I just don’t understand.

Anonymous wrote:0

Haven't taken a sick day in 14 years

There's one of you in every office.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rarely and only if I’m totally unable to function. Which is how I gave a bunch of people Covid when I only had a sniffle.

This is bad!
Weird pride wrapped up in not taking sick days.
Your company won’t visit you at the old age home

NP but mine is not weird pride, it's the fact that they'll add it to my service time for retirement.

always at a huge loss in real dollars to you. but as a taxpayer, thanks for your stoicism. say you had a years worth of hours saved. using 5 weeks of that leave would give you the same amount as you'd earn in 10 years of your pension increase.

Almost never when younger. I went to work sick. Boss knew it and insisted on it. It was the norm.
Wouldn't be the norm now that I'm much older and fragile.
Instead of having to call in sick, I simply retired.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rarely and only if I’m totally unable to function. Which is how I gave a bunch of people Covid when I only had a sniffle.

This is bad!
Weird pride wrapped up in not taking sick days.
Your company won’t visit you at the old age home

NP but mine is not weird pride, it's the fact that they'll add it to my service time for retirement.

Anonymous wrote:I took no sick leave at all during my federal career, and my sick leave was added my length of service for pension calculation purposes, resulting in a larger lifetime pension. I was rarely actually ill, and when I was, or when I needed to go to a Dr's appt., I just took annual (vacation) leave, as only a limited amount of that could be rolled over from year to year and the excess would be lost if not used.

so, you gave the federal government a years salary back (at your highest salary!) in return for a 1.1% higher pension payment. bless you and your math acumen. 😭

During Covid I took very little sick leave because I was largely working from home, and before that my DH handled a lot of the kid illness sick leave because of the nature of my previous job. I’m generally healthy as are my kids, and their routine doctors visits could be handled in less than an hour so during Covid there wasn’t a need to use much sick leave. Now that we have been returned to the office on a regular basis I take at least a half day of leave for their appointments (pediatrician, dermatologist, dentist, orthodontist) and mine, and sometimes I say screw it and just take the whole day. I have a ton of sick leave (several months in the bank and I continue to accrue) from the years where I didn’t use a lot.

Another fed here, I took just 1-3 per year for routine appointments and minor illnesses for the first 15 years of my career, then last year when I had a severe illness requiring months of time in the hospital I had that time saved up and never missed a paycheck. It’s frustrating that we don’t offer disability but if you save your sick leave it functions that way.

Typically 1-2/year. I rarely get sick and I don't have to take leave for medical appts as long as I work 5 hrs of the day. But I just got very sick (hospitalized) and had to take 2 weeks off so I was glad I had built up a lot of sick leave (they carry over from year to year up to 6 months.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took no sick leave at all during my federal career, and my sick leave was added my length of service for pension calculation purposes, resulting in a larger lifetime pension. I was rarely actually ill, and when I was, or when I needed to go to a Dr's appt., I just took annual (vacation) leave, as only a limited amount of that could be rolled over from year to year and the excess would be lost if not used.

.

No kids?

i have a child. My wife was a stay-at-home Mom. If she was unavailable due to scheduling issues, and my child needed an adult's presence for some reason, I again took annual leave.

The this job I have taken 3 sick days. At my last job I took every single one I was given because I hated working there.

As many as we need which is normally more than I get 🤪 but I also don't send my kid to school if he's giving any signals of being sick. He also has reactive airway disease so it's a bit of a pay now not later and 1 day off to rest and recuperate is better than 3-5 when he actually gets sick and worn down.

For example, he fell asleep on the couch one day while I was making him breakfast. I kept him home knowing he was getting sick. Sure enough he woke up with 102 fever.

Could I have sent him to school...sure. But I know my kid.

Anonymous wrote:I took no sick leave at all during my federal career, and my sick leave was added my length of service for pension calculation purposes, resulting in a larger lifetime pension. I was rarely actually ill, and when I was, or when I needed to go to a Dr's appt., I just took annual (vacation) leave, as only a limited amount of that could be rolled over from year to year and the excess would be lost if not used.

.

No kids?