Some places combine sick time and vacation into “PTO”, others the accrual is so pitiful you’re lucky if you get a week’s worth of time off in a year.
My fiancé’s place of work is both of these things. She got really sick in August and burned through her PTO in a week, then had to go to work despite still being sick
I was the IT guy for a company in Georgia (USA). Despite the fact I was the only IT guy and handled our SQL databases/Exchange/AD/firewalls/etc (all the way down to punching down new phonelines for headsets going back to the dialer), I recieved 0 days PTO (sick time or other). I was paid $15.50/hr and dealt with insane shit that made me question my morals, but when it’s do thing x or not feed your son, you’ll do some stuff.
Thankfully I don’t work there anymore, but yeah, if time off isn’t mandatory, a lot of companies don’t offer it.
I’m not even American, I’m Canadian. Things are a shit show here too. I didn’t get PTO, vacation pay or sick days until I joined a union. So this was before then.
I remember my second job was working part time at a hospital for a while, which are run by the government, and I still had no PTO or any sort of protection or benefits.
Thankfully for BC, John Horgan’s NDP mandated that every British Columbian gets five paid days off, no matter if they are a gig worker or a kid doing their 1st job at the mall.
RIP Horgan ⚘ You did so much for the working class. The NDP removed MSP premiums, slashed insurance costs (I get annual rebates now), mandated sick days, took the tolls off of bridges, made contraceptives free, and made period products free in every school.
(He passed away last week)
You seriously haven’t heard us complaining? Most people get something but a few weeks is unheard of. I think most people I know who even get pto have a little over a week/year between personal and sick days
It took forever to get a corporate job but both corporate roles I’ve had provide decent PTO. Current job has 3 weeks PTO+ accrued sick time. The pay isnt good but at least I get time off.
Other people I know in more corporate roles have similar pto but without the accrued sick time.
The only time I didn’t get PTO was when I was working minimum wage jobs.
I wonder if the people downvoting you are misunderstanding your comment as saying “nobody should be allowed to call in sick for any reason, ever”.
The concept of sick days is ridiculous. Being sick isn’t predictable, so employers obviously shouldn’t be allowed to artificially limit the days you’re allowed to be. It’s a broken system that allows for such things in the first place. If you’re sick, you’re sick, and your employer has to accept that. If they don’t want to take that risk they should employ a robot.
Yeah, I heard that. Never hard that most don’t get any time off. You’ll notice I asked rather than calling bullshit, since I didn’t think it was impossible but thankfully it was just hyperbole based on what you say.
Well, keep in mind that even if a job gives us PTO, any sick days we use come directly out of our PTO. So if you only get 10 days of PTO a year and you come down with the flu then bam, that is most of your PTO gone. It gets worse, even if we have the days and want to take a vacation, they don’t have to let us use it and often it is very difficult to use our PTO.
You really don’t get any. You have to be well established in your career to be allowed to use it. You can’t really say “I’m taking a day off next week” and expect your job to not look for a reason to punish/fire you.
It exists but it is usually pretty slim. Usually works out to be 2 weeks a year or something, which if you have a family and go to regular doctors appointments as advised, by the time your done… No more time for an actual vacation.
The average person is supposed to go to the dentist twice a year, the doctor once, a dermatologist once, the gynecologist once. If Anything is wrong, like a cavity… you need another trip. So we are up to at least 6 half days off there.
So let’s say another 3 for the kids. 2 dentists, and 1 physical whether it be for general health or for sports. (Vaccinations? All that jazz). Now any parent would know we are undershooting these numbers by a lot, as we haven’t talked at all about a kid getting sick yet.
Parents/Grandparents need a ride to the doctor once or twice, assuming you divy it out over multiple kids. Maybe one breaks a hip and needs physical therapy your fucked.
Note none of this has included a single day that is ever considered to be a vacation, just half days and rushing around and trying to get back to work.
If somehow you get through all of this, what many people do is take their last couple hours of free time to fly to where their in laws are to celebrate Christmas or some shit. Which is why there is so much animosity surrounding the holidays. It is the last time that someone may have to spend to relax, and they end up spending it with others who all don’t want to be making large extravagant meals, putting up and taking down decorations nor spending money they didn’t have in the first place, to waste time figuring out some gift they feel obligated to give to someone that yes they care about, but really is obstructing their last few moments where they could actually take a vacation and relax.
Sick time allowance is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard as an European, if you are sick you are sick until you are not sick, it’s not the company that decides when you are cured.
WTF really? I know workers get fucked really bad in the US, but do most people not get time off at all?
Some places combine sick time and vacation into “PTO”, others the accrual is so pitiful you’re lucky if you get a week’s worth of time off in a year.
My fiancé’s place of work is both of these things. She got really sick in August and burned through her PTO in a week, then had to go to work despite still being sick
I was the IT guy for a company in Georgia (USA). Despite the fact I was the only IT guy and handled our SQL databases/Exchange/AD/firewalls/etc (all the way down to punching down new phonelines for headsets going back to the dialer), I recieved 0 days PTO (sick time or other). I was paid $15.50/hr and dealt with insane shit that made me question my morals, but when it’s do thing x or not feed your son, you’ll do some stuff.
Thankfully I don’t work there anymore, but yeah, if time off isn’t mandatory, a lot of companies don’t offer it.
I’m not even American, I’m Canadian. Things are a shit show here too. I didn’t get PTO, vacation pay or sick days until I joined a union. So this was before then. I remember my second job was working part time at a hospital for a while, which are run by the government, and I still had no PTO or any sort of protection or benefits.
Thankfully for BC, John Horgan’s NDP mandated that every British Columbian gets five paid days off, no matter if they are a gig worker or a kid doing their 1st job at the mall.
RIP Horgan ⚘ You did so much for the working class. The NDP removed MSP premiums, slashed insurance costs (I get annual rebates now), mandated sick days, took the tolls off of bridges, made contraceptives free, and made period products free in every school. (He passed away last week)
I hope your province gets it together.
You seriously haven’t heard us complaining? Most people get something but a few weeks is unheard of. I think most people I know who even get pto have a little over a week/year between personal and sick days
It took forever to get a corporate job but both corporate roles I’ve had provide decent PTO. Current job has 3 weeks PTO+ accrued sick time. The pay isnt good but at least I get time off.
Other people I know in more corporate roles have similar pto but without the accrued sick time. The only time I didn’t get PTO was when I was working minimum wage jobs.
The concept of sick days is fucking ridiculous
I wonder if the people downvoting you are misunderstanding your comment as saying “nobody should be allowed to call in sick for any reason, ever”.
The concept of sick days is ridiculous. Being sick isn’t predictable, so employers obviously shouldn’t be allowed to artificially limit the days you’re allowed to be. It’s a broken system that allows for such things in the first place. If you’re sick, you’re sick, and your employer has to accept that. If they don’t want to take that risk they should employ a robot.
Yeah, I heard that. Never hard that most don’t get any time off. You’ll notice I asked rather than calling bullshit, since I didn’t think it was impossible but thankfully it was just hyperbole based on what you say.
Well, keep in mind that even if a job gives us PTO, any sick days we use come directly out of our PTO. So if you only get 10 days of PTO a year and you come down with the flu then bam, that is most of your PTO gone. It gets worse, even if we have the days and want to take a vacation, they don’t have to let us use it and often it is very difficult to use our PTO.
You really don’t get any. You have to be well established in your career to be allowed to use it. You can’t really say “I’m taking a day off next week” and expect your job to not look for a reason to punish/fire you.
As an american Paid time off almost sounds like a myth
It exists but it is usually pretty slim. Usually works out to be 2 weeks a year or something, which if you have a family and go to regular doctors appointments as advised, by the time your done… No more time for an actual vacation.
The average person is supposed to go to the dentist twice a year, the doctor once, a dermatologist once, the gynecologist once. If Anything is wrong, like a cavity… you need another trip. So we are up to at least 6 half days off there.
So let’s say another 3 for the kids. 2 dentists, and 1 physical whether it be for general health or for sports. (Vaccinations? All that jazz). Now any parent would know we are undershooting these numbers by a lot, as we haven’t talked at all about a kid getting sick yet.
Parents/Grandparents need a ride to the doctor once or twice, assuming you divy it out over multiple kids. Maybe one breaks a hip and needs physical therapy your fucked.
Note none of this has included a single day that is ever considered to be a vacation, just half days and rushing around and trying to get back to work.
If somehow you get through all of this, what many people do is take their last couple hours of free time to fly to where their in laws are to celebrate Christmas or some shit. Which is why there is so much animosity surrounding the holidays. It is the last time that someone may have to spend to relax, and they end up spending it with others who all don’t want to be making large extravagant meals, putting up and taking down decorations nor spending money they didn’t have in the first place, to waste time figuring out some gift they feel obligated to give to someone that yes they care about, but really is obstructing their last few moments where they could actually take a vacation and relax.
The minimum for New York is 40 hours of sick time a year that has to be earned. This had to be fought for.
Sick time allowance is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard as an European, if you are sick you are sick until you are not sick, it’s not the company that decides when you are cured.
Same here in Minnesota, although that only started in 2024