Leave entitlements discussion

[Denali]

A lot of people posting here keeping close track of their personal (sick) leave. I've always regarded it as a benefit to use if needed and don't even know what my balance might be. Wondering if that is how the forum see it, or do some see it as an entitlement that they need to cash out one way or the other

Well being in payroll (or management for some posters here), balances are always available to me but like I said earlier, Im ok with having 100+ sick leave days because it means thankfully, I/family have not been seriously sick.

Ive had employees that you can set your calendar for a sick day off every 6 weeks, always a Monday or Friday.

For "keeping close track", some do, most dont. Amazingly, a lot of people still feel weird in asking about or questioning their leave entitlements and apologize profusely for asking about them. I dont see the issue, its their entitlement and they have every right to ask and I have to be able to prove with dates/applications ect that their entitlements are correct.

 

[blackcat20]

Sick leave is for taking when sick. After years of pushing through I finally learned to just take the time off when needed. No one else wants to catch your germs.

 

[Denali]

Sick leave is for taking when sick. After years of pushing through I finally learned to just take the time off when needed. No one else wants to catch your germs.

Uggh, my pet hate. The 'soldier on' mentality has to go.

I understand that for some you cant dial/wifi it in but for 100% of my office, as long as there is wifi you can work from home in an absolute emergency or yes, if you are sick then stay in bed or the couch and recover.

Ive told managers to tell people to go home because they wanted to be seen as a martyr more than actually performing - while infecting the rest of the office. Ive sent people home myself who said they were really sick and then thought it was OK to sit next to pregnant women.

You dont get an award for showing up sick and you dont get one for dying on the job so just say home.

Edit: We had one guy show up sick and 3-4 days later, we had over 30 people phone in sick. Its still referred to as Typhoid [Surname] around here.

 

[Pushka]

We have a car race next week that totally blocks access from our place and into the city. It’s a stupid concept and adds an hour of travel to our peoples day. We’ve told them to work from home. One person has a toddler who is frequently unwell - the exposure to child care issue. When the child is unwell we often check out mum too and if she’s looking a bit peaky then we send her home too. Hubby has to travel for work on planes and is prone to sinus anyway. A slight cold will always provoke an attack so he’s best dealing with them remotely when ill.

With air conditioning now the issue of passing on germs has escalated. No more open windows.

 

[cove]

Yes if someone really is sick then don’t take it to work. We offer free flu shots nationally and re-imburse any cost if not handled by our branches.
We haven’t had Typhoid Sally in any of our offices......thank goodness.

 

[blackcat20]

Uggh, my pet hate. The 'soldier on' mentality has to go.

I understand that for some you cant dial/wifi it in but for 100% of my office, as long as there is wifi you can work from home in an absolute emergency or yes, if you are sick then stay in bed or the couch and recover.

Ive told managers to tell people to go home because they wanted to be seen as a martyr more than actually performing - while infecting the rest of the office. Ive sent people home myself who said they were really sick and then thought it was OK to sit next to pregnant women.

You dont get an award for showing up sick and you dont get one for dying on the job so just say home.

Edit: We had one guy show up sick and 3-4 days later, we had over 30 people phone in sick. Its still referred to as Typhoid [Surname] around here.

I send people home, particularly the grad students who seem to think they have to be there (and I used to be like that when I was one). One sick person can take out half the office.

 

[VPS]

We have a car race next week that totally blocks access from our place and into the city. It’s a stupid concept and adds an hour of travel to our peoples day. We’ve told them to work from home. One person has a toddler who is frequently unwell - the exposure to child care issue. When the child is unwell we often check out mum too and if she’s looking a bit peaky then we send her home too. Hubby has to travel for work on planes and is prone to sinus anyway. A slight cold will always provoke an attack so he’s best dealing with them remotely when ill.

With air conditioning now the issue of passing on germs has escalated. No more open windows.

Thankfully I'll be away most of that time. I'd be happy to get rid of that stupid car race

 

[Denali]

Yes if someone really is sick then don’t take it to work. We offer free flu shots nationally and re-imburse any cost if not handled by our branches.
We haven’t had Typhoid Sally in any of our offices......thank goodness.

Strangely, the one year we offered free flu jabs to all staff, 100% of the people that had them was sick that year and it was the 2nd highest recorded sick leave taken/winter.

 

[JohnK]

A lot of people posting here keeping close track of their personal (sick) leave. I've always regarded it as a benefit to use if needed and don't even know what my balance might be. Wondering if that is how the forum see it, or do some see it as an entitlement that they need to cash out one way or the other

Personal leave is there to be used. No prizes for accumulated personal leave when you leave employment.

Doctor's appointments, sick family etc. I wake up in the morning with headache/migraine (even mild) there's no need to go into the office and suffer. And now with wife and daughter most of my personal leave has been used to take care of them when they are sick.

I think I have 2-3 days personal leave up my sleeve. I remember in 2010 when I had chicken pox I was off work for ~8 weeks. Most of that was unpaid leave.

When I had heart attack in 2003 I was 7 months into new job. I was off work for 3 weeks and they paid me sick leave for the time I was recuperating.

 

[Pushka]

Thankfully I'll be away most of that time. I'd be happy to get rid of that stupid car race

we are off to Melbourne for the weekend. Just wish the Government would have the guts to add up wasted manhours and other costs instead of only the income. Bring on Tailem Bend.

 

[kpc]

Yes if someone really is sick then don’t take it to work....

Unfortunately they come to my work place!! I have caught norovirus ( needed to go to A + E for a drip), flu etc at work!!

 

[blackcat20]

Unfortunately they come to my work place!! I have caught norovirus ( needed to go to A + E for a drip), flu etc at work!!

Caught a shocker this year from someone who came to work quite stick; took out a lot of people.

 

[VPS]

we are off to Melbourne for the weekend. Just wish the Government would have the guts to add up wasted manhours and other costs instead of only the income. Bring on Tailem Bend.

me too - head off on Wednesday

 

[JohnK]

We haven’t paid leave loading for years. People are paid above award rates but are not on awards.

Who's getting paid above award rates? In IT the employer has had control the past 15+ years. Below award rates and they couldn't care less.

Oh and we are paid fortnightly after the fortnight is up. A few years back they shifted payroll back another day. They can't shift any further as that would make pay day a Monday after the working fortnight finished on Wednesday.

 

[dajop]

A different perspective on leave, many countries are not as generous as Australia. In Singapore, in my industry at least MNC's strive to be competitive, so management types can negotiate somewhat (as I did when I changed companies), but generally management level roles tend to have 15 days annual leave + 1 day extra per year of service up to ~ 24/25 days per annum. Worker level roles have less. Generally it is use it or lose it, although wherever I've worked they've allowed 5 days to carry over to be used by a certain date the following year (most commonly end of March).. Another difference - in the three companies I've worked at here - they've all credited the full quota at the start of the year (and reconcile what you use if you leave the company during the year) vs I accruing at a rate of 1.67 days/month.

 

[GSP]

Of course, many do not have coughulative sick leave in their employment contract. Use it or lose it ...

Me? I have been self employed for 33 years ... no such thing as paid leave for me ...

So I have to utilise a 46 week year to estimate equivalents (20 days annual, 10 days public holidays, 10 days 'sick').

Would that not be 44 weeks?

 

[serfty]

Would that not be 44 weeks?

You'd think so, but the 46 is more of a standard. (A bit like the gorillas, step ladder and banana).

 

[blackcat20]

Looking forward to my year of paid mat leave. Now that’s a perk.

 

[Milboo]

It hurt to walk away from my Personal Leave balance when I changed jobs recently. I think I had about 6 weeks there as I rarely used it. Even if I was home sick, it was never bad enough that I couldn’t do at least half a day’s work - so it wasn’t taken as a leave day.

I also had flexibility to use it for other things - like when I was out with Vet appointments when the dog was seriously ill, if I just wanted to take a mental health day.

But we also had flex working - which allowed you to balance personal and work life.

In my last period of annual leave, I converted 3 days of it over to sick leave as I was unwell - not many people actually do this when they get sick while on AL but it can be done. I did mine on advice from HR.

 

[JohnM]

Looking forward to my year of paid mat leave. Now that’s a perk.

Outside of government, universities (effectively government writ large) and ultra-large corporations, I wonder how this is handled by SMEs?

@cove may (but then again, may not...) care to provide some insight.