Support NeoGAF

[Hickbilly Deluxe]

to turn in my equipment or I'll be charged for it. First of all, my equipment is there.

I'm waiting for OP to suddenly come to the realization that he is paying for that equipment as well.

 

[Doc_Drop]

There is no paid holiday entitlement in the US like in the UK, as you probably know.

Some companies draw a distinction between "vacation" time, personal days (which are often but not always thought of as one-offs), and sick leave, any of which can be paid or not paid per the individual company's policy. Some companies combine personal days/vacation into a single category. Many companies also offer certain holidays (typically federal holidays like Christmas, Memorial Day, or Labor Day) as paid time off that doesn't count against the other categories. It's entirely the company's discretion.

I pretty much was aware of this already, but I still feel I need to say how much this sucks. How is this not a major issue in local or national politics? It seems the entire US workforce is being exploited

No paid annual leave....it's crazy

 

[Grimalkin]

Whhaaat? I didn't know that. What the fuck?!

I'm in Germany, and I have 30 days/year. I never even use them all because 30 days seems like a ridiculous amount. Unfortunately I don't get paid if I don't take them, I just lose them.

If you don't have a right to paid holiday, how do you take time off work?

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

Edit: Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

 

[TheCochese]

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

That's pretty fucked, even for someone who is used to how the system is here.

 

[MrChom]

....seems like a crap situation, OP. I've got nothing to help you with here, just some sympathy. I requested a holiday day once after I needed to replace my car on short notice (the engine kinda blew up) and got my request denied....my job relied on having a car to move site to site. I ended up in a hire car so I was effectively paying to come to work. I was fired shortly thereafter.

So glad I'm away from that job now. Find yourself somewhere new, OP, that's not quite as awful.

 

[Fluffernutter Pancake]

Did you ask for and get permission to use the personal days from your supervisor? That is usually SOP in most businesses --- prior approval required, particularly for lengthy periods of time. If not, then you probably gave your supervisor the excuse he was looking for to fire you with cause ---- weak and cheap cause, but legally acceptable cause (most likely). I hope it works out well in the long run for you, OP --- sounds like you are better with this position and supervisor behind you anyway.

 

[Rockandrollclown]

Eh, ordinarily I am in the camp of when taking a sick day you don't explain yourself. Maybe a "I'm not feeling well, won't be in today". Extending a vacation though, yeah probably want to explain yourself on that one because the perception is going to be that you just wanted an unscheduled vacation day. Especially in this case, on thin ice already, taking a day off following vacation, having an actual emergency. Explaining the situation to your boss would probably go a long way here.

 

[Faiz]

I pretty much was aware of this already, but I still feel I need to say how much this sucks. How is this not a major issue in local or national politics? It seems the entire US workforce is being exploited

No paid annual leave....it's crazy

To be clear it's not that no one gets it. It's that there's no requirement to provide it.

My experience:

In my non-professional part time jobs, I had no "paid leave", though employers usually worked with me so I could make up hours at another time so I wasn't "out" any income, and they had someone else covering my normal shifts. This isn't the case for all such jobs, but I was pretty lucky and have known others with good employers and similar experiences.

In my professional full-time positions (including co-operative internships in college), I've always had paid leave, both sick and vacation time. My current employer, which I've been with for nearly 18 years, allows us to accrue and roll over all of our paid leave; there is no use it or lose it here. (I realize I'm fortunate on this front, though I make sacrifices in other benefits of this job). You start off here earning one day vacation time and one day sick time per month. For every five years employment, your vacation leave accrual rate increases by 1/4 of a day though sick leave remains unchanged. That caps at 20 years employment when you are earning 2 days of vacation every month (and like I said, still 1 day sick leave).

The situation is different for every employer, but most full time jobs do get paid vacation in some form, it just isn't a legal requirement. There are problems with the US work culture but it isn't the dystopian hellscape that some discussions imply.

 

[HariKari]

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

Don't stay? If possible, look elsewhere. It's much easier to get a salary bump when switching jobs than it is to wait around for a raise or promotion. Fuck that review system.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

Where I work (a Fortune 100 company with offices around the world) – Personal days are defined as “one-off” occurrences
and separate than sick days. Like taking off for a sick child, close family member emergencies – we have to call in just like a sick day and inform management. My wife teaches and her personal time is banked and can be used for pretty much anything as long as she calls it in (she doesn’t get formal vacation time).

So OP basically went:

"OK, I don't actually have any kind of emergency that these days are meant for but I'm just going to stick a load in anyway because I feel like I'm entitled to."

Sorry man, I got no sympathy for you, that was a dumb move especially as your boss baited you into it.

 

[Kite]

Whhaaat? I didn't know that. What the fuck?!

I'm in Germany, and I have 30 days/year. I never even use them all because 30 days seems like a ridiculous amount. Unfortunately I don't get paid if I don't take them, I just lose them.

If you don't have a right to paid holiday, how do you take time off work?

lol it depends on the employer, most good companies are at least decent so they can keep good employees. For example mine, after a 6 month probation period everyone earns 8 hours of paid sick leave a month (8 hour work day so essentially 12 sicks days a year).

And you earn paid vacation time depending on how long you have worked there. <2 years is 8 hours of paid vacation a month for 12 paid vacation days a year. 5 to 10 years is 10 hours a month, 15-20 years is 13 hours a month. So even a brand new employee has 12 days of both paid sick and vacation days off for a total of 24 a year. 30 days like in Germany would be nice, but my stuff rolls over year to year so it's not too bad.

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

So OP basically went:

"OK, I don't actually have any kind of emergency that these days are meant for but I'm just going to stick a load in anyway because I feel like I'm entitled to."

Sorry man, I got no sympathy for you, that was a dumb move especially as your boss baited you into it.

Sort of: Op requested time off ahead of time, but on the day OP was to return to work they called in to request a personal day.

In my office people have done this but more as work from home, however we do have unlimited PTO

 

[FallingEdge]

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

Edit: Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

What the shit. This seems like a terrible place to work.

 

[Jezbollah]

OP, you got fired for more reasons that just trying to call in sick after several days holiday.

You were on a final warning. Ask yourself how you got there (that's rhetorical - we have seen your other thread).

You didn't get fired *just* because of this incident. Its multiple. Anyone with any common sense and value for their job would have not tried to pull of what you did on their last chance.

Hopefully you'll learn from this.

 

[Tarsul]

lol it depends on the employer, most good companies are at least decent so they can keep good employees. For example mine, after a 6 month probation period everyone earns 8 hours of paid sick leave a month (8 hour work day so essentially 12 sicks days a year).

And you earn paid vacation time depending on how long you have worked there. <2 years is 8 hours of paid vacation a month for 12 paid vacation days a year. 5 to 10 years is 10 hours a month, 15-20 years is 13 hours a month. So even a brand new employee has 12 days of both paid sick and vacation days off for a total of 24 a year. 30 days like in Germany would be nice, but my stuff rolls over year to year so it's not too bad.

Germany has 20 days for every full time worker (5 days/week), although in nearly every company it's at least 24 days and in most bigger companies (>1000 employees) it's 30 days. Usually, you can take your leftover vacation days over to the next year but have to use them in the first quarter then. Additionally, if you are sick you are still paid (no "sick days" nonsense), at least for 6 straight weeks (afterwards it will be lower, but you still get a share!).

Still a little jealous of teachers... but I can live with 30 days a year.

 

[Linkura]

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

Edit: Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

Why the fuck would you or anyone else work for your employer?

 

[WordsintheWater]

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

Edit: Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

Why would you ever work there? That just seems cruel as heck.

 

[gogosox82]

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

Edit: Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

Your job sounds horrible. No raise in 5 years? Can only get 2 days a year off? I really hope you are working on getting a new job.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

Edit: Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

wut

That's abysmal.

I've been with my company for six years, meaning I'm in the second-best tier of time off: 27 Days a year + most bank holidays. Those 27 days cover everything: Vacation, Sick Days, Random Day Off.

Thing is - my workload is so large that if I take 1 or 2 days, I spend the whole time keeping an eye on my emails; if I take a week, I come back to a disaster of an email inbox and a billion fires.

I end up wasting half my days off each year ... you don't get paid for them if they're not used. But because I have it better than most, I think, I try not to complain.

USA by the way.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

I run my own business and basically can't have take time off (within reason, I run it with my brother and we take it in turns to afford each other the odd long weekend off), so in the main it's a 60-70 hour week across 6-7 days.

But my employees always get their 28 days a year entitlement and never work more than a 5 day week. They often work through their break to finish earlier which works for me!

 

[Pastry]

I guess I’m just lucky with my employer?

Since I started my current job 2 years ago I have taken every single vacation day available to me and still gotten a promotion as well as a 5% raise this year. I haven’t talked to a single person here, and we’re a pretty large company, that feels uncomfortable about using all of their vacation. I’m in a corporate salaried position with a good amount of job security and so are all of the people I regularly work with here. Maybe it’s different for our customer service of hourly people? I’m in the US

 

[ApharmdX]

OP you pulled a stunt. Using sick days to extend a vacation was stupid when you just got off of probation.

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

Edit: Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

What? That's horrible. I work for the government as well. Starting benefits- 10 vacation days (increases by a week per 5 years of service to a max of 5 weeks), 12 sick days that can be taken without notice, and 3 personal days to be used for anything, along with 12 paid holidays and comp time. This stuff should be pretty standard.

 

[RangerX]

Its completely fucking batshit insane the US has no paid holiday days. I get at least two weeks here in Ireland, not counting bank holidays.

 

[shiftplusone]

So OP basically went:

"OK, I don't actually have any kind of emergency that these days are meant for but I'm just going to stick a load in anyway because I feel like I'm entitled to."

Sorry man, I got no sympathy for you, that was a dumb move especially as your boss baited you into it.

depends on the employer.

Where I work(IT at a bank) we get 2 weeks vacation, 2 personal days, and 2 "float" days(plus sick time) plus the actual federal reserve bank holidays

All of those can basically be used interchangeably for whatever reasons as long as we give proper notice, except sick days of course.

 

[bigkrev]

I worked at a call center earlier this year, and we accrued 10 days off each year, and it was useable in 15 minute chunks- which means you could take 90 minutes off if you had to go to the dentist or something in the morning. It fucking sucked because if you were more than 30 seconds late on clocking in at the start of the day or from Lunch, they took away a 15 minute chunk if you had one to cover for the time.

 

[Glass Shark]

.

 

[Gai Murakumo]

Where I work I get 10 paid sick days, 1 personal day no questions asked and 2 days for a funeral of a close relative. Vacations need to be known well in advance and you can take up to 10 days.

 

[Greedings]

Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

Wait, so if you're sick, you have to take a "vacation day" ?

If I'm sick, I don't lose any of my paid time off days, I just don't come in. I think it's allowed for 3 days straight without a doctor's note, then after that you need a signed note from a doctor for up to a week. I've only ever taken 1 sick day so far, because I tend to get ill when I go on holiday unfortunately.

I believe (but I'm not really sure, so take it with a pinch of salt) that you get full pay if you're sick for up to 4 weeks, then half pay if you're sick up to 6 months. Not entirely sure about it, but I remember some details like that. Other Germans will have a better understanding, since I've not been working here for long. It may also vary by company.

 

[Jacknapes]

I worked at a call center earlier this year, and we accrued 10 days off each year, and it was useable in 15 minute chunks- which means you could take 90 minutes off if you had to go to the dentist or something in the morning. It fucking sucked because if you were more than 30 seconds late on clocking in at the start of the day or from Lunch, they took away a 15 minute chunk if you had one to cover for the time.

That happened a few times in a call center where i worked, someone came in 1 minute late and they were told they would not be paid for the first hour and to start taking calls. They decided to disappear for that hour and came back.

Call Center jobs are just mind numbing. Any chance they get to penalize you, they will. Even down to restricting breaks because of the call volumes. No wonder it had a high turnover, and new people started every month.

 

[Doc_Drop]

Wait, so if you're sick, you have to take a "vacation day" ?

If I'm sick, I don't lose any of my paid time off days, I just don't come in. I think it's allowed for 3 days straight without a doctor's note, then after that you need a signed note from a doctor for up to a week. I've only ever taken 1 sick day so far, because I tend to get ill when I go on holiday unfortunately.

I believe (but I'm not really sure, so take it with a pinch of salt) that you get full pay if you're sick for up to 4 weeks, then half pay if you're sick up to 6 months. Not entirely sure about it, but I remember some details like that. Other Germans will have a better understanding, since I've not been working here for long. It may also vary by company.

In the UK the sick leave is even longer I think.

We do have high sickness rates in the UK but at least employees are mostly protected, have to given the DWP. Absolute scumbag decisions a lot the time

 

[h1nch]

Whhaaat? I didn't know that. What the fuck?!

I'm in Germany, and I have 30 days/year. I never even use them all because 30 days seems like a ridiculous amount. Unfortunately I don't get paid if I don't take them, I just lose them.

If you don't have a right to paid holiday, how do you take time off work?

The problem with the US is that employers are given free reign to determine their time off policies, so it becomes a function of the type of work itself, and specifically how easy it is to replace people. For higher skilled jobs, you'll find companies with very generous time off policies. Some companies have a 'take as much time as you want as long as it's within reason' policy. At my current gig I get 32 days a year plus more days off for volunteer time, though part of that is due to my tenure.

Folks who work in retail, call centers, shipping warehouses, etc. tend to get screwed since it's easier to find people skilled enough to do those jobs. Obviously the labor laws here need a massive overhaul.

 

[LegendofJoe]

To be clear it's not that no one gets it. It's that there's no requirement to provide it.

My experience:

In my non-professional part time jobs, I had no "paid leave", though employers usually worked with me so I could make up hours at another time so I wasn't "out" any income, and they had someone else covering my normal shifts. This isn't the case for all such jobs, but I was pretty lucky and have known others with good employers and similar experiences.

In my professional full-time positions (including co-operative internships in college), I've always had paid leave, both sick and vacation time. My current employer, which I've been with for nearly 18 years, allows us to accrue and roll over all of our paid leave; there is no use it or lose it here. (I realize I'm fortunate on this front, though I make sacrifices in other benefits of this job). You start off here earning one day vacation time and one day sick time per month. For every five years employment, your vacation leave accrual rate increases by 1/4 of a day though sick leave remains unchanged. That caps at 20 years employment when you are earning 2 days of vacation every month (and like I said, still 1 day sick leave).

The situation is different for every employer, but most full time jobs do get paid vacation in some form, it just isn't a legal requirement. There are problems with the US work culture but it isn't the dystopian hellscape that some discussions imply.

It is a dystopian hellscape if you're in the working class. My father is and he struggles to take a full week off much less anything more than that. I HATE it for him and dream of the day that he hits Medicare/SS eligibility and can retire so my family can actually spend time with him.

He and tens of millions of others make me realize how lucky my wife and I are to have 6 and 5 weeks of paid time off respectively that we can take pretty much whenever we want. And that's in addition to the week plus of holiday time we get. If I could give some of my paid time off to my Dad I would in a heartbeat.

 

[Jeronimo Jones]

I'm taking a pre-scheduled day off tomorrow. Even though it was awarded specifically for that purpose, according to procedure, I had to get it approved by my manager first.

If it was a sick day, I could just call in/email the morning of to let someone know.

It sounds like you were on thin ice already and stomped on it with an extra unscheduled day off with no notice. Hope you bounce back and are more careful next time.

 

[Poppy]

i feel for you, i have worked as a contractor and i never took days off because i knew i was just an expendable cog, i didnt feel good taking days off at my current job until i recently got salaried (now i basically assume i am free to do whatever i feel like).

call centers will fire you because of anything they want

 

[andythinkpad]

I pretty much was aware of this already, but I still feel I need to say how much this sucks. How is this not a major issue in local or national politics? It seems the entire US workforce is being exploited

No paid annual leave....it's crazy

This has to do with US never had a credible socialist or labor movement. The US has had much bigger and gotten much more protectors killed over anarchist movements. It's really bizarre when you think about it.

You can attempt to explain it with puritan work ethic or other shit but it really desert its own thread.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

The 3 days were for Sun. Mon. and Tue.

Today(Wed) I called in. I put in for Sun. Mon. and Tue. weeks ago and it was approved.

So you called in on the morning of the day you wanted off to say you wouldn't be there? What's the policy for how much notice is required, because that seems like awfully short notice. I realise what you're saying about them being a shitty employer anyway, but I don't think taking days off works like that.

Also, it sounds like employees rights in the USA are fucking shameful.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

Edit: Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

That's awful. What happens if you get mandatory jury service?

Why the fuck aren't there basic employee rights for fuck's sake?!

 

[andythinkpad]

Wait, so if you're sick, you have to take a "vacation day" ?

If I'm sick, I don't lose any of my paid time off days, I just don't come in. I think it's allowed for 3 days straight without a doctor's note, then after that you need a signed note from a doctor for up to a week. I've only ever taken 1 sick day so far, because I tend to get ill when I go on holiday unfortunately.

I believe (but I'm not really sure, so take it with a pinch of salt) that you get full pay if you're sick for up to 4 weeks, then half pay if you're sick up to 6 months. Not entirely sure about it, but I remember some details like that. Other Germans will have a better understanding, since I've not been working here for long. It may also vary by company.

When I worked for Time Warner Cable 10ish years ago, we got x paid vacations and 7 days paid "personal days". You are free to take these days no question ask, but that's all the paid sick day you are going to get.

In my current job we get no personal days, only paid vacation and paid sick day, but you have to show you are actually sick.

 

[Zoe]

That's awful. What happens if you get mandatory jury service?

Why the fuck aren't there basic employee rights for fuck's sake?!

There are laws concerning jury duty.

 

[bossmonkey]

That's awful. What happens if you get mandatory jury service?

Why the fuck aren't there basic employee rights for fuck's sake?!

Most companies have a Jury Duty policy. This usually involves handing the tiny check provided to you for your jury service to your employer and in return they pay your regular salary or hourly rate. It's basically paid day(s) of sick or vacation that don't count against your accrual.

 

[Astral Dog]

they are assholes, explain your situation they should pay you anyways for those days

 

[Faiz]

It is a dystopian hellscape if you're in the working class. My father is and he struggles to take a full week off much less anything more than that. I HATE it for him and dream of the day that he hits Medicare/SS eligibility and can retire so my family can actually spend time with him.

He and tens of millions of others make me realize how lucky my wife and I are to have 6 and 5 weeks of paid time off respectively that we can take pretty much whenever we want. And that's in addition to the week plus of holiday time we get. If I could give some of my paid time off to my Dad I would in a heartbeat.

And all of that sucks - but this response hangs on the definition of "dystopian hellscape" which is kind of a ridiculous keystone but hey I guess we are going there and I'm gonna have to define it and justify its use here.

Yes, your dad's situation sucks. Yes, the millions of people in his situation sucks. Yes, they absolutely should be treated better.

But dystopian hellscape = everything sucks for everyone and there is no hope for anyone. Which isn't the case.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

In many jobs you just don't take time off work.

I live in the US and at my current job I accrue 14 "paid time off" days per year, however it is written right into the employment contract that if an employee takes more than 2 days off per year (paid or unpaid) the employee cannot get a good score on the yearly review. Raises are based solely on your overall score on your yearly review. So if you take more than 2 days off per year you get no raise.

I would say well over 90% of the employees here haven't had a raise in the last 5 years.

I live in a state that has no employment law of its own, so employers are only regulated by the federal laws which are laughable. And by the way, I work for the government, so this should paint you a pretty good picture of how abysmal labor laws are in the US.

Edit: Just wanted to add for clarification that the "paid time off" is an umbrella that includes sick days, vacations, and basically any other reason to take off work except FMLA time which is unpaid anyway. I have no idea if FMLA time would count against your 2 days, I imagine it would.

2 vacation days, wtf.

I get 3 weeks (15 days) a year vacation, 8 sick days, and 2 personal days that can be divided up into hours. Raises/bonuses are mandatory, but based on performance. Only vacation days carry over annually, up to 5 per year.

Of course, this is stark contrast to when I worked as a contractor, when I had zero vacation/sick days allotted per year - all time off was simply unpaid and had to be cleared with my supervisor.

 

[Just_myles]

I'm pretty sure they're supposed to pay those out if you don't use them. This sounds pretty shady.

As I understand they should pay you out if it is PTO, even if they let you go. You earned those hours. At least get those.

 

[Zoe]

As I understand they should pay you out if it is PTO, even if they let you go. You earned those hours. At least get those.

Depends on company policy and local laws.

 

[AkumaNiko]

I used to work at Quicken loans and they would down right belittle you if you requested time off. I dont know what it is like now, but it was rough back in the day

 

[schwabdizzle]

Depends on the situation. Did you ask in advance for time off or just call in sick. If you got approval in advance then fuck your employer. Calling in "sick" might be iffy, especially if you posted pics on social media or something that you are not sick and enjoying the day off.

 

[bossmonkey]

As I understand they should pay you out if it is PTO, even if they let you go. You earned those hours. At least get those.

Unless you live in California then odds are, no, you don't get that pay.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Personal anecdote here, but I have found that some jobs dislike you actually using those personal days that expire.

I've used most of mine this year and all the carryover I had last year due to illness and such and gotten some pretty rude comments from upper management and HR for it.

My wife is a grade-school teacher with many years of service. She has tons of personal time saved up but she almost never takes any of it. She says they really don't like it when teachers take their time unless it's an emergency or medical appointment and your contract might not be renewed if you do. It's kind of messed up but I can see their side of it too:

- You already get the summer off as well as other holidays
- Getting a sub costs them money and is basically a wasted day for the students
- It's disruptive to the kids and the learning process if the teacher is out often.

 

[waxer]

Wow at shit laws. Not USA but even though not high earner I get the legal 4 weeks and if I work public holidays can stretch to about 7. I get minimum wage to sleep at work on call through night.

What I tend to do is take my annual at once for long holidays and days in lieu from public holidays use to take long weekends from time to time

I keep building up to much leave. Owed about 7 weeks now and used 6 weeks in May.
They don't mind us taking 6 weeks at a time. Plus can cash in one weeks leave a year if rather work.

Thanks to a pay rise of 3.50 and already having a few hundred hours gathered that annual became worth another $700