Foo - Work woes- sick leave?

I started this new job... I will NEVER quit a job without taking my vacation time first, since I start out with accumulated vacation time at my new job, and it will be over what's remaining of the calendar year. Having said that, I came over to this new place with the thought of having two weeks paid vacation. But now, they've explained that since the calendar year started a few months ago, I actually only get 7 days paid vacation. So I lose time off. I feel like I've been working forever and a day!

Sooooo... I was trying to figure out sick leave. I'm thinking that I could plan my trip for the full two weeks off, then use some of those sick days. I get like 5 sick days a year, and if I don't use them, I lose them. So my thought is, why should I let those sick days go? I should use them, right?

Sooooooooooo... if I lose my sick days, and I'm warned that they don't roll over, is it a good idea to use the sick days towards my vacation? I'm just wondering because every week, they want me to give them my vacaton leave. And when I go on vacation, I always go overseas. I definitely don't want to get out there, only to have to turn around days later to return.

Thoughts?

Koffee

Get a friend who's a doctor to write you a note ordering you to stay home for a week. If they ever call your house, set a voicemail greeting left by a friend saying you're bed-ridden and to leave a message.

Yeah, taking "sick leave" from an unfriendly work environment is a must!

It's actually not an unfriendly work environment. I just got screwed because I started later in the year. They do the leave calendar and pass it around every November. People get the choice days right off the bat, unfortunately. *sigh* I may have to wait until November to get that time off. By then, it'll be cold in Italy and maybe even raining. For that, I think I deserve extra time off. But the way it works, if I'm off, they have to call around and find someone to cover for me. And my boss has these choice holidays already scheduled to go. I just think she ought to make some consessions for me. If not, I should just harden my heart and call in sick while I'm still out of the country. Fortunately, I don't need a doctor's note. I just tell them I'm sick, and that's that.

Koffee

How about out-patient surgery? It's a reasonable scheduled use of sick time.

I don't know if I could fake that.

They know I'm out of the country. Conveniently scheduling myself for outpatient surgery might be a bit much for them to swallow. ;)

I'm mainly wondering if people in the situation where they have to use their sick days or lose it take those sick days as vacation, mainly. I just think it's not very fair that I lost some of my vacation time. I've been working nonstop for way too long... and at this point, I'm not scheduled for my next vacation until November, and on top of that, that's probably going to be during my regional meeting when they pass the leave calendar around, so I'll miss out on putting in for my vacation. Next year, I'm going to plan for 2 vacations out of the country and split my two weeks evenly, taking the vacations around holidays so I can extend them out even longer. It'll suck monkey balls to not get that extra vacation time. :(

Koffee

I don't know if I could fake that.

They know I'm out of the country. . . .

Koffee

Get a Doctor in the country you will be in to write you a note!;)

"Bike accident"

I am trying to burn sick and vacation time now as it looks like the grant I am on will run out June 30th. I think I would try to be up front with your boss about how you feel that you gat the short wend of the stick in taking the job because as you understood thing you should have gotten two weeks of vacation plus the sick leave. See what she says.

Nah- it's corporate, not her. I already exclaimed to her that I thought it was bogus about the vacation time. There's nothing she can do about it.

I'm going to take the sick leave as vacation time.

Koffee

Vacation time is a benefit that some companies offer. A lot don't. A lot of companies don't extend this benefit to first year employees. For those that do, earn as you go vacation time is pretty much standard these days. A lot of companies don't offer paid sick days. Most of the ones that do look at them as being sick days though, and for an employee to try and use them when they aren't sick would be viewed as a scam. Others offer them more as personal days, and really don't mind employees using them however they like.

If you are working at a place where new employees get to earn vacation time and have personal days that they can take right off the bat, it actually sounds like you have it pretty cush. As far as taking your 'sick' days, a lot depends upon how your company offers them, i.e. as sick days or personal days.

One of the best ways that I have ever seen to get fired, or at the very least to alienate yourself from the rest of your coworkers though is to scam sick days and vacation days into a nice 'yeah I know that I just started here but I'm going anyway' leave. People do it, but rarely pull it off without repercussions, mostly because of all the extra work load that gets dumped on the folks who actually just show up for work. In other words, it may be an okay practice in terms of what the company will allow, but even then the people you will be working with upon your return may never let you live it down.

Everybody who works has to make the choice as to which type of worker they want to be I guess. Where I work people who scam get run off. And generally those who don't pull their share of the work load don't last. If they do, they are not the ones who advance though so they leave after a while anyway. In my experience, your best bet is to be so damn good at what you do that the company will work with you over stuff like this just to keep you from going to work some place else. And if you work your butt off when you are there, most of your coworkers won't mind picking up the slack when you take your trip. It's just really hard to pull all of this together without issue when you are new on the job.

Good luck with your choices.

There was an article a month or 2 back about how American's don't get enough vacation time. I think with this job, I'm just going to let them know that I'm taking x amount of weeks off. And I'm going to let them know why I'm taking this time off. And I'm going to make it plain and clear that if I don't take this time off I probably won't be here in a few months (from that planned vacation time).

Vacation time is a benefit that some companies offer. A lot don't. A lot of companies don't extend this benefit to first year employees...

That's what you get for living in a state that cares more about businesses than companies. :p Most "blue" states have laws requiring at least a prorated amount of vacation days for employees during their first year of employment.

I agree with the rest of your post. :)

Rule, I'm sure you're right. But I guess I should fill in a few more blanks:

When I interviewed for this job, they told me I would get 10 days of paid vacation time for year. After they offered me the position, I decided to mull over it. My boss called me on several occasions and stressed to me several times about the 10 days off. They didn't tell me until about 3 weeks after I started that I wouldn't get the full 10 days.

I give 110% (or more) every day for that job. Four mornings a week, I open the fitness center. They open at 6am, so I make the conscious effort to get there by 5am in the event that there's some kind of crazy catastrophe or some other problem. I want to have the time to resolve it and not force members to wait in the hall or have to turn them away in the morning. I should get off at 2pm, but I normally stay until at least 3pm. Some days, I can stay as late as 7pm. I don't get paid for the overtime, and though my boss said I can come in late on days where I don't open, I just can't do that- I take on tons of responsibility there. I want them to know that they can count on me.

We're supposed to get a 30 min break besides lunch, but I rarely (if ever, cause I can't remember the last time I took one!) take my break or lunch. I mostly teach in the lunchtime hour, and when I finish, I usually have a bunch of administrative work. The other guy that works there gives about 60% effort, andn I really do feel his lack of participation. He spends about 40% of his day online on myspace.com setting up booty calls for that night when he gets off work. He can't teach a lot, comes in late, and often leaves early. But for some reason, my boss likes him- I do too, but dang! He's lazy and I pick up the slack and my boss seems oblivious.

I teach the majority of the classes offered, which is pretty tiring. I know the guy can't teach anything but boot camp and interval classes. My boss just hates teaching. So to save money for the comany, I teach the majority of the classes. Between all the admin work, the teaching, and riding out at 345am for about an hour and 15 min each way, I'm wiped out. I could use a vacation!

Anyway, I still really love my job. But I think that I will burn out if I don't get adequate time off. This is why I want to use my sick days. And they did tell us to use the sick days because they don't carry over... so that's what I want to do. But I do get the feeling they don't want us to flaunt using the sick days as anything besides sick days.

Having said all that, I still want to take a couple of days of sick days and apply them towards my vacation. Pretty much, I'm just tired.

Koffee

I would tell your boss exactly what you said in the post immediately above (leaving out criticism of colleagues or mention of booty calls). As a supervisor myself, I know how hard it is to find good, dedicated people. If they're smart, I think they will work with you to give you the time you need, which, apparently, is the time they promised. If they're not smart, you should be, which means start to shop your resume around. As you well know, Koffee, the cream rises. And the best is always in demand.

I just burn my sick days judiciously, in small bursts.

BUT, at my workplace, they are not sick days....they are "personal days", so you can use the time for anything from planned tardies "my car broke down, and I won't be in on time", to sanity breaks.

I like burning mine in two day bursts to give me 4-day weekends :)

Americans dont get enuff time off.
If you have paid sick time use it. Mental
health qualifies as staying 'unsick' or healthy.
After being out of the job market for years and having to
go through months of interviews after relocating here Im finding
a lot of companies give you accumulated time that you can use for
anything. There is no determining how you have to take it.
After 20 years of overtime and killing myself for no important reason at
all Im not doing it anymore. Not worth it.

I agree. I don't want to kill myself over this. I sent an email to my boss explaining my thoughts. When she gets in today, I'm sure she'll crap her pants and talk about it, then fight for it me with her boss- and perhaps I'll either get the vacation time, or I'll just start taking those personal days once my probation period ends.

Thanks!

Koffee