# Company's sick leave policy **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 19, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companys-sick-leave-policy/245964 "2004-05-19T14:33:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Triss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Triss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triss)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companys-sick-leave-policy/245964/21 "2004-05-20T13:00:18Z")
> [@One and Only Wanderers](#): > > Is this an American thing? > \ > What’s behind these differences? It’s a Canadian thing also. I don’t really know what’s behind the differences exactly but maybe it’s just the hundreds of more years of civilization that Europe has on North America. Our corporate sick/vacation time structure is similar in Canada to the U.S. In Ontario, according to labour standards & guidelines, it’s 2 weeks vacation after one year of service, 3 weeks after five years, etc. I think there are guidelines for longer years of service but I don’t think they’re compulsory. Companies can offer more than the quidelines suggest, as incentive but for the majority of the middle-class, that’s it. Sick days depend on company policy which can diverge wildly even in companies in the same industry. Companies are not legally compelled to provide any paid sick time, but must provide up to 10 unpaid “emergency leave” days. I’m not sure what you mean by “bank holidays”? We have 8 public holidays annually. There are employers that go way beyond the minimum though, I happen to be one of them. But unfortunately, that does seem to be the exception rather than the rule. I think we have better maternity leave than the States in general, though. Although even this is only within the last decade or so, when I had my son 16 years ago, you only got 6-8 weeks. Now, it works out to about one year. What are the minimum standards in the UK? ---
**Author:** ![Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/41988e/32.png) [@Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dazzling_White_Diamonds)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companys-sick-leave-policy/245964/22 "2004-05-20T13:20:40Z")
> [@One And Only Wanderers](#): > > Is this an American thing? > > Im in the UK, and whilst i have only had two jobs, both let you hve time off (on full pay) if you are sick. My mother has recently had a heart attack, from which she has thankfully recovered, but she got 3 months (on full pay) on sick leave. We also seem to get more holiday days than Americans (I get 25 + bank holidays). What’s behind these differences? Not an American thing, necessarily, just differences in various benefits packages. I work for Purdue University, and I have to say our benefits here are really great. Sick time is separate from vacation time, and I would say that most of our managers have no problem with you using your sick time. My manager has absolutely no problem with it at all… I don’t think that anyone on my team abuses our sick time policy. I’ve been lucky to have worked for employers that know the value of their employees, and treat them well. I’ve never been made to feel bad for calling in sick. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companys-sick-leave-policy/245964/23 "2004-05-20T13:39:09Z")
We get about a week of sick leave, but the company isn’t terribly strict about long-term illness. You probably would need a doctor’s note or some other form of proof for any illness longer than a week, but I doubt most people would abuse that even then. No one’s ever given me grief for calling in sick, and I’d be offended if someone did. It’s rare for me to be so sick that I’d need more than 2 days in a row off. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companys-sick-leave-policy/245964/24 "2004-05-20T13:53:34Z")
The company I work for uses that barfed-up-from-the-lowest-pit-of-hell system known as “flextime”. Here, let’s lump your sick days and vacation days all into one pool, and so therefore we don’t care what your reason for not coming in is- it’ll just come out of your flextime. Sounds good, right? It’s not, though. Since every sick day is also a vacation day, and vacation days are a lot more fun, the system just encourages everyone to come into work sick, so they can have a nice long vacation (which, being in America, is only like three weeks, anyway). This means, of course, that if ONE person catches the flu, everyone ELSE is more likely to get it- which means that the end result is LESS production, not more. Hey, it’s the gift that keeps on giving! Luckily, the particular local office of my company runs things the right way. As Ellen, one of the best bosses I’ve ever had, said: “If you’re sick, we don’t WANT you to come in.” We just don’t report employees taking sick time. We also don’t report employees taking a “mental health day”, or running errands, or taking care of a sick kid, or anything like that. Everyone gets a decent vacation, every year. We’re all adults; we’re all trying to do the job the best we possibly can. If someone doesn’t get their work done, they get a talking to. If someone becomes a problem and abuses the system, we fire 'em. Simple. I’ve taken maybe three sick days this year. I’m going to make sure all my work is done, and take a month-long vacation in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companys-sick-leave-policy/245964/25 "2004-05-20T14:04:12Z")
> [@Triss](#): > > What are the minimum standards in the UK? [Employment laws UK style](http://www.rbsmentor.co.uk/employment_law/needtoknow/el_needtoknow_topic.asp?name=Holiday+Entitlement) 4 weeks paid leave is the minimum standard in the UK. The same site says the following about statutory sick pay > [@](#): > > Where an employee is absent from work due to sickness or injury, then he or she may qualify for the right to Statutory Sick Pay for up to 28 weeks in any period of sickness. After hearing some of the scare stories in this thread I appreciate these rights all the more [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companys-sick-leave-policy/245964.md?page=1)