I hosted a Super Bowl Party for the first time this year.
A few days before, I told my boss there was a good chance I would be taking vacation Monday morning. He just laughed, and said it would not be a problem.
I showed up a little after noon. No problem. 
God I love my job…
What’s the legal position in the US (if any) with regard to paid leave and sick leave?
In my job in the UK I get 25 days of paid leave, 8-9 days of public holidays, and can buy 10 days more from my employer. Sick leave is three months at full pay and three months at half pay in any year. That’s pretty generous but not unusually so. After that, or if your employer doesn’t have its own scheme, it’s Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), which is about $200 per week paid by the government.
My company doesn’t have — and none of my previous employers had — duvet days or call-ins. It’s always been paid leave if you want to take it, or sick leave if you’re ill. Sick leave is not something seen people use as an entitlement, but a safety net. Is that not the perception in the US? Is sick leave considered a form of, well, vacation?
To be perfectly honest?
American employers for the majority of us consider it a pain in the ass to have to actually shell out any money to us slaves. They would love to be able to chain us all in basements and drag us out when they need something done. If you do anything, they hammer you back down like a loose nail. If you complain, they tell you that you should be glad to have any job at all. If you try to stand up for yourselves, they start trying to find ways to fire you. They want the employee to show up every day, work long hours, sit there and shut the hell up, and try to give you the minimal anything required by law. There is a reason we call it being a working drone.
Very few people in proportion actually have anything resembling a perfect working environment. Most people work long hours for crappy pay and get treated like shit by employers and customers both.
Wow. I get two weeks paid vacation. That’s it. No sick leave/pay/whatever, not even health insurance.
I don’t have a problem with that. We can schedule for that.
OTOH, maybe people really don’t need to get so shitfaced? I mean really, grow up. Enjoy a few beers or whatever but immaturity (or alcoholism) is the only excuse for getting excessively drunk. And if it interferes with your work and forces me to pick up your slack then fuck you.
It’s amazing how many people will come in practically begging for a job. You give ‘em one and they immediately start this kind of bullshit: "Man, I’m gettin’ hammered during the Super Bowl!" Next day: “Uh, I been throwin’ up all night. I’m gonna stay home today!” :rolleyes:
There really isn’t any, for the most part. I know some cities/states are proposing that certain employers be required to give their employees paid sick leave , but I don’t believe any laws have been passed yet. Some states require disability coverage and I believe all states require workers comp for job related injuries or illness Aside from that,vacation and sick leave depend on your employer or your contract if you are a union member.
Some people in the US consider sick leave a form of vacation , but I don’t think most do, and certainly most employers who offer different types of leave don’t consider sick leave to be vacation. It may have something to do with how much vacation time vs sick time a person has the moment- but it has nothing to do with the leave policies of the employer.
I say that because my employer has generous leave policies - we start off with two weeks vacation and build up to four. We don’t get paid for unused vacation, but can accumulate up to eight weeks.There are ten “we’re” closed holidays and two floating ones. We get five personal days per year and most employees get thirteen sick days - which can accumulate up to something like 36 weeks and the balance at retirement can be used for both extra pension credit and to pay for after-retirement health insurance. And still there are people who have been employed twenty years, have never been out for a major injury or illness, and end up taking leave without pay when they get sick for a week because they spent twenty years believing sick leave was a type of vacation an using it as soon as they earned it . My employer also allows us to donate vacation leave to coworkers who have exhausted their sick leave. Those who use sick leave as vacation don’t get much in the way of donations.
There is no statutory requirement for paid leave in the US. The FMLA does require that they save your job, and give it back to you when you are able, if you or an immediate family member are ill. But nobody has to pay you when you are out.
Most companies in the late 90’s switched to a “Comprehensive leave” policy. This means there is no difference between sick leave and vacation time. They went from two weeks vacation and two weeks sick leave to 15 days comprehensive leave, plus usually 8-9 paid holidays when the place actually is closed. Thes are the sor tof standards, each company is slightly different, and some give no paid leave whatsoever.
An interesting note: If a woman is pregnant, the FMLA requires that her company give her six weeks off “total” while maintaining her job. Mind you, there’s no guarentee of pay, just that you can’t be fired. This allows some women six weeks at home with their babies before returning to work. However, any leave you take due to the pregnancy counts against this total, so if you are put on bedrest three weeks befor ethe baby is due then you have to return after the other three weeks are used up, regardless of whether you are healed yet. I think if you have a c-section you get one more week.
It’s really quite barbaric.
Blimey.
And it happens on Sunday every year, too, so what’s with people being fucking lazy about Monday?
What, you had a few drinks? Game was over by 10. If you can’t be ready for work the following morning you’re a fucking alcoholic or there’s something wrong with you.
This is incorrect. If you are covered by FMLA (and not everyone is ) , you get FMLA for up to 12 weeks a year to care for a new child and/or to recover from your own serious illness among other reasons. The leave for a new child is also available to fathers and to those adopting or becoming foster parents. ( I know a man who took his twelve weeks of FMLA both when his wife gave birth and when they took in foster children)
If you take three weeks of FMLA because of your own serious medical condition ( needing bedrest) it is subtracted from your 12 week entitlement and you then have nine weeks available after the birth for some combination of your own medical needs and caring for a new child.
The “six weeks after birth” is standard in some paid disability policies, but even then it’s usually a couple of weeks before birth and six weeks after birth assuming a normal, uncomplicated pregnancy, delivery and recovery. Complications before or after will extend the paid time based on medical certification.
Offering vacation time as a benefit is not required. However, once it’s been promised and earned, it *must *be given (or paid out at the value of the time based on your hourly wage or salary).
Many places in the U.S. do not have a sick day requirement. However, some have passed laws requiring a minimum number of sick days per year for employers over a certain size. (Milwaukee passed such a law recently, but it’s been on hold since it was challenged before the ink was even dry.)