Sick Leave Is a Benefit, Not an Entitlement
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses the importance of understanding your organization's sick leave policies and using them appropriately.
Key Takeaways
- Know your district's rules - Sick leave policies vary and misunderstanding them can lead to serious consequences
- It's a benefit, not unlimited - Sick days are a benefit of employment with specific terms, not a blank check
- Use them wisely - Saving sick days for genuine need protects you when you really need them
Transcript
Sick leave is a benefit, not an entitlement.
And I think a lot of people are confused about this because I hear people say things like, well, I'm going to use my days.
I'm using up my sick days.
And by that, they mean they're not sick, but they're going to take sick days.
And of course, if you look at your organization's policies, there are certain things you are allowed to use sick days for.
and certain things you are not.
And there have been some pretty high profile cases where people got fired for claiming sick leave and then going to a concert or doing something that obviously was not an illness.
And it doesn't matter to me.
I don't care what you do.
I'm not your boss.
But I would really encourage you to understand the difference between sick leave as a benefit and sick leave as an entitlement, which it is not.
And it might help to think in terms of health insurance.
Health insurance is a benefit.
But an insurance claim is not an entitlement.
And if I go to my buddy who has an MRI machine and have him bill my insurance for an MRI that I don't need, well, that's fraud.
And I might have that health insurance as a benefit, but that doesn't mean I can just do whatever I want with it.
There are some rules for how that works.
The nice thing about personal days, the nice thing about PTO, which I talked about in my last video, is that it doesn't have those same restrictions.
Now, there might still be some restrictions, and I'm not a big fan of those like, oh, you can't use it on Fridays or...
you can't use it before a break or you have to get it approved a month in advance or like it should be pto like if you have a personal day you should be able to take a personal day no questions asked and it shouldn't really be your concern what's happening on that day i think for the most part maybe there are some exceptions let me know what you think but i think if we give people flexible pto two to four days a year should be plenty then we'll have a much smaller problem with people falsely claiming to be using sick leave like when they're when they're not sick And I think what we've got to understand as the reason for that distinction is that the benefit of sick leave is designed to help people who are actually sick or who are dealing with a family medical situation or something like that.
And the people who are using sick leave because they need to are not happy that they need to, right?
Like if you're using sick leave to go to a concert, you might feel great about that.
Hey, I'm using my day as I'm going to relax and enjoy some time off and recharge and that feels great.
Using sick leave does not feel great, right?
You are not happy to be in a situation where you need to use sick leave.
So they are different and I'm not saying organizations should crack down on this a ton, But to whatever extent people are taking advantage of sick leave and claiming that they're sick when they're not, that is going to result in, I think, a lot more stinginess about how sick leave is used and a lot more pickiness in terms of how you have to document when you are using sick leave.
I don't want to be in a situation where people have to turn in a doctor's note.
I think that's silly.
I think people should be able to be trusted as professionals to use sick leave appropriately.
But in order to receive that trust, people have to not abuse it.
Let me know what you think.