Using Sick Leave before company is sold?

[dmccarty]

...
You may have covered this already ur, but if not, go see a labour (labor ) specialized lawyer re. your potential severance. While the USA has always been known as litigious, the reality today is that Canada is not far behind....

Long way of saying - esp. considering how long you've been there.... if it comes up, don't sign anything without feedback and approval from a competent labour lawyer. These things usually get presented (late-nite-infomercial voice...) as Limited Time Offer, Must Sign in 48 Hours ! , so just wanted to light this issue up now....

Rgds, D.

Surprised it took four pages for some to mention what Dave did. :laughing: Talk to a lawyer and ask some questions. I kinda think you are screwed but you won't know until you dig a bit.

Ultra, you are loyal and responsible to the company. In the past, some companies where run by people who were loyal to their employees and being loyal to the company was a good thing. While I know of some companies where loyalty is a two way street, now a days it seems like upper management want employee loyalty but the suits do nothing to earn said loyalty. There is a point where one has to say no and not be one for the 600 hundred riding into the Valley of Death...

Later,
Dan

 

[ultrarunner]

It has definitely changed... in part because the Doctors with controlling interest have said it is all about returns... no more about building and maintaining a center of excellence... where we had to be better...

Not to get too political... the Affordable Healthcare Act is having an impact... and physicians are jumping ship.

Maybe 20% of the staff is out right now... orthopedic surgery for most... hand and knee in large part.

One just returned from carpel tunnel... she proudly announced she has used all the time due her... a good worker who decided now is better than waiting.

 

[tlj87]

I don't understand the pride associated in never using any sick time. We get 5 days per year, which carry over from year to year, however you can't "cash them out" at the end. We also get 5 days per year of sick time with doctors excuse which can't be used until all other time has been used.

If you use less than 3 sick days per year, you get an additional vacation day the following year.

While I've never used all of the days I've been allocated, I usually use a few each year for various doc. appts. or actually sickness.

For instance, every two years or so I have a colonoscopy to monitor Crohns. You can't work while you are prepping or the day of the procedure, so I use sick time. This week, I had an "unscheduled" dental appt, followed by an orthodontist appt. I took a 2 hours on two days for these since they aren't open in the evenings.

Wife is pregnant with our first and had some tests done at the hospital (blood work, ultrasound). For that, I used what my employer calls "family emergency" time which is for things like caring for a spouse or child, dealing with frozen pipes at home, etc.

When our child arrives in July, I plan on using 10 of my 20 allocated vacation days.

I feel that I do not abuse our allocated leave time, but I do use it.

Reading some of these other posts kind of make me feel guilty, but I don't know how else I would deal with these things?

I am young and probably stupid at age 28 and have been with my company for 6 years.

 

[newbury]

Exactly... and I suppose this is the reason for the scramble to use sick time... those that have been through these types of things before are the most vocal...

For me it's about 25k in built up sick leave.

All of my civil service friends were paid out sick leave and some had well over a year on the books...

With all the changes... people are now taking sick leave to care for family members... so this opens up a lot of avenues... especially with a parent that has Alzheimer...

This is a sensitive topic for me but -
I spent 37 years working for the Army. Sick leave by professionals was to be used for yours or your families health. Taking a day off for "mental health" was frowned upon. About 10 years before I retired I had a back surgery event, sucked up about a month of sick leave. Three years later, again, next vertebrae up, again a month plus. Three years - again. Now by this time I had accrued well more than 2,000 hours of sick leave, even after the surgeries.
BUT due to a slight change in management the supervisor 2 levels up thought I was gold-bricking and started talking about seeing if he could dismiss me or force me to retire. This got me royally aggravated. Due to continuing pain while healing I was still on meds but I got myself driven in and basically laid around at the office. I recovered fully in about a month and went back on my regular schedule of traveling all over the country teaching soldiers and getting awards for my performance. But that got me angered enough at management to feel they no longer deserved my loyalty.

When I retired I had about a year of sick leave which effectively increased my pension by about 2%.

To ultrarunnner - take the money and run, don't plan on loyalty to the new owners until they prove they deserve it.

 

[ultrarunner]

It's almost too late now...

In a few weeks it will be a done deal... the papers have already been signed with a 60 day phase in.

This means several last minute projects... all last week I opened at 5:45 am and closed at 6 pm and I expect this to be the norm...

One of the projects is building from scratch an entire parallel network with servers and fiber throughout and every desktop and 95% of the printers will be new... for security. the work is subject to operating the business and was scheduled for today also and cancelled last night... so I'm off to do some Dozer work

Do find it odd that nowhere in the plans is an office or workstation for me... raised the question and was told it has not been decided yet...

Not worried... just interesting to see how this all plays out...

 

[doxford jim]

I am afraid that I view "company loyalty" with a lot if scepticism. It is usually the workers loyalty that keeps companies operating at a good level - a lot of companies treat that with contempt.
My experiences of late have been that you are just a numbered employee to be used and abused.
I would take the money and run and do what you want - your life not theirs.
Few companies value their employees properly as money and profit (greed) seems to be their mantra.
Just my two cents.

 

[TomSeller]

I am afraid that I view "company loyalty" with a lot if scepticism. It is usually the workers loyalty that keeps companies operating at a good level - a lot of companies treat that with contempt.
My experiences of late have been that you are just a numbered employee to be used and abused.
I would take the money and run and do what you want - your life not theirs.
Few companies value their employees properly as money and profit (greed) seems to be their mantra.
Just my two cents.

There is a book by Michael Brown where his philosophy is

"Treat the Employee as #1 and the Customer as #2 and You Will Get Customers for Life"

Most companies will never subscribe to this.

 

[3930dave]

I don't understand the pride associated in never using any sick time.
I am young and probably stupid at age 28 and have been with my company for 6 years.

While individual attitudes can vary in any era, a lot of that pride is an echo of a distant time.....

For my father's generation, it was fairly common for people to get their first job and continue working there till they retired - including in the private sector. What goes around comes around.... many people valued that stability, so were more inclined to "play hurt", back when.

That social compact went out the window before you were born..... but we are pretty much still at What Goes Around, Comes Around,...... after constantly being Right-Sized, Outsourced, Downsized..... most people are going to grab whatever they can today, because they probably aren't going to be around tomorrow.

Govts have the ability to run huge ongoing deficits, so many young people I come across today want to work there - it's about the only place you'll still find massive levels of Benefits, Sick Leave payouts, etc. That deficit game works, at least up until a country hits the wall like Greece did recently.

I see nothing wrong with taking the time to deal with personal or family matters - if they are at all serious, they are going to intrude on your work performance sooner or later. A savvy Tech company I used to deal with had a concierge service for their employees - you weren't allowed to use that service for Work related work, but could utilize it for expediting pretty much any personal matter - they saw it as smart business.

Rgds, D.