Will the Coronavirus cause employers to give us back our SICK TIME??

Question

As an employee, we used to get vacation time, as well as sick time.  A typical worker might have 120 hours of vacation time each year and 120 hours of sick time each year, as well.  While 6 weeks away from work is not a lot of time, it was manageable because you could plan a long vacation somewhere and not have to worry too much about the vacation plans getting ruined by illness.
Then about 10 years ago (roughly) employers did away with vacation time and sick time, and replaced them both with PTO (Paid Time Off).  They claimed it was for the convenience of the employees, but it was really motivated by profit.  (as almost everything is)
Every employer now has the same terrible PTO policy.  As a new guy, you are lucky to start with 2 or 3 weeks of PTO per year, but NO vacation time and NO sick time.
The PTO model forces employees to go to work when they are sick, which is the exact OPPOSITE of what needs to be done to prevent the spread of a global pandemic!
Will the coronavirus cause employers to give us back our sick time?  Or would HR managers rather work in a building with a bunch of covid-19 infected personnel who are at work because they can’t afford to stay home, even to save lives?

Anonymous · Answer

Your an idiot..... I would be scared with you driving around.

edward · Answer

Working in the hospital we know how important sick days are.  We have paid sick days (you have to earn them, can’t just take them) and we have the PTO.  Because if we are going on vacation...it’s not paid.  And they count them by the hour where i work too

babyboomer1001 · Answer

Do you mean give you additional sick time?  Why?  You had it - you used it.  You aren't going to get back what was used.  You USED it.

D.E.B.S. · Answer

"They claimed it was for the convenience of the employees, but it was really motivated by profit."  
***NO***

State laws vary, but in places like California it is much more expensive.  PTO and vacation is required to be paid out when you leave a company.  It stays on the books as a liability until used or the employee leaves and takes the cash.  Sick leave is NOT paid out.  It's obviously much more profitable to have them separate.
The reason it went away was because it was a hassle to manage, but even more so because of immoral employees who would abuse the system by being sick almost every Monday and Friday when they realized they weren't going to get to use their entitled sick days before they expired.  Instead of getting time off in advance, they would blindside their managers and co-workers by calling in at 10am saying they were sick.  PTO does not 'force' employees to anything but be responsible for themselves.  I know few people who come to work when they're sick.  Most just work remote unless they're really bad and then they do take a PTO day and not work at all.  If PTO was taken away for sick & vacation pay, it would be a huge step backwards in respecting employees.  It would be seen as a pay and/or benefit cut by those vast majority of moral and hard working employees at a company. PS:  PTO has existed for at least 30 years.  A company moving to it 10 years ago (roughly) was WAY behind the times.

John Alden · Answer

You're telling me if you use up your vacation time but want another two days off somewhere, you won't call in a say you're sick? BS.

Will the Coronavirus cause employers to give us back our SICK TIME??

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