'I worked at a place that gave you "points"... Every sick day:' Employees share the most non-functional sick leave policies they've had to work with

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Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Sep 3, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

Employees are sharing some of the most ridiculous sick leave policies they have had to work with and they make you want to smack your palm to your face. What were some of these businesses thinking? Sick leave is its own separate thing. It is not the same as your vacation days and if you work somewhere that lumps those two together, you have a problem. Vacation days are meant for you to enjoy, sick days are meant for you to heal. They are very different. One is by choice, the other, not so much. It is important to cultivate a healthy workplace to keep sick days and vacation days separate. Employees should not have to choose between coming into the office sick as a dog and spreading their illness around just to save on some vacation days over staying home and getting better. That is how you create not just a mentally unhealthy workplace, but also a physically unhealthy one. 

 

Here, you see that employees experience this unhealthy sort of mentality often. They share the wildest sick leave policies they have ever had to endure. 

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  • "What is the worst sick day policy you have encountered at a workplace?"

    Cheezburger Image 10549505792
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Superb_Yak7074 I worked at an engineering firm that changed their sick. leave policy so that the first two days off were vacation. days. On the third day you got sick pay and if you provided a doctor's excuse
    via Superb_Yak7074
  • they would convert those two vacation days to sick days. It was a ridiculous policy and all it did was guarantee that we either began having 3-day illnesses or people came into work deathly ill because
    via Superb_Yak7074
  • they wanted to save vacation days so they ended up spreading their disease around to other coworkers.
    via Superb_Yak7074
  • RumBunBun I worked in a place that gave you "points" anytime you were late or had an unexcused absence. Every sick day was unexcused, it didn't matter if you were in
    via RumBunBun
  • the hospital or in bed with the flu. A doctor's note meant nothing. Obviously, they had very high turnover.
    via RumBunBun
  • NonchalantEnthus... Employer only gave 2 weeks off, shared between sick time and vacation. Got sick, you had less vacation. Vacation, you had less sick time
    via NonchalantEnthusiasm
  • Physical_Ant7427 Had a supervisor once who had a mandatory two weeks pre approval timeline for sick leave. She was an attorney for a gov agency so she wasn't just "dumb".
    via Physical_Ant7427
  • Sleepwalker0304 Not having one. It was a family owned seasonal business so you were expected to kill yourself from about April to September, March and
    via Sleepwalker0304
  • October were slow, and you were collecting unemployment from partway through October until they brought you back in late February/early March.
    via Sleepwalker0304
  • You were just expected to...not get sick for the rest of the year because if you got behind you weren't going to be able to catch up easily. This job brought all of my mental health issues. into the open, made all my
    via Sleepwalker0304
  • physical health issues worse, and then fired me without notice or explanation after four years by a snail mail letter.
    via Sleepwalker0304
  • Cheezburger Image 10549534976
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • confusionpiette if you're sick, you had to find a coworker to cover your shift, or you weren't allowed to call out.
    via confusionpiette
  • Tanky 50 We had no sick time, just unexcused absences. These hours went into a "bank" and once that bank hit certain thresholds discipline started. 32 hours was a
    via Tanky50
  • verbal, 60(?) was a written all the way until you hit dismissal. These hours were in a 12 month rolling calendar year. We worked 12 hour shifts.
    via Tanky50
  • So if you missed 3 days and you were over the limit for a verbal. This also included if they sent you home for being sick.
    via Tanky50
  • cashmerered Trying to convince the employees they're not actually sick and when a doctor proves the employees are indeed sick, telling them they can come
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  • back in before the yellow slip ends if they feel better
    via cashmerered
  • booksaremagic39 That you could only use sick time for yourself or your dependent children. So an employee couldn't use it when his wife of 30 years was having surgery and he needed a couple of days off
    via booksaremagic39
  • to care for her. After I explained the policy to him, I said you don't sound good, I think you're coming down with something. I had to repeat it a couple of times until he understood what I was telling him. S I had to
    via booksaremagic39
  • tell a grown man to lie so he could use his sick time to care for his wife
    via booksaremagic39

  • So, next time your employer tries to give you and sort of strife for being sick and responsible, send them this thread and show them that there are many people who would call them crazy. 

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