Company only allows PTO on 'sick days,' forcing employees to lie about their time off: 'That’s basically no PTO with extra steps'

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Jan 15, 2026 10:00 PM EST

Sometimes you have no choice but to lie. 

Honesty is usually the best policy, but there's not always room for it. You've probably told a lie at some point and felt like it was your only option. Sometimes we tell lies to spare each other's feelings. We know that the truth would hurt them, so we've chosen a white lie instead. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. Sometimes it's better to choose the whole picture over the small truth. But in other scenarios, we're forced to tell lies even when we don't want to. Sometimes you have to do this when there is a policy in place that doesn't make sense. It forces you to follow rules where they shouldn't exist, and thus, you end up becoming dishonest in the process. 

For instance, instituting "sick only PTO," a policy that only excuses you from work when you have to call out due to illness. Of course, though, illness is not the only reason we sometimes need to miss work. Maybe family stuff comes up, or personal projects, or heaven forbid, a vacation. If it's paid time off, we should be allowed to use it however we want to. After all, what difference does it make? And wouldn't they rather know in advance, so they can find coverage and plan for your absence? Why relegate it to a day-of call out? Who does that benefit? I have a hard time imagining the benefits in that scenario. But that's what happened in one workplace. 

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • A businesswoman puts her head in her hands, exhausted.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • So the employees were left with no choice but to fib about their time off. In order to comply with the policy but also get the time off they needed, they had to make up excuses. The way they saw it, they were complying with a policy that didn't make any sense. But sense isn't always the first priority of some of these businesses. But the workers were fed up and felt that they deserved far more than what they were being given. So one of them posted their plight online, where other workers chimed in with stories of their own.

  • Sick-only PTO policies just incentivize lying and last-minute call-outs.

    My job only allows PTO to be used for sick time - not vacation, not personal days. On top of that, it caps at 40 hours (5 days), so once you hit the cap you either use it or stop accruing. Here's the problem: this policy doesn't encourage honesty or planning. It actively trains people to lie.
    via u/godisinthischilli
  • Because you can't schedule time off in advance, anyone who needs a long weekend, a personal day, or time for life stuff ends up with one option: a same-day "I'm sick" call- out. That's worse for coworkers, worse for managers, and worse for trust - but it's exactly the behavior the system incentivizes.
    via u/godisinthischilli
  • The cap makes it even more absurd. Five days might cover the flu or COVID, but it's nowhere near enough for something serious like surgery, complications, or a difficult recovery. In those cases, employees are forced to jump straight to FMLA just to protect their job - even though FMLA is unpaid and comes with extra paperwork and stress when someone is already dealing with a medical issue.
    via u/godisinthischilli
  • I'm hybrid and already flexible, so I rarely need PTO unless I'm actually sick. Which means this "benefit" mostly just sits there until I either get sick or feel pressured to burn it so I don't lose it. I've literally caught myself debating whether to call out sick last minute for a trip - not because I want to lie, but because the policy leaves no reasonable alternative. I already used all my vacation time but have almost capped PTO hours just sitting there.
    via u/godisinthischilli
  • Good policies align incentives with good behavior. This one does the opposite: • • It discourages advance notice It penalizes honest employees It creates suspicion around legitimate sick time
    via u/godisinthischilli
  • It pushes people into unpaid FMLA for anything beyond a minor illness If a workplace actually cared about trust, planning, and employee health, they'd either combine PTO or properly separate sick time and vacation. Sick-only PTO with a low cap isn't a benefit — it's a system that turns normal human needs into "sus" behavior. -
    via u/godisinthischilli
  • Curious how common this is, because it feels like a textbook example of bad workplace design.
    via u/godisinthischilli

  • Commenters rang in with their thoughts and opinions.

    phraxious That's just no PTO dude
    via u/phraxious
  • kaym_88 Never heard of anything like this
    via u/kaym__88
  • marigoldpossum Question - do you have a separate vacation bank? I feel like its common to have a "sick" bank and a separate "vacation" bank in the university setting. Where your sick bank is like 5 days / aka 40 hours that resets every year. But you also have a
    via u/marigoldpossum
  • vacation bank where you accrue whatever your job title/years worked dictates, and that's used to schedule for vacations, days off, etc. If you only have a sick bank, but no vacation bank - I don't understand that at all, unless you don't have any other benefits tied to your job and that sick bank is actually the state forcing your company to provide that sick bank.
    via u/marigoldpossum
  • Which is what happened in Michigan recently, requiring all workers to have a sick bank accrual per hours worked (parttimers, like someone working at Culver's or a restaurant; where they have no other benefits). It's the state forcing the company to provide those sick bank hours. Not the business doing it out of the goodness of their heart.
    via u/marigoldpossum
  • B2ThaH The company I work for has a fairly generous Allotment of time off per person but the schedule doesn't have time available to take off. The next day that can be requested is a Wednesday in February. The next Monday or Friday is in May and non available for the
    via u/B2ThaH
  • A young woman is frustrated at her desk at the office.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • summer. I have like 240 PTO hours and can't use them. I can't take an extended weekend or a week off, basil can call in or leave early from time to time.
    via u/B2ThaH
  • tjareth A company someone I know worked for dug themselves a big hole this way even though they theoretically had planned PTO available. The problem is, any time someone called out sick, they'd cancel someone's approved PTO to cover the shift, even if it had been requested weeks or months in advance.
    via u/tjareth
  • This led to a snowball effect to where approved leave was routinely denied at the last minute, so the only way to get time off was to call out sick, which made the problem worse.
    via u/tjareth
  • clutzycook I've never heard of anything like this before. I've seen places with separate buckets for vacation/personal and sick days, I've seen them all thrown into one PTO bucket where it can be used for whatever you need them for, but I've never seen a PTO
    via u/clutzycook
  • policy where you can't use PTO for anything besides sick time. That's absurd and I wouldn't stay long at a company with a policy like that.
    via u/clutzycook
  • soccercro3 Bad workplace design. Why is PTO only allowed for sick time? What if you want to take a day off just for mental health or doctors appointment. Or if your lucky a couple days to make a long weekend and go somewhere with the family? This entire policy seems. suspect.
    via u/soccercro3
  • Virtual_Assistant_98 At that point it's sick days, not PTO. That is an absolutely asinine policy and I've never heard of anything like it. For reference, most of the corps I've worked at have 1 bucket for sick/vacation time and you use it either as it accrues or as needed. It's also not uncommon to get a payout of unused PTO hours at the end of the year.
    via u/Virtual_Assistant_98
  • Sammakko660 My brother worked at a place that didn't offer sick time even for the full timers (years ago, now in MA employers do have to offer a little bit (emphasis on little)). The manager's view was that people would take their sick time for time off.
    via u/Sammakko660
  • Lady_Paks We have PTO and sick time. They make us schedule our vacation by January 1st for the year. You are allowed to use sick time ahead of time but if anyone else at our location is off you can't request it. On top of this
    via u/Lady_Paks
  • when you use unplanned sick time you get a point per occurrence, and each occurrence can be up to 3. days for the same point. If you hit 11 points you are fired
    via u/Lady_Paks
  • All of this is to say you have to plan your entire year ahead of time, hope no one has time off when you have an appointment that was probably already a pain in the ass to schedule, and call offs encourage 3 days even if you only need 1 day to reset yourself and come back. Oh and they are replacing our full-time employee with a part timer despite us already struggling. It is asinine.
    via u/Lady_Paks

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

antiwork workplace-stories sick day Professional At Work work time off PTO workplace leave
Scroll Down For The Next Article