I've worked at The Whale for so long, I've accumulated a decent amount of time off. Oh boy, that makes feel old, again.

Over the years I've worked here, prior to the current ownership, we would get 'X' number of vacation days, depending on how many years of employment under your belt, 5 sick days and of course bereavement days if needed.

Normal stuff, I guess in the world of employment. The problem with this for managers such as myself, was when an employee would call in sick. Are they really sick or just taking the day for other reasons. That would be an issue if you abused sick days. No way to prove it, right?

Many companies now handle time off and sick days differently. It's called PTO - Personal Time Off. Maybe your place of work has the same thing. If I understand it correctly, you get whatever number of days off per year according to how long you have worked here, and you use it for whatever you need it for - vacation, personal day, sick day, etc.

I think that makes much more sense. That way no one gets into trouble, and everyone is happy. The catch is, if you use up all your days early for anything other than sick days, and you get sick later in the year, that could be a problem. If you plan it out well enough, barring any major problems, in my opinion this is the best way to handle time off from work.

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