My dad continually concern-trolls about my brother and me not having partners/ maybe being gay. I told my mom that one day I ought to call him and give him half-credit. She said she'd hurt me if I did.

::hugs for P-cow's brother::

Which, since our company suckily employs the PTO thing instead of separate sick/vacation, every day I use recuperating is a day less vacation.

I really prefer PTO to separate sick/vacation time. I thought everybody preferred it. But I was wrong!

My mother gets 10 "discretionary days" a year...she doesn't use them often so she has like 25, but I think that's a good idea. Less explanation and bullshit.

I really prefer PTO to separate sick/vacation time. I thought everybody preferred it. But I was wrong!

Nope, it encourages people to work when they're sick. I don't charge my employees PTO when I send them home sick for this very reason. But my surgeries have been so high-profile in my company that my boss and I can't get away with not charging me the time off.

(Not only do I not charge PTO for my employees who are truly sick, but I often tell them that if they call in sick in the morning and they feel better in the afternoon (when they're actually using PTO), they should go play golf or see a movie. Since it's PTO, it's theirs to use any way they see fit.)

But I don't have a problem with anyone in my group having excessive unplanned absences, so I have the luxury of this approach.

I really prefer PTO to separate sick/vacation time. I thought everybody preferred it. But I was wrong!

Ugh, no! Taking a sick day means one less vacation day.

See, since I very very rarely take sick days (if I'm traveling I really can't unless I'm in the hospital, and if I"m home, there's no reason to--I can make up the work later in the day/week if I have a headache), I love the PTO. I don't really love that I can't carry over much of it or that it's really hard to arrange and still do my job well, but...

Polter-Cow, your poor brother! Not the having to drive home every night thing, but the having it assumed he won't, and having to tell them every time! What a pain in the ass, knowing that you're going to have to have that fight...yeesh.

See, since I very very rarely take sick days (if I'm traveling I really can't unless I'm in the hospital, and if I"m home, there's no reason to--I can make up the work later in the day/week if I have a headache), I love the PTO.

This is why I always preferred PTO. Also, you don't have to fib about a sick day when you just need a day off. (Some places have policies that discourage taking off vacation as less than a one-week chunk, however, when you're a parent you mostly need to take individual days for a variety of reasons.)

Yeah, you might not love it so much if you were surrounded by people coughing and wheezing all day, meara!

Yeah, you might not love it so much if you were surrounded by people coughing and wheezing all day, meara!

Oh, totally! Though I have been the person puking in a trashcan while saying "no, no, I can review this, just stay away from me..." at a site. (I left early, since I had two days there, and later that night was feverishly wandering through Walmart in rural Louisiana looking for jello).

Nope, it encourages people to work when they're sick. I don't charge my employees PTO when I send them home sick for this very reason. But my surgeries have been so high-profile in my company that my boss and I can't get away with not charging me the time off.

I'm the opposite, since I've found that people are often kind of skeptical of sick time, unless it's as obvious as Java's. With PTO I don't feel like I have to fake cough in order to take care of a real one.

(And, to be fair, I'm rarely sick so it tends to translate into more vacation time for me.