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.

I think that combined PTO encourages people to work when they're sick. OTOH, it makes it easier for parents when their kids are sick, for example. Of course, I have over 600 hours of sick leave, but whatev.

Well maybe the answer is to stick with PTO but gives WAY MORE OF IT! Our company has lousy benefits.

Y'all know how much I love my job. I love my boss, and my employees. And our product. BUT our company benefits are truly crap. No matching 401K, no tuition reimbursement, okay medical if you're single like me (but crap for a family), no EOPS, no nothing. We do have ESPP which has been okay.

But I've stayed happy for 4 years because of the people. And now that my CEO is "retiring" by end of year, I'm starting to listen to recruiter calls.

Well maybe the answer is to stick with PTO but gives WAY MORE OF IT!

Our PTO is pretty standard, I think, but I lost vacation time when we converted from separate vacation/sick to combined PTO. But the company is generally pretty generous and flexible so I don't bitch about it. I can work at home when I'm not feeling great but not incapacitated and we can make up time off w/in a pay period so it's worked out okay for me.

Well maybe the answer is to stick with PTO but gives WAY MORE OF IT!

Yeah, one of the problem's I have noticed with people who get PTO is they get far less time in general than people with separate sick/vacation time.

Yeah, actually, we are pretty flexible too. But it varies WIDELY by department. So while my boss is awesome and pushes me to take comp time, etc, the finance group, for instance, is run by a sexist, old-school jerk who really doesn't allow for any flexibility. So our system doesn't work for people who work for jerks.

Yeah, one of the problem's I have noticed with people who get PTO is they get far less time in general than people with separate sick/vacation time.

Yep. Ours is 3 weeks, 4 weeks after 5 years.