Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sick leave has to go through the healthcare system. That said, there are doctors that would just blindly approve, but it's not exactly a norm. A lot of those sick days are also childcare.
Genuinely curious now: If you have a cold or a cough, or maybe a slight fever, do you have to talk to a doctor to get a day or two off of work?
Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
81–90 of 96 posts
Re: Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
#82The country that does not, invented more or less every modern technology (transistors, ICs, wifi, microwaves, cellular). Mayhaps there is something to it.
You didn't invent microwaves. Well, your lot invented the klystron. Know what a klystron is? No? Well there you are. But I bet you know what the cavity magnetron - invented in Scotland - is. You probably used one today already. Cellular phones were invented in the UK and Finland. The US didn't even have them until the first couple of generations were obsolete here. Transistors were invented in Germany, although they…
That was before Martin Cooper's cell phone in 1973?
Re: Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sick leave has to go through the healthcare system. That said, there are doctors that would just blindly approve, but it's not exactly a norm. A lot of those sick days are also childcare.
Genuinely curious now: If you have a cold or a cough, or maybe a slight fever, do you have to talk to a doctor to get a day or two off of work?
You can't just not show up for work and call in sick. Within the same day you have to call your doctor and explain the symptoms and they have to start the paperwork for the sick leave. Even if it is for a day.
For a cold or a cough you would not get sick leave, though.
Re: Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
> earns 7 sick days Including sick days makes the calculation worse, not better. Sick days typically don't exist in Europe. If you're sick, you obviously just don't go to work. What's the point of infecting the whole office? On average, workers in Europe take about 2 to 3 weeks off each year due to sickness in addition to their vacation. In fact, if you're sick during vacation, that doesn't count as vacation time, at…
I included them to show that, on average, PTO does not need to be used for sick time and to show that the vacation time is vacation time. > "workers in Europe take about 2 to 3 weeks off each year due to sickness in addition to their vacation" It looks like in Germany it's 20 days a year - https://www.dw.com/en/germany-sick-days-absentees-mental-hea... Are you all really that sick? Shouldn't the availability of lots…
Well, no. These are averages. Obviously, some people take more sick days than others; e.g. women with severe period pains might take days off each month.
> Shouldn't the availability of lots of sick time and your "superior" healthcare system decrease your illness levels?
Sick days are not just for "illness", so they aren't an indicator for overall health.
> Doesn't seem to make any sense to me.
I could make a snarky response about US education or something, but instead, I just want to point out that I find it strange how people in bad situations often defend their circumstances, rather than trying to change them.
Re: Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sick leave has to go through the healthcare system. That said, there are doctors that would just blindly approve, but it's not exactly a norm. A lot of those sick days are also childcare.
Genuinely curious now: If you have a cold or a cough, or maybe a slight fever, do you have to talk to a doctor to get a day or two off of work?
Re: Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
> earns 7 sick days Including sick days makes the calculation worse, not better. Sick days typically don't exist in Europe. If you're sick, you obviously just don't go to work. What's the point of infecting the whole office? On average, workers in Europe take about 2 to 3 weeks off each year due to sickness in addition to their vacation. In fact, if you're sick during vacation, that doesn't count as vacation time, at…
Except for some drastic cases I've not seen people taking more than 2/3 single days a year. In most places in Europe the first sick days are not comped, so any missed day is a missed paid day. When social security comes into play they tend to pay the base pay of the position. That would mean that if you miss a week because of an illness you might see a salary reduction close to a fifth of your monthly salary. That's…
I don't think that's true.
Re: Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sick leave has to go through the healthcare system. That said, there are doctors that would just blindly approve, but it's not exactly a norm. A lot of those sick days are also childcare.
Genuinely curious now: If you have a cold or a cough, or maybe a slight fever, do you have to talk to a doctor to get a day or two off of work?
In my country we get paid 80% of our usual pay on sick days prescribed by doctor.
We also can get an appointment online and get that sick day. We can also get sick days up to 3 days prior.
Also you can get a sick day if your kid is sick.
Re: Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
11? And that's good?
Where did I claim that? I stated the opposite. I started my sentence with "Could be better for sure". Maybe something is lost in translation? It just means "This could use improvement".
I read "could be better for sure" together with the whole "but" that came after it - meaning even though it could be better, it's not so bad because it averages 11.
Re: Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
#89What is going on in the US is nothing short of shameful.
https://www.bls.gov/charts/employee-benefits/paid-leave-sick... Could be better for sure, but a graph showing the US as having 0 days of paid days off because the federal government doesn't mandate anything is misleading at best. Average US worker after 1 year of employment earns 7 sick days and 11 vacation days. And likely has some state and federal holidays off as well, and could very well qualify for state require…
ugh, "sick days", what an absurd concept. If you are too unwell to work, you don't go to work , of course, and get paid while at home, until you're healed. Not 7 days, not 2 days, just the amount of days required. putting a number on that. ugh
and 11 vacation days. Wauw. After a decades of working in Europe you can get a good amount of holidays. in 2025 I had 49 day of which 20 are that minimum you start out with. Every overtime and outside business hour call also gets recovered, that's an extra 3 days so we've passed 50.
but what else is new, in the 80 and 90s workers in US were boasting about doing 80hrs of work each week... like wtf :). They live to work, I prefer to work to live life.
Re: Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off
#90The US has generally higher wages than Europe and lower taxation rates. Those paid days off are not free.
ah yes live to work. Not work to live right?