Difference Between a Personal Day and a Sick Day - The Muse

Difference Between a Personal Day and a Sick Day - The MuseDifference Between a Personal Day and a Sick DayIf your office distinguishes between vacation days, personal days, and sick days and youre feeling more than a little confused, know that youre not the only one. One company I worked at made a strong distinction in the type of paid time off (PTO) each of us had. A colleague decided to heck with not being able to use her unused personal days to tack onto her six-day trip to the Pacific Northwest. Since the ordnungsprinzip was all digital and needed only to get approved by management, she took her trip with both vacation and personal days and successfully used all of her PTO before the new cycle.Ive known plenty of people throughout my professional life whove used all three types of days interchangeably to no ones chagrin. Its likely that some companies even expect this to occur and accept it as easier than changing the employee handbook and protocol in an official manner. But at other organizations that arent so flexible, knowing when to take a personal day versus a sick day versus a vacation day is imperative.A personal day is, technically, not a vacation day, and its not taken when youre home with the flu. It may be used for a medical procedure, a moving day, or a day to visit your ailing grandmother. Attending a funeral, of course, is no ones idea of vacation, and so this too would be considered a standard personal day. How much detail you give when you take one of these days depends on the situation. Just as you dont need to give your babo a play-by-play of your stomach bug, you also dont need to regale him with a long story of why youre attending the funeral of an elementary school classmates father even though you havent seen her or her father in at least 15 years. While they may all seem the exact same to you (youre off for the day), the differences tend to be more about how your manager and team interprets them. When you return from a vacation day, people tend to ask you how it went. However, a personal day can be just that, something more personal that youre less likely to be pressed about, even casually. In addition, its less likely to be planned way ahead of time (like a trip out of the country would be), yet it wouldnt be as last minute as a sick day. Muse Director of HR, Shannon Fitzgerald, suggests that employees check the employee handbook (if the company has one), since many organizations do have very different ideas on what constitutes a personal day and what doesnt. But, lets say you just have no need to ever take a personal day this year. Are you at risk of losing valuable PTO-day? Not necessarily. If observing the actions of your colleagues isnt enough for you to determine how your company handles the differentiated days off, and youre really, truly not koranvers if itll pass muster for you to take that 10-day trip to Belize even though you only have eight actual vacation days left, you should schedule a meeting wi th your manager or a trusted HR person. Fitzgerald advises employees who have questions to speak to their boss or human resources team member for info on how the leave policy is defined.If your boss is understanding and a proponent of taking time off to recharge (which, good news, more and more bosses actually are these days), he may tell you that of course you can use your personal days to top off your vacation. If hes hesitant or looks uncomfortable, immediately offer to take the additional two days non-paid if borrowing from your personal days is unacceptable. If he sends you to human resources, take the same approach. Explain that youre out of vacation days, but seem to have personal days to spare, and if you can combine them, thats be great, and if not, youll gladly take two days without pay. (Of course, keep in mind, two days without pay is just that, two days without pay.)Since more and more companies are moving away from the categorized model of compensated days off, the nex t time you find yourself accepting a job offer, look closely at the PTO policy. If its splitting your time off between personal and vacation, dont be shy about renegotiating that part of the offer- especially if you dont foresee yourself actually needing the personal days.