For almost a decade, a reader, "Gretchen," has
worked part-time for a community center. She's paid hourly and receives no
healthcare insurance or vacation time.
"I don't get paid when I take time off," she
writes. "But I do have great flexibility to schedule time off when I need
it."
It's a perfect position for Gretchen, she writes,
because, after a full-time career where she was on salary and put in long
weeks, she had saved enough to be able to decide how much she wants to work in
any given week. Rather than retiring, Gretchen continues to work because she
finds the work to be engaging and challenging. Plus, she likes the people with
whom she works.
One thing Gretchen discovered she does get from her work
at the community center is paid sick time. Every several months she accrues an
hour of sick time. She's able to carry over up to 40 hours of accrued sick time
every year.
"I rarely get sick," Gretchen writes. As a
result, her accrued sick time hours pile up.
Now that it's November, Gretchen has realized that if she
doesn't use some of the sick time she's accumulated, she's going to lose it
once the new year arrives.
"Is it wrong to put in for sick time if I'm not
really sick?" she asks, pointing out that her employer doesn't require a
physician's note to verify sickness.
It's not unheard of for employees to call in sick to the
job to get a day off to tend to other business or simply to take a day off. But
lying to an employer about a sickness to get a day off is wrong.
The accrued sick day policy for part-time workers seems
like a good benefit for workers at Gretchen's community center. It might seem
understandable that employees believe that would be leaving money on the table
if they don't take those paid hours off. But the intention of the benefit is to
cover when employees are actually sick. It does not seem intended as a pool of
money to which employees are entitled for any reason.
If Gretchen wants to broach the subject with her
supervisor and ask if she can be reimbursed for a personal day rather than a
sick day, that seems a reasonable action. She might also ask if doctor's visits
might be considered sick days. But I suspect she knows the answer will be that
the policy only applies to those days on which an employee is actually sick.
The right thing is for Gretchen to continue working at
her part-time job for as long as she enjoys the work. If she's sick and needs
to take time off, she should take advantage of the paid sick time she accrues.
If she calls in sick when she's not, Gretchen not only
risks not having the time to use if she truly does get sick, she also risks
betraying a trust with her supervisor and the community center. Plus, it's
wrong to lie simply because you want something.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net.
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin
(c) 2018 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
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