Thoughtful workplace sick leave rule is winning hearts of employees by being an employment goal

Employees of every organization deserve to get paid sick leave. Sometimes, an employee might take time off to recover from illnesses or injuries or they just need a break to recover from burnout. Paid leaves help to promote productivity and job satisfaction within the workforce or an organization. u/Southern-Squash9645 took to the Reddit community to share that they have a new set of rules in their workplace, involving the usage of sick leaves and it looks like the best ever employment goal.

"We work hybrid in an organization that talks about health and mental health importance almost every day, we have new rules," the title of the post reads. "Sick leave may be used if you are not feeling well enough to come to the office," the company rules read. "You are not allowed to claim illness and then work from home. If you are too sick to come in, then you are too ill to work from home." The post divided the Reddit community where some appreciated the initiative of the organization while others felt that the rules could have been worded in a better way. Some even wondered in the comments if these sick leaves are going to be paid time off or not.

u/D34TH_5MURF__ wrote, "That sounds exactly right. Conditions apply, though: It has to not count against PTO and it can't be used to shame people into never taking a sick day. If you don't feel good enough to come in, take care of yourself and don't think about work is how employers should be. I've actually worked for one employer where it was a lot like that, they wanted us at home, recovering if we were sick, not working." u/cowboybeeboo commented, "My job just made this switch too, must be some new trend employers are rolling with. I think it's callous and will lead to the spread of communicable diseases."

u/SeanyWestside revealed, "It depends on illness as well. My old job was hybrid, but they were pretty flexible about home working anyway. I have IBS and making the journey to work would have been a bit risky, I'd be perfectly fine to work from home, but I might need more toilet breaks than usual that day." u/heynoswearing mentioned, "This is interesting because I see it as a good thing. I'm a teacher, so a sick day means waking up at 6 am to send in lesson plans then I'm monitoring stuff from online or working on more lessons. A rule that says I need to just relax and get better sounds incredible. I wonder if they view this as a good thing" u/askduds added, "There are plenty of situations where I’m not really suitable for a 2-hour round trip but can get stuff done 5 m from my bed."

However, many working professionals are not granted sick leave despite having poor health conditions and the results are often tragic. At Amazon's warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, workers reported that two of their co-workers passed away at their job. One of them was denied a sick leave and they died after suffering a stroke. The company apparently didn't care about the death of their employees and they told other workers to continue working as usual. Another individual passed away while being transported from work in an ambulance.

"He had gone to HR and said, 'I’m not feeling so well, can I please go home?'" Amazon day-shift worker Isaiah Thomas said, per More Perfect Union. "He didn’t have enough unpaid time off to go home. They’re effectively telling him, you either go home and lose your job, or you just stay here and keep working through the pain. And that’s what he did." Thomas added that Amazon warehouse workers feared losing their jobs if they took time off beyond their allotted days. Workers allege that six people have died at the Bessemer facility in 2021 and claimed the company is trying to cover it up.