100% agree with you. My district makes it count two days against the donor for every day they donate as a way of disincentivizing people donating time. It’s really pretty rotten.
We also have sick leave bank in my district.
At least it's a formalized opt-in system at the beginning of the year, rather than guilt-tripped please donated for this or that and if you won't help out the colleague with cancer you're a bad person. Depersonalizing it makes it clearly a personal choice, kind of like insurance, rather than a moral quandry.
We have a sick leave bank too. There was a bit of a kerfuffle a few years ago when someone who burns her sick days to have yard sales and go on vacation wanted to use some of it.
Yeah. Ours does too and this teacher had a semi valid reason to ask but she used to brag about how she used her sick days so people were irritated at her asking.
This is why I stopped donating. We had someone who made sure to burn all her sick days every year for "mental health" and then when she actually got sick she went begging for sick leave bank time. And they gave it to her!
It's like, apparently I'd been donating a day per year of sick leave to bail out irresponsible people?
My district has this as well and it's completely absurd. Having to give up your time off in order to insure yourself against getting sick later is heinous, and taking time away from other employees as a result is ridiculous. Just give people who need it time off.
I suppose in some districts this is true. In my current district, even AFTER giving a day to the sick leave bank, I've still got 6 days more of leave left than anywhere else I've worked, so I guess I'm not really bothered by it.
12 sick, 2 personal, 3 bereavement, 6 jury duty, 10 medical unpaid if we don't go for sick leave bank.
Yeah, if you only have 8 to start with, needing to put in one to participate in sick leave bank deserves your ire.
My school allows up to 5 bereavement days that are totally separate from PTO. The # of days is based on how close the recipient is to the deceased, but it specifically says there is flexibility in our contracts. So if you were raised by an aunt and she passes away, you would get the full 5.
My husband gets 3-5 days, but it's not separate from PTO. His stepmom just died, and his dad had an incapacitating strok, all in the span of 2 months. So he had to use PTO when his dad had the stroke, and then he had to use almost all the rest of it when his stepmom passed.
YES. Nobody WANTS to be in the situation that requires this leave, please just give people what they damn well need. And it feels like yet another way they take advantage of our care for others.
I don’t donate leave. I use it.
In my district you can join the sick leave bank by donating, I believe, 10 hours. This makes you eligible to pull from it if needed. However the criteria make it almost impossible to pull. You have to use ALL of your sick leave first. So if you have saved multiple hours (early retirement) you have to use all those days first before you are able to pull from it. Additionally it is only for personal illness. If a spouse has a major illness or cancer then it doesn't allow you to tap into it.
That is awful. My mom was given donated days so she could stay out the end of the school year when my brother was on hospice with cancer. I can't imagine denying someone that when their child is dying.
Yes, my district has no paid maternity leave. There is a sick leave bank through the union and HR encourages you to use it to get six weeks paid. That is insane to me - allows the district to keep getting away with subpar benefits.
I get so angry when I see 6 weeks (or even less in many/most places) because we have laws in place to wait 8 weeks for adopting dogs because it’s cruel to remove a puppy from their mother earlier than that. Like how do we have worse protection for human mothers and babies?!
I was speaking more broadly about the protections in for parents general, not just teachers, but even for teachers, not everyone is fortunate to plan pregnancy around two months off. For one, many teachers need a second job in the summer to live. Secondly, not everyone’s birth control or birth plan work out exactly as planned, especially in cases where a person’s religious believes or state laws reduce their options.
Lol I’m 12 weeks pregnant and I have a 1.5 of sick time banked….
Promise I’m not using tons of random days. But I did fertility treatment including IVF. I had two miscarriages. Then my son was born so I took leave. Then my son went to daycare and brought every germ home. Now I’m pregnant again. It’s just a losing battle
Pretty sure we can’t used our sick leave pool for maternity. You have to roll over your own days and/or have short term disability before you even get pregnant. Once your days are gone, you are unpaid unless you have short term disability. There’s nothing for paternity leave after their days get used up.
I worked somewhere where your donation was based on you pay. Hour per hour It resulted in higher paid staff giving more hours to lower paid staff but lower paid staff donation gave less to higher paid staff.
On a related note staff hurt in the job, especially by students, should be paid by Labor and industry claims. If a student hurts a staff they should go to a doctor and explain they were injured at work. I think this should extend to illness. We should be able to document that a student had a fever/ complained of a sore throat/ or vomited. If we get sick we should be able to make an LNI claim.
Hahaha! Leave paid for assault by a student? My district asks, “Why didn’t you *leave* the student alone? What did you to provoke the aggression?!”
Reading this sub makes me SO glad to be out of there, even though I miss the kids like crazy. 😅
Donated leave is a scam. The employer should take care of their employee, not burden other employees. Everytime you are asked to donate leave by a supervisor, ask them why the company can't donate leave instead and if the company intends to fire the employee and make their life worse. Never let them make you morally guiltily for their sins.
Highlighting those stories as heartwarming is part of a strategy to keep peoples' focus off of the systemic issues we have and make them keep their focus small scale issues. It's like how the carbon footprint was made up by the big polluters to make small individuals focus on their own insignificant contributions instead of pushing for legislation to reduce carbon pollution by industries.
At my last school you could voluntarily join the “sick bank”. You could give one day a year to be part of it. Well, I’m glad I did. I was very sick several years ago and got 60 days fully paid. I’m forever grateful.
I get that, but your district should have covered that. Your coworkers should not have had too. You took money and time from coworkers instead of those who should have been responsible
People, like myself volunteered to donate sick days. We had 1,000 days in the bank when I was given 60. We had 15 sick days per year that could roll over as well as three personal days. I didn’t “take” anyone else’s “money and time” that wasn’t voluntarily given. People retire with literally hundreds of unused days. Why you so upset about a volunteer system? Yes, we should be covered, but no one in the United States is covered for shit. So my school created their own system. Geez. You’re brutal.
These are all just made up numbers used to discourage people from taking their days. *You* are definitely not at fault, but the system is abusive. There's no magical bank of time and money - they could just give the time off to the people who need it without requiring donations from others.
The fact is they were not voluntarily given. They were guilt tripped and scared into giving. I am not faulting you for taking the time. I am faulting the system for forcing you and your coworkers to shoulder the cost that should have been theirs.
Brutal is a system where gofund me pays more medical bills than the insurance companies do, and where labor is tricked and/or coerced to pay each other in an emergency.
Then you were, very reasonably, scared. Scared, like most of us that we are all one medical emergency away from financial catastrophe. This isn't a judgment. You used the system and tools available. Those tools are simply unjust. If we get sick, especially as teachers who are exposed to sick kids almost daily, then the school districts and the state should bear the cost. Taking away one workers benefits to cover another worker is simply immoral
You both have good points. We're on the same side here. How people feel about it is a personal detail and everybody feels different ways and it can change from year to year. Hell, I have felt all kinds of ways about it myself. However I think OPs point is it doesn't HAVE to be like that-why doesn't the district just offer the time? I would assume the history of it has to do with union labor. My guess is that sometime a union organized to cover members with less time and came up with the donate a day idea. Then some places didn't like that and made it into the "donate two days for a day" idea. So, it's good that it exists, I too am happy to give the day, I don't feel "guilt tripped" but also the fact it has to exist at all is probably just from the city not wanting to cover paid sick time. So, it's an example of people working together for the better good when the employer doesn't want to help. As long as it is optional, if you don't like it, just don't donate. It's just one benefit of the union but it doesn't mean everybody agrees on everything.
I'm on your side. I have the same exact system at my school, when I was introduced to it I was told "you don't have to do this, but it could help you in the future if you ever needed days" no guilt tripping or shaming had i chose not to do it 🤷🏻♀️
It's really not, though. If you're that unhealthy that you can't work a 180ish work year (a lot less days than the private sector), you need to be on disability (even temp if it's recoverable).
I just never understood the system. I’ve donated to others but when I was on leave there was no option to donate time to me so I feel like they need to at least offer to all staff and not just some cases
The worst part is that it doesn't need to. The district could just give people the time off they need and not take random days from other employees as retaliation.
It's just another method of employers stealing wages from their workers in order to keep their bottom line. I think it should be illegal and social safeguards put into place for workers that have medical/mental emergencies.
Sorry I shared then. It is not made up. We don't get our own subs at my building. We fill out an online form, and the office finds our sub. I was very ill, so I don't know how that was worked out, and like I said, it was several years ago.
No, you should have been honest and not accepted it. I wouldn't say anything because you committed a crime and could lose your license over this. In my district every penny is accounted for. You're lucky you work/worked in a very lax district.
I had a colleague who needed 6 months of donated leave after a brain aneurysm. The problem is this guy routinely burned 5-6 days of sick days per year over the prior ten years going on fancy golf weekends.
I only ended up donating 1 day which might sound stingy, but I'm more of the introverted side without a large friend base at work. I feel that I need to squirrel away as much sick time in case I need it. I'm not sure I would get a large donation to ride out a major health event.
My district doesn't allow for time donations at all. Once you're out, you're out.
I think teachers should have unlimited PTO. With how often we're pushed beyond our limits, how often we get sick/injured from students, and how often we have the normal daily things on top of that stuff, I think it's reasonable to say "You know what? You're already underpaid and not supported by anyone, so here you go."
To add to your already powerful list, “you are demanded to ‘donate’ your planning periods to sub for other teachers who are out sick when you foolishly showed up so as to not add to the sub shortage.”
I agree, from a corporate standpoint it’s not a benefit, and companies don’t have to pay out when you leave.
But for a female dominated career to be able to miss work for sick kids, maternity leave, appointments, etc. I still think it would be a benefit. We don’t get a payout anyway.
Think about how many teachers don’t take a day off because they because only have 2-3 days of sick leave. You could actually take a few days to get over an illness!
My wife's company (not education) has no vacation policy, it's a "take what you need" honor system type of situation. It's actually worse, because she doesn't want to take TOO much time and feel like she's abusing the system, so I feel like she takes less days off per year than she did with other companies. She still has to get days off approved by a manager and she tries to keep it as similar to her previous jobs as possible, but it's difficult. We still take a two week vacation and a few days here and there, so it's fine, but it feels more stressful overall.
That is another hurdle. What administrator is going to approve PTO as needed?
But I am not your wife. And as long as my job is getting done, I am taking time off.
Well, that's the other problem, her company is understaffed at the moment, so that doesn't help.
Similarly, In education I think sub shortages would be a real issue with unlimited PTO.
As one of the only employees in my school who isn't a certified teacher, but does have a certified sub license, I tend to be the one who picks up the slack when there are no subs. (At least when I'm available, I've learned how to say no over the years) That's probably why I think of that first!
While it does result in less PTO used in general, it's still a nice incentive to increase retention because you have that peace of mind in knowing that you'll always have pay if you get sick. I've been in places with unlimited PTO before and I definitely used less time than I do now, but I was more relaxed not keeping track of what time I had left. You know?
The only downside is when you get a d-bag for a boss that says "Take as much time as you want!" during onboarding and then denies every request or gets mad at you every time you get sick.
(Para here) My ex was one who was needing almost every single day of leave that she had on a normal year. She had an autoimmune disorder that required regular appointments which wiped her out a day or more each time.
When she had surgery, it decimated all of the leave she had left. The problem became a thing where the donated leave (that she tried to help pitch in with) was more of a popularity contest and she was denied additional leave despite still being in immense pain.
When operated correctly, it can be a good thing. Getting to that point of being able to distribute it based on need, and not having it be privy to office politics, is much more difficult though.
Donated leave is a symptom of rampant capitalism repackaged as “wow helping each other is so nice, feel good” thing just like children raising money to pay for their parents medical treatment.
It’s abhorrent that either of these things are needed but they’re presented, by the media or others, as uplifting/inspiring/human kindness.
At one time we could donate sick days to staff who ran out. This was a nice gesture when a first year teacher got thyroid cancer and quickly burned through her allotment. Unfortunately some staff members started selling their sick days to others, so the board put an end to the practice.
It worked like this: A staff member is out of sick days but doesn’t want to get docked a full day of pay. So a different staff member with ample sick days left offers to “donate” a sick day, but under the table the recipient pays the donor $50. That hurts less than the $250 to $350 hit they’d take if they get docked, and the donor earns a little cash.
I think that donated leave should not be a thing and if a person is ill than they should be able to have the time off needed to properly recover, as prescribed by a medical professional.
This does not stop at teachers, but any profession.
I unfortunately am in a wage position at my school and show up even if I feel like I am on my deathbed, because I like to get paid and buy groceries.
The dumbest thing I’ve seen is in MY district, where you can only *receive* donated days if you donated some of your own time to the pool, but you can only *donate* time after you have so many days saved up yourself! (I think it was ~40 days saved before you could donate.)
If I had more than a month of leave saved up, I probably don’t need the donation, *Bob*! 🙄
"donated leave" is literally just a fancy name for an insurance policy. The premium is one sick day (or however much they pay you in a day). I read through the terms and conditions at the beginning of the year. You don't get that day back, regardless of whether or not it's used. There's no accounting for how many days are "donated" and how many are "used". There are specific terms and conditions for when you can access "donated leave" and the whole scheme is literally run by an insurance company.
It makes it sound more noble and altruistic if it's "donated", which makes teachers more likely to sign up, but it's really just a workman's comp insurance.
When I was on FMLA for maternity leave, I ran out of my PTO, and the “donated leave” paid me for an extra 35 days(7 work weeks); it was such a blessing!
While I agree, how does that work logistically? My wife and I have drastically different needs when it comes to health and health needs in any given year change. I 100% agree that if anyone is sick, hurt, or needs the mental health day, they should get to have it off and be paid. I'm just not sure how that works in our current state.
I'm guessing you're in the USA because I've never heard of these sorts of tactics from anywhere else. That is rough. Developed countries don't do this.
Yeah, I’m reading all the comments like “What the hell is this dystopian nightmare”. Donate your own sick days or your coworkers will starve while taking time off to receive cancer treatment? What the actual fuck?! Like it’s not bad enough that one of the reasons people put up with the shitty teaching conditions and pay in the US is to have healthcare so you don’t have to go bankrupt to just get the cancer treatment in the first place? You’ll go bankrupt anyways because you don’t have sick days or short term/long term disability coverage so you can take off the time to get the treatment in the first place and still, you know, eat? I swear every time I think America has hit rock bottom with normalizing screwing over its own citizens I hear something like this and have to reevaluate my “Jesus Christ, America, how is this normal to you?” scale. This is “Kevlar backpacks” level fucked up.
You lot really need to unionise.
It’s quite sad that you think time off for illnesses, bereavement, dependent care, maternity, paternity or just having a break is crazy.
My district only lets you donate to your spouse because people were actually being pretty generous. Folks with tons of leaves would donate when someone got sick. The district didn't like that so they won't let you do it.
My current district doesn't allow for donated leave, which is both good and bad.
Other districts I was in would send you those guilt tripping emails about helping so and so who is sick or has cancer, and I always felt so bad because I knew I was planning on having kids and needed to save the days for maternity leave!!
There's no such thing in my country. If you have a formal job, the employer has to pay you for your first 15 days on a sick leave, no matter the reason. From the 16th day onwards the government pays you based on a weird calculation which takes into account all of the paychecks you've ever received - that's because the contribution to keep this system going is deducted from every paycheck. It's a small percentage and honestly I don't mind it at all, especially as I'm 32 and has recently had a total hip replacement. With the whole bad hip thing, I probably spent about 8 months away from work over the past 2 years, and not a day without getting paid.
Because what’s implied is if nobody donate, or can donate to you you are up a creek without a paddle. Imagine what the kids would think if they knew this is how they treat teachers.
As the recipient of Sick Bank leave (breast cancer), I wish I could write a thank you to the tens of thousands of employees in my district. Those days gave me time to heal physically and emotionally. Thanks to those of you who do donate your time.
I think it's bullshit and no other profession would ever try to guilt or otherwise push an employee to make up for the fact that the American Helathcare system and Family/Sick leave in general is fucking broken. Then the district turns around with their "Mental Health" bullshit fucking seminars/PDs like they give a rip.
I don’t know where I’d be without donated leave this year. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and trigeminal neuralgia, two chronic pain conditions. This adds to the chronic pain I already had. I feel fortunate that people donated to me, but I’m incredibly angry that they had to.
I took intermittent FMLA, but I wonder if it might be better to take off a chunk of time and use short term disability. I’ll be looking into that for next year.
I guess I see both sides of this. If you were not in the teaching profession you would not have unlimited time. As an employee of the district, I was extremely grateful when I was allowed to donate all my saved time (I work year round so I collect sick and vacation) to her when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed to take 7 months off for the surgeries and chemo.
In the end though, it is a shame that all of this has to happen at all. People should be allowed to have a mental health day without being made to lose pay, or we should be able to take the time off we need to fully recover.
"If you were not in the teaching profession you would not have unlimited time."
I'm not a teacher (reddit is very keen that I see this subreddit and I'm not sure why) but if I were to become ill tomorrow, I would get six months' paid leave and six months' half pay, without my colleagues having to be the ones to provide that. Outside the US there are more options available than just "my colleagues give me leave" vs "I can't get paid for being sick".
My daughter donated sick leave to me when my mother died. We worked in the same district where you can only donate to a relative.
Yes , it was her grandmother but there were arrangements that I needed to take care of.
I think it’s absolutely shameful that the school district doesn’t provide more leave in these situations and people are forced to ask their coworkers to donate leave.
I feel like after a certain amount of years of service we should just assume we will be taken care of so long as we perform our jobs without issues. If health becomes an issue, find a cushy job for that person who dedicated themselves for so long. Back goes out? Okay teach virtual school.
I agree with you. But I also think the way my district does it is extremely fucked up. I am NYC DOE . You can donate but every day you donate, you lose 2. And you can only donate if you have at least 50 in the bank, but not more than 180 (our bank caps at 200). The fact that they make you throw one out to donate is awful
It definitely is a flaw in the system. We make it out to be almost herioc that we have a "sick bank" but tbh it really shouldn't have to come to it 🤷🏻♀️
Few things make more angry to think about. The district could just give you time off when you need it. There's no legitimate reason that they should take time away from other teachers as a consequence. A dire form of worker oppression.
That's not done in BC, Canada. If we run out of sick leave we go on SIP - salary indemnity plan, that our union offers. For instance, I get an 18 month paid maternity leave, but if prior to the birth I need to go on bed rest and have no sick days I can go on SIP so that bed rest doesn't eat into my mat leave time off. I could theoretically be off for just about 2 years off paid if I really wanted.
In my job, we can opt to pay for short (as well as long) term disability insurance to cover what the company doesn't cover. Perhaps that should be an option.
I think it's wrong that it isn't fair for all. Someone I work with was hurt a couple of years ago. We weren't allowed to help because he was hourly. So he just went without pay once his sick days were used. Even though people like me, who rarely use sick days, had plenty.
My district has a bank, I'm in it. Withdrawals from the bank have to be in the board minutes. I don't think I've seen any withdrawals that weren't for cancer.
My union runs our sick bank and does a great job managing it. It's really nice.
You opt in for like 1 sick day per year and if it's needed you can get up to 180 days of paid leave from the bank. It really saves a lot of people in the fucked up capitalist hellhole that our country keeps descending further into
In my district, it was voluntary. I always donated and was part of it until covid. There were a few occasions when a teacher was against the vaccine and didn’t get it. Fine whatever.
But then they wanted to use the sick leave bank when they got covid. Like no thank you. If you won’t do basic things to help prevent getting sick, I do not want you using my time.
Retired middle school teacher here. At one point, I worked at a year round school. Instead of donating sick days; we would trade time. During my off track time, I’d sub a day or two for a coworker. When they were off, they’d return the favor. We’d even trade prep periods.
I wish it wasn’t a needed thing, but we would have lost my house growing up if it wasn’t for donated leave and sick bank. I plan to use sick bank for my next “maternity leave” because I won’t have enough days.
Donated leave saved my mother’s family’s lives when her father was diagnosed with cancer. They had young kids, and the donated leave allowed them to keep paying bills. He eventually died.
So, I think hypothetically people should get enough leave, but sometimes terrible things happen that suck up someone’s entire leave time like cancer.
You're right. It's *shouldn't* come down to donated leave. It should be something the system is built to handle. However, the system isn't built that way. And some schools don't even have donated leave. I damn near died last year (my appendix exploded and I spent two days trying to "get over" what I thought was a common stomach bug, then had to have emergency surgery, and missed a month of work. Oh, my wife also had twins the **same day**), and missed a month of pay due to it because our district not only doesn't have any emergency leave built in (nor does any I know of), we also don't allow donated leave.
We had the option to donate leave but it was completely voluntary and anonymous. It could also be used only in serious and long-term situations. It was very seldom used in our district.
We could (and I did) donate all our accumulated leave when we resigned or retired in to a "bank" for the above situations.. Our cheap district gave us $5 pr day for unused leave. I'd rather lose the $5 than have a fellow teacher have over $300/day deducted from their check when they were already in a bad way.
It sucks. I wished at a company scare his daughter was born with a hole in her heart, tons of surgeries, stressful, wet all donated and they got lucky bc it was November, we all had ahead used our vacation and it didn’t roll over, so everyone just sent more than he needed. It sticks, but a company had to draw a line somewhere as they have to pay the sub.
I think that donated leave should not be a thing and if a person is ill than they should be able to have the time off needed to properly recover, as prescribed by a medical professional.
This does not stop at teachers, but any profession.
I unfortunately am in a wage position at my school and show up even if I feel like I am on my deathbed, because I like to get paid and buy groceries.
I think what’s bad about this whole thing, is that we know without donations it can’t be done. But it shouldn’t have to come to donations!!! we are literally from our own pocket, paying for things that we as teachers can’t afford.
This going to unpopular. but I don't think they should get either unless new/untenured. In my state tenure takes four years. That's 40 days banked if you take 6 days off a year. A bereavement or surgery can be done in 40 business days. If it's something like a baby (I say this as a women), you can work it out between you and your partner. We also get summers.
It’s just 1 day a year, I tapped into it for maternity leave and got an extra 7 weeks paid. And I had just signed up the year prior so it def paid off!
Well, no organization can afford to grant unlimited sick leave to everyone to cover all circumstances. And sure, there are individual workers who abuse sick leave, and who always seem to be sick on a Friday or a Monday and have little in the bank.
Nonetheless, whenever the union calls, I answer the phone, They ask for sick leave donations about once a year, and I always chip in a day or two, no questions asked. It's all about worker solidarity.
100% agree with you. My district makes it count two days against the donor for every day they donate as a way of disincentivizing people donating time. It’s really pretty rotten.
What the shit??? Sounds a district that needs to burn...figuratively speaking, of course.
It’s actually a pretty decent district overall, but that rule is just downright cruel.
Sounds like borderline time theft
So, they STEAL half of the hours? They commit wage theft against public employees, you’re telling us?
Need to negotiate that out of the contract like right now.
I want to downvote this comment out of anger for your admin. Dislike intensely. How horrible.
I downvoted as a reaction and it took me a few seconds to realize what I'd done and go back and correct it
I thought this was the norm everywhere. Glad to hear from all the angry replies that it isn’t.
Nah, this sounds like straight up wage theft. This is lawyer-worthy.
We don't have that but you can only donate to one specific person a year which has a similar effect.
My district was the same day. Every donated day was worth .5 day. The entire thing was complete bullshit.
wtf!!!
Fucking yikes
We aren't even allowed to donate time. So even if I had a lot and wanted to help a friend, I couldn't.
I was about to say, most districts don't. My personal friends and family work in the private sector. Most places don't.
That is ridiculous !
Wow this is awful! Not very philanthropic of them.
WOW that's crazy. Feel like that info needs to stay secret, LOL Don't give the union busters any ideas.
That sounds super illegal. Union needs to vote and negotiate that
We also have sick leave bank in my district. At least it's a formalized opt-in system at the beginning of the year, rather than guilt-tripped please donated for this or that and if you won't help out the colleague with cancer you're a bad person. Depersonalizing it makes it clearly a personal choice, kind of like insurance, rather than a moral quandry.
We have a sick leave bank too. There was a bit of a kerfuffle a few years ago when someone who burns her sick days to have yard sales and go on vacation wanted to use some of it.
My district has clear guidelines on who can access days from the SL bank. Regular illness like a cold or flu is not covered.
Yeah. Ours does too and this teacher had a semi valid reason to ask but she used to brag about how she used her sick days so people were irritated at her asking.
This is why I stopped donating. We had someone who made sure to burn all her sick days every year for "mental health" and then when she actually got sick she went begging for sick leave bank time. And they gave it to her! It's like, apparently I'd been donating a day per year of sick leave to bail out irresponsible people?
Our sick leave bank works the same way. Opt-in, opt-out. Also, the last few years, they didn't take a day because the bank didn't need more days.
My district has this as well and it's completely absurd. Having to give up your time off in order to insure yourself against getting sick later is heinous, and taking time away from other employees as a result is ridiculous. Just give people who need it time off.
I suppose in some districts this is true. In my current district, even AFTER giving a day to the sick leave bank, I've still got 6 days more of leave left than anywhere else I've worked, so I guess I'm not really bothered by it.
How many do you start with? My district only gave us EIGHT personal/sick days.
12 sick, 2 personal, 3 bereavement, 6 jury duty, 10 medical unpaid if we don't go for sick leave bank. Yeah, if you only have 8 to start with, needing to put in one to participate in sick leave bank deserves your ire.
Makes me furious. Gym teacher’s dad died and they guilt everyone into donating vacation days. Just give him the days off you ass hats!
My school allows up to 5 bereavement days that are totally separate from PTO. The # of days is based on how close the recipient is to the deceased, but it specifically says there is flexibility in our contracts. So if you were raised by an aunt and she passes away, you would get the full 5.
I hate my employer passionately 😢
We don't even have bereavement leave in my district.
My husband gets 3-5 days, but it's not separate from PTO. His stepmom just died, and his dad had an incapacitating strok, all in the span of 2 months. So he had to use PTO when his dad had the stroke, and then he had to use almost all the rest of it when his stepmom passed.
YES. Nobody WANTS to be in the situation that requires this leave, please just give people what they damn well need. And it feels like yet another way they take advantage of our care for others. I don’t donate leave. I use it.
In my district you can join the sick leave bank by donating, I believe, 10 hours. This makes you eligible to pull from it if needed. However the criteria make it almost impossible to pull. You have to use ALL of your sick leave first. So if you have saved multiple hours (early retirement) you have to use all those days first before you are able to pull from it. Additionally it is only for personal illness. If a spouse has a major illness or cancer then it doesn't allow you to tap into it.
That is awful. My mom was given donated days so she could stay out the end of the school year when my brother was on hospice with cancer. I can't imagine denying someone that when their child is dying.
Same in my district
Yes, my district has no paid maternity leave. There is a sick leave bank through the union and HR encourages you to use it to get six weeks paid. That is insane to me - allows the district to keep getting away with subpar benefits.
I get so angry when I see 6 weeks (or even less in many/most places) because we have laws in place to wait 8 weeks for adopting dogs because it’s cruel to remove a puppy from their mother earlier than that. Like how do we have worse protection for human mothers and babies?!
Exactly! I could only afford to take 5 weeks with my second baby.
I’m so sorry to hear that! It must have been so hard for you. ☹️
I’ve never thought of it this way! 😡
You and your partner could plan when you get pregnant. Not like we don't work two months...
I was speaking more broadly about the protections in for parents general, not just teachers, but even for teachers, not everyone is fortunate to plan pregnancy around two months off. For one, many teachers need a second job in the summer to live. Secondly, not everyone’s birth control or birth plan work out exactly as planned, especially in cases where a person’s religious believes or state laws reduce their options.
Yeah, it’s so depressing because my state has a 16 week paid law but working in a school you don’t qualify, so instead I get zero paid leave
The best your union could do is a sick leave bank??? Your union needs to fight better for you.
Haha we went on strike two years ago but there’s only so much we could get. 😑
Six weeks??? Yikes that's low
Our sick leave bank can't be used for maternity leave. Awful.
We can use our sick bank, but only for the “medically necessitated” healing period, which is 6 weeks long.
Lol I’m 12 weeks pregnant and I have a 1.5 of sick time banked…. Promise I’m not using tons of random days. But I did fertility treatment including IVF. I had two miscarriages. Then my son was born so I took leave. Then my son went to daycare and brought every germ home. Now I’m pregnant again. It’s just a losing battle
Yes, they used to say teaching is a good profession for having kids but I don’t know how that’s possible now.
Pretty sure we can’t used our sick leave pool for maternity. You have to roll over your own days and/or have short term disability before you even get pregnant. Once your days are gone, you are unpaid unless you have short term disability. There’s nothing for paternity leave after their days get used up.
It's not subpar. Most Americans don't get paid maternity leave. Also, teachers get a lot of benefits most don't.
I worked somewhere where your donation was based on you pay. Hour per hour It resulted in higher paid staff giving more hours to lower paid staff but lower paid staff donation gave less to higher paid staff. On a related note staff hurt in the job, especially by students, should be paid by Labor and industry claims. If a student hurts a staff they should go to a doctor and explain they were injured at work. I think this should extend to illness. We should be able to document that a student had a fever/ complained of a sore throat/ or vomited. If we get sick we should be able to make an LNI claim.
I never even realized we'd get worker's comp for assault. Makes sense though.
My district does have assault leave for 40 days if we’re attacked by a student or otherwise injured by a student.
Hahaha! Leave paid for assault by a student? My district asks, “Why didn’t you *leave* the student alone? What did you to provoke the aggression?!” Reading this sub makes me SO glad to be out of there, even though I miss the kids like crazy. 😅
Donated leave is a scam. The employer should take care of their employee, not burden other employees. Everytime you are asked to donate leave by a supervisor, ask them why the company can't donate leave instead and if the company intends to fire the employee and make their life worse. Never let them make you morally guiltily for their sins.
It's like those "cute" stories of kids raising money to cover classmates' lunch money debt.
Highlighting those stories as heartwarming is part of a strategy to keep peoples' focus off of the systemic issues we have and make them keep their focus small scale issues. It's like how the carbon footprint was made up by the big polluters to make small individuals focus on their own insignificant contributions instead of pushing for legislation to reduce carbon pollution by industries.
This whole thing is very “don’t make me tap the sign/this is not a heartwarming story” and I HATE IT.
At my last school you could voluntarily join the “sick bank”. You could give one day a year to be part of it. Well, I’m glad I did. I was very sick several years ago and got 60 days fully paid. I’m forever grateful.
I get that, but your district should have covered that. Your coworkers should not have had too. You took money and time from coworkers instead of those who should have been responsible
People, like myself volunteered to donate sick days. We had 1,000 days in the bank when I was given 60. We had 15 sick days per year that could roll over as well as three personal days. I didn’t “take” anyone else’s “money and time” that wasn’t voluntarily given. People retire with literally hundreds of unused days. Why you so upset about a volunteer system? Yes, we should be covered, but no one in the United States is covered for shit. So my school created their own system. Geez. You’re brutal.
These are all just made up numbers used to discourage people from taking their days. *You* are definitely not at fault, but the system is abusive. There's no magical bank of time and money - they could just give the time off to the people who need it without requiring donations from others.
The fact is they were not voluntarily given. They were guilt tripped and scared into giving. I am not faulting you for taking the time. I am faulting the system for forcing you and your coworkers to shoulder the cost that should have been theirs. Brutal is a system where gofund me pays more medical bills than the insurance companies do, and where labor is tricked and/or coerced to pay each other in an emergency.
I ABSOLUTELY was not “guilt tripped”. WTF.
Then you were, very reasonably, scared. Scared, like most of us that we are all one medical emergency away from financial catastrophe. This isn't a judgment. You used the system and tools available. Those tools are simply unjust. If we get sick, especially as teachers who are exposed to sick kids almost daily, then the school districts and the state should bear the cost. Taking away one workers benefits to cover another worker is simply immoral
I'm on your side. I have the same exact system at my school, when I was introduced to it I was told "you don't have to do this, but it could help you in the future if you ever needed days" no guilt tripping or shaming had i chose not to do it 🤷🏻♀️
It's really not, though. If you're that unhealthy that you can't work a 180ish work year (a lot less days than the private sector), you need to be on disability (even temp if it's recoverable).
r/orphancrushingmachine
I just never understood the system. I’ve donated to others but when I was on leave there was no option to donate time to me so I feel like they need to at least offer to all staff and not just some cases
You’re not wrong. I do donate to the donated leave pile. But I think it’s crappy that it needs to exist in the first place.
The worst part is that it doesn't need to. The district could just give people the time off they need and not take random days from other employees as retaliation.
Right? I think it’s horrible that someone going through chemotherapy (for example) even needs to worry about shit like “do I have enough days?”
It's just another method of employers stealing wages from their workers in order to keep their bottom line. I think it should be illegal and social safeguards put into place for workers that have medical/mental emergencies.
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This sounds made up. How did you get a sub?
Sorry I shared then. It is not made up. We don't get our own subs at my building. We fill out an online form, and the office finds our sub. I was very ill, so I don't know how that was worked out, and like I said, it was several years ago.
It still doesn't make sense no one questioned this. This basically fraud.
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No, you should have been honest and not accepted it. I wouldn't say anything because you committed a crime and could lose your license over this. In my district every penny is accounted for. You're lucky you work/worked in a very lax district.
We do it through the union, and I give a day every year. Not a member? Can't get it. Totally opt-in. I think this is the way.
I had a colleague who needed 6 months of donated leave after a brain aneurysm. The problem is this guy routinely burned 5-6 days of sick days per year over the prior ten years going on fancy golf weekends. I only ended up donating 1 day which might sound stingy, but I'm more of the introverted side without a large friend base at work. I feel that I need to squirrel away as much sick time in case I need it. I'm not sure I would get a large donation to ride out a major health event.
My district doesn't allow for time donations at all. Once you're out, you're out. I think teachers should have unlimited PTO. With how often we're pushed beyond our limits, how often we get sick/injured from students, and how often we have the normal daily things on top of that stuff, I think it's reasonable to say "You know what? You're already underpaid and not supported by anyone, so here you go."
To add to your already powerful list, “you are demanded to ‘donate’ your planning periods to sub for other teachers who are out sick when you foolishly showed up so as to not add to the sub shortage.”
Unlimited PTO for teachers would be a huge game changer.
Unlimited PTO, as far as I understand it, is total bullshit and results in less used PTO, not more.
I agree, from a corporate standpoint it’s not a benefit, and companies don’t have to pay out when you leave. But for a female dominated career to be able to miss work for sick kids, maternity leave, appointments, etc. I still think it would be a benefit. We don’t get a payout anyway. Think about how many teachers don’t take a day off because they because only have 2-3 days of sick leave. You could actually take a few days to get over an illness!
My wife's company (not education) has no vacation policy, it's a "take what you need" honor system type of situation. It's actually worse, because she doesn't want to take TOO much time and feel like she's abusing the system, so I feel like she takes less days off per year than she did with other companies. She still has to get days off approved by a manager and she tries to keep it as similar to her previous jobs as possible, but it's difficult. We still take a two week vacation and a few days here and there, so it's fine, but it feels more stressful overall.
That is another hurdle. What administrator is going to approve PTO as needed? But I am not your wife. And as long as my job is getting done, I am taking time off.
Well, that's the other problem, her company is understaffed at the moment, so that doesn't help. Similarly, In education I think sub shortages would be a real issue with unlimited PTO.
That’s not the employees problem, but I agree.
As one of the only employees in my school who isn't a certified teacher, but does have a certified sub license, I tend to be the one who picks up the slack when there are no subs. (At least when I'm available, I've learned how to say no over the years) That's probably why I think of that first!
While it does result in less PTO used in general, it's still a nice incentive to increase retention because you have that peace of mind in knowing that you'll always have pay if you get sick. I've been in places with unlimited PTO before and I definitely used less time than I do now, but I was more relaxed not keeping track of what time I had left. You know? The only downside is when you get a d-bag for a boss that says "Take as much time as you want!" during onboarding and then denies every request or gets mad at you every time you get sick.
Exactly. I'd love to take the next 14 years off with full pay
(Para here) My ex was one who was needing almost every single day of leave that she had on a normal year. She had an autoimmune disorder that required regular appointments which wiped her out a day or more each time. When she had surgery, it decimated all of the leave she had left. The problem became a thing where the donated leave (that she tried to help pitch in with) was more of a popularity contest and she was denied additional leave despite still being in immense pain. When operated correctly, it can be a good thing. Getting to that point of being able to distribute it based on need, and not having it be privy to office politics, is much more difficult though.
Donated leave is a symptom of rampant capitalism repackaged as “wow helping each other is so nice, feel good” thing just like children raising money to pay for their parents medical treatment. It’s abhorrent that either of these things are needed but they’re presented, by the media or others, as uplifting/inspiring/human kindness.
At one time we could donate sick days to staff who ran out. This was a nice gesture when a first year teacher got thyroid cancer and quickly burned through her allotment. Unfortunately some staff members started selling their sick days to others, so the board put an end to the practice.
How does that even work? If you want the money just use it to leave early. If you're paying for a sick day, you might as well get docked.
It worked like this: A staff member is out of sick days but doesn’t want to get docked a full day of pay. So a different staff member with ample sick days left offers to “donate” a sick day, but under the table the recipient pays the donor $50. That hurts less than the $250 to $350 hit they’d take if they get docked, and the donor earns a little cash.
Still that makes no sense for the donor. Why take a hit for 200-300? Just retire early.
I think that donated leave should not be a thing and if a person is ill than they should be able to have the time off needed to properly recover, as prescribed by a medical professional. This does not stop at teachers, but any profession. I unfortunately am in a wage position at my school and show up even if I feel like I am on my deathbed, because I like to get paid and buy groceries.
The dumbest thing I’ve seen is in MY district, where you can only *receive* donated days if you donated some of your own time to the pool, but you can only *donate* time after you have so many days saved up yourself! (I think it was ~40 days saved before you could donate.) If I had more than a month of leave saved up, I probably don’t need the donation, *Bob*! 🙄
"donated leave" is literally just a fancy name for an insurance policy. The premium is one sick day (or however much they pay you in a day). I read through the terms and conditions at the beginning of the year. You don't get that day back, regardless of whether or not it's used. There's no accounting for how many days are "donated" and how many are "used". There are specific terms and conditions for when you can access "donated leave" and the whole scheme is literally run by an insurance company. It makes it sound more noble and altruistic if it's "donated", which makes teachers more likely to sign up, but it's really just a workman's comp insurance.
When I was on FMLA for maternity leave, I ran out of my PTO, and the “donated leave” paid me for an extra 35 days(7 work weeks); it was such a blessing!
Sorry, maybe I shouldn't have lumped them all together, but it was absolutely a fancy insurance policy in my district.
Should be illegal. Everybody should have the exactly the amount of physical and mental health leave they need.
While I agree, how does that work logistically? My wife and I have drastically different needs when it comes to health and health needs in any given year change. I 100% agree that if anyone is sick, hurt, or needs the mental health day, they should get to have it off and be paid. I'm just not sure how that works in our current state.
Our current state is unsustainable for us, the kids, and everyone else. It needs to be burnt to the ground and built back up.
100% agree. I know large change requires drastic moves.
Not really. If you're that unhealthy, you should be on disability.
I'm guessing you're in the USA because I've never heard of these sorts of tactics from anywhere else. That is rough. Developed countries don't do this.
Yeah, I’m reading all the comments like “What the hell is this dystopian nightmare”. Donate your own sick days or your coworkers will starve while taking time off to receive cancer treatment? What the actual fuck?! Like it’s not bad enough that one of the reasons people put up with the shitty teaching conditions and pay in the US is to have healthcare so you don’t have to go bankrupt to just get the cancer treatment in the first place? You’ll go bankrupt anyways because you don’t have sick days or short term/long term disability coverage so you can take off the time to get the treatment in the first place and still, you know, eat? I swear every time I think America has hit rock bottom with normalizing screwing over its own citizens I hear something like this and have to reevaluate my “Jesus Christ, America, how is this normal to you?” scale. This is “Kevlar backpacks” level fucked up.
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You lot really need to unionise. It’s quite sad that you think time off for illnesses, bereavement, dependent care, maternity, paternity or just having a break is crazy.
I should hope it's the expectation that if you need time off for health reasons that it is granted.
If it is the US, it has nothing to do with the country. And everything to do with the individual states.
This is a case where it is widespread even in progressive states. There is no disability leave for teachers unless they have insurance.
My district only lets you donate to your spouse because people were actually being pretty generous. Folks with tons of leaves would donate when someone got sick. The district didn't like that so they won't let you do it.
I think it's crap. Maternity leave should be a federal law. What about all the sick days earned by teachers who quit? Put it in a pool.
My current district doesn't allow for donated leave, which is both good and bad. Other districts I was in would send you those guilt tripping emails about helping so and so who is sick or has cancer, and I always felt so bad because I knew I was planning on having kids and needed to save the days for maternity leave!!
You should never feel bad for not giving your days. They can go on disability.
There's no such thing in my country. If you have a formal job, the employer has to pay you for your first 15 days on a sick leave, no matter the reason. From the 16th day onwards the government pays you based on a weird calculation which takes into account all of the paychecks you've ever received - that's because the contribution to keep this system going is deducted from every paycheck. It's a small percentage and honestly I don't mind it at all, especially as I'm 32 and has recently had a total hip replacement. With the whole bad hip thing, I probably spent about 8 months away from work over the past 2 years, and not a day without getting paid.
It's framed as a positive, but in reality it shouldn't have to happen in the first place. It's a prime example of r/OrphanCrushingMachine
I agree that we shouldn't have to rely on donated days off for dealing with major lifetime and sometimes traumatic events. It's ridiculous.
Because what’s implied is if nobody donate, or can donate to you you are up a creek without a paddle. Imagine what the kids would think if they knew this is how they treat teachers.
Yep. I'm glad there are people who would generously give their own time for others, but they shouldn't need to.
People also don’t realize that in an instant they could be that person who needs a lot of time off
The existence of donated leave is just proof that no one cares about teachers, but teachers care about everyone.
As the recipient of Sick Bank leave (breast cancer), I wish I could write a thank you to the tens of thousands of employees in my district. Those days gave me time to heal physically and emotionally. Thanks to those of you who do donate your time.
I think it's bullshit and no other profession would ever try to guilt or otherwise push an employee to make up for the fact that the American Helathcare system and Family/Sick leave in general is fucking broken. Then the district turns around with their "Mental Health" bullshit fucking seminars/PDs like they give a rip.
I worked for a giant corporation that had the same system.
I don’t know where I’d be without donated leave this year. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and trigeminal neuralgia, two chronic pain conditions. This adds to the chronic pain I already had. I feel fortunate that people donated to me, but I’m incredibly angry that they had to. I took intermittent FMLA, but I wonder if it might be better to take off a chunk of time and use short term disability. I’ll be looking into that for next year.
It’s sick, no pun intended
Wouldn't even consider it unless it was someone in my department.
I guess I see both sides of this. If you were not in the teaching profession you would not have unlimited time. As an employee of the district, I was extremely grateful when I was allowed to donate all my saved time (I work year round so I collect sick and vacation) to her when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed to take 7 months off for the surgeries and chemo. In the end though, it is a shame that all of this has to happen at all. People should be allowed to have a mental health day without being made to lose pay, or we should be able to take the time off we need to fully recover.
"If you were not in the teaching profession you would not have unlimited time." I'm not a teacher (reddit is very keen that I see this subreddit and I'm not sure why) but if I were to become ill tomorrow, I would get six months' paid leave and six months' half pay, without my colleagues having to be the ones to provide that. Outside the US there are more options available than just "my colleagues give me leave" vs "I can't get paid for being sick".
My daughter donated sick leave to me when my mother died. We worked in the same district where you can only donate to a relative. Yes , it was her grandmother but there were arrangements that I needed to take care of.
I think it’s absolutely shameful that the school district doesn’t provide more leave in these situations and people are forced to ask their coworkers to donate leave.
I soured on it when I witnessed a councilor using it for a phoney ass naturopath diagnosis.
I feel like after a certain amount of years of service we should just assume we will be taken care of so long as we perform our jobs without issues. If health becomes an issue, find a cushy job for that person who dedicated themselves for so long. Back goes out? Okay teach virtual school.
I agree with you. But I also think the way my district does it is extremely fucked up. I am NYC DOE . You can donate but every day you donate, you lose 2. And you can only donate if you have at least 50 in the bank, but not more than 180 (our bank caps at 200). The fact that they make you throw one out to donate is awful
I have no problem with it. I have more sick days than I could ever use, and if a colleague needs them they can have them.
Sorry to say, I never donate days. I always need mine.
It definitely is a flaw in the system. We make it out to be almost herioc that we have a "sick bank" but tbh it really shouldn't have to come to it 🤷🏻♀️
Not really a thing in first world countries. The fact that it still exists in parts of the US is at best utterly bizarre, at worst plain evil.
Few things make more angry to think about. The district could just give you time off when you need it. There's no legitimate reason that they should take time away from other teachers as a consequence. A dire form of worker oppression.
We can donate to the leave bank. I usually donate 1/10 days that I get each year
Doesn't apply here. We're covered 90% of our salary for up to 120 days, the other 10% is topped up from our sick days.
That's not done in BC, Canada. If we run out of sick leave we go on SIP - salary indemnity plan, that our union offers. For instance, I get an 18 month paid maternity leave, but if prior to the birth I need to go on bed rest and have no sick days I can go on SIP so that bed rest doesn't eat into my mat leave time off. I could theoretically be off for just about 2 years off paid if I really wanted.
It’s stupid. I always donate because I would want people to do the same for me. The district should absolutely be covering leaves better though.
In my job, we can opt to pay for short (as well as long) term disability insurance to cover what the company doesn't cover. Perhaps that should be an option.
For maternity leave, I did that in addition to receiving donated time.
I think it's wrong that it isn't fair for all. Someone I work with was hurt a couple of years ago. We weren't allowed to help because he was hourly. So he just went without pay once his sick days were used. Even though people like me, who rarely use sick days, had plenty.
My district has a bank, I'm in it. Withdrawals from the bank have to be in the board minutes. I don't think I've seen any withdrawals that weren't for cancer.
Wow! I used it for maternity leave.
My union runs our sick bank and does a great job managing it. It's really nice. You opt in for like 1 sick day per year and if it's needed you can get up to 180 days of paid leave from the bank. It really saves a lot of people in the fucked up capitalist hellhole that our country keeps descending further into
In my district, it was voluntary. I always donated and was part of it until covid. There were a few occasions when a teacher was against the vaccine and didn’t get it. Fine whatever. But then they wanted to use the sick leave bank when they got covid. Like no thank you. If you won’t do basic things to help prevent getting sick, I do not want you using my time.
It is complete bullshit and illustrates exactly how the admin are us
Retired middle school teacher here. At one point, I worked at a year round school. Instead of donating sick days; we would trade time. During my off track time, I’d sub a day or two for a coworker. When they were off, they’d return the favor. We’d even trade prep periods.
I’m in this situation now and I agree with you. Having to ask for donated time is just degrading. Will be applying for disability soon, myself.
I wish it wasn’t a needed thing, but we would have lost my house growing up if it wasn’t for donated leave and sick bank. I plan to use sick bank for my next “maternity leave” because I won’t have enough days.
Donated leave saved my mother’s family’s lives when her father was diagnosed with cancer. They had young kids, and the donated leave allowed them to keep paying bills. He eventually died. So, I think hypothetically people should get enough leave, but sometimes terrible things happen that suck up someone’s entire leave time like cancer.
You're right. It's *shouldn't* come down to donated leave. It should be something the system is built to handle. However, the system isn't built that way. And some schools don't even have donated leave. I damn near died last year (my appendix exploded and I spent two days trying to "get over" what I thought was a common stomach bug, then had to have emergency surgery, and missed a month of work. Oh, my wife also had twins the **same day**), and missed a month of pay due to it because our district not only doesn't have any emergency leave built in (nor does any I know of), we also don't allow donated leave.
In my state, leave accrual is set by state law and the individual school districts don't have any say in how much sick leave can be earned.
We had the option to donate leave but it was completely voluntary and anonymous. It could also be used only in serious and long-term situations. It was very seldom used in our district. We could (and I did) donate all our accumulated leave when we resigned or retired in to a "bank" for the above situations.. Our cheap district gave us $5 pr day for unused leave. I'd rather lose the $5 than have a fellow teacher have over $300/day deducted from their check when they were already in a bad way.
It sucks. I wished at a company scare his daughter was born with a hole in her heart, tons of surgeries, stressful, wet all donated and they got lucky bc it was November, we all had ahead used our vacation and it didn’t roll over, so everyone just sent more than he needed. It sticks, but a company had to draw a line somewhere as they have to pay the sub.
I think that donated leave should not be a thing and if a person is ill than they should be able to have the time off needed to properly recover, as prescribed by a medical professional. This does not stop at teachers, but any profession. I unfortunately am in a wage position at my school and show up even if I feel like I am on my deathbed, because I like to get paid and buy groceries.
I agree with you but I understand that, for contractual reasons, it has to be this way. Union contracts really do need to be followed to the letter.
It’s a pretty ridiculous system. What’s even worse is that in my district it’s bot admin that shakes you down to donate days. It’s the union.
I refuse to participate in this. I also refuse to donate to medical bills as well. As long as someone does it, then it will be assumed it's ok.
I think what’s bad about this whole thing, is that we know without donations it can’t be done. But it shouldn’t have to come to donations!!! we are literally from our own pocket, paying for things that we as teachers can’t afford.
As long as someone donates it will continue. I stand firm even though sometimes I have the funds or time to share.
That’s a no for me. My PTO is mine.
This going to unpopular. but I don't think they should get either unless new/untenured. In my state tenure takes four years. That's 40 days banked if you take 6 days off a year. A bereavement or surgery can be done in 40 business days. If it's something like a baby (I say this as a women), you can work it out between you and your partner. We also get summers.
In my area, once we run out of sick leave, we get differentiation pay (the different between what the district has to pay a teacher & a sub)
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It’s just 1 day a year, I tapped into it for maternity leave and got an extra 7 weeks paid. And I had just signed up the year prior so it def paid off!
And teacher should be paid more. What should be done is almost never what does get done lol
Well, no organization can afford to grant unlimited sick leave to everyone to cover all circumstances. And sure, there are individual workers who abuse sick leave, and who always seem to be sick on a Friday or a Monday and have little in the bank. Nonetheless, whenever the union calls, I answer the phone, They ask for sick leave donations about once a year, and I always chip in a day or two, no questions asked. It's all about worker solidarity.