When I was working, I used my sick days when I was sick. My DH manages a branch here and doesn't like it when his staff come in sick because they make other staff sick and end up needing more sick days all up than if the sick person just took time off in the first place. Having said that, DH has his own office so if he is sick but needs to get some stuff done at work, he heads in and goes straight into his office and keeps himself away from the rest of his staff. He usually only goes in for a bit and then works from home for the rest of the day.

He was talking to another manager who was saying that they have recently swapped sick leave over to personal leave. Everyone is entitled to 10 days of personal leave a year on top of their annual leave as a replacement for sick leave. If they are sick they have to use their personal leave, but they can plan to take a day of personal leave if they need it for anything because it is easier for the company to managed planned days off then to deal with people calling up at the last minute. It also keeps their work place a lot more honest and people can say that they are having leave without having to bung on being sick. I think it sounds great as long as people can manage their leave well enough to still take time off when they are actually sick but most people have a few weeks of sick leave owing to them within the first couple of years of working so it sounds like a good way to let them use it to me