Originally Posted by tennisguru

I would define sick leave abuse as using sick time when you are completely physically and mentally well so as to be able to come to work and perform this job. That is also nearly impossible to track since many disqualifying conditions rely on the feelings of the individual with regard to stress, tiredness, pain, etc that cannot be easily verified (if it can be verified at all) by any company representative or medical professional. The company will never define it because that traps them in a box of their own making, and again any "limit" is going to be highly subjective and practically impossible to enforce.

Say a pilot bangs out sick on a beautiful spring day and goes out on the boat with the family. Is that abuse, or was he feeling stressed out about family issues and needed a mental health break in order to have a fun family outing to get things straightened out?