36 days of the year are part of the APD holiday period carveout limiting the use of IVDs. I'd put 10% of the year, and probably well above 10% of total trips touching any of those days as above "very limited exceptions."

Edit to add that APD holiday period days make up 6 of 31 days in Dec this year, or 19.4% of the month, but 36.5% of trips touch them in my BES.

 

Do they get as much vacation as we do?

 

Their vacation accrues with seniority just like ours, this is a benefit separate from vacation. Everything you seek is on Deltanet.

 

Yes. I'm very familiar with how PTO works in corporate America. When my wife or sister or brother is sick, they get to go on less vacations. Do you know how a PTO system works?

 

Correct. Because no one ever came into work sick because they wanted to save PTO for vacation.

Honestly, the switch to PTO sounds like the scams every boss I ever had tried to talk me into: "No, no, no, you don't understand. This isn't a pay cut, you can actually make more money under this new program!"

 

Totally agree with this whole post. We are adults, given tremendous responsibility. A mistake at our job can instantly result in hundreds of deaths and hundreds of millions in cost to the company. And yet we are treated like we are in kindergarten, needing a bathroom pass to use the lav. Frankly, it's insulting, even knowing there are people who fully abuse the system.

But much like security cameras or insurance, there is a certain cost that is just part of being in business.

Everyone here knows we have a high sick allocation because the FAA medically disallows us from doing our job for tiny medical issues. Someone in Res or Flight ops gets a knee replacement and they get maybe a week off before they can hobble into work on crutches. In our job, you are looking at 6-8 weeks minimum.

But with the sniffles or flu, it's as much about stopping the spread as being sick. You'd think the company would know having a robust sick allocation protects their operation, but for some reason, they don't act like it. The problem is, how do you prove how many downstream sick callouts do NOT happen when someone rightly calls sick, because you didn't spread the flu? You can't.

Generally, I like our sick program how it is. Maybe tweak a couple small things, but if it ain't broke...

 

Agree with all that except care for family members. If your kid is home sick, and both parents work, someone has to miss work. It’s not fair to put it on our spouses all the time. Many states have identified this, passed laws requiring family care sick leave, and the company is dragging its feet through the courts.

LAX, SEA, MSP, DTW, NYC

 

We all want more money and more time off. There is no need to change the system and enter the unknown. We have lots of unintended consequences when we make major changes. Just improve what we have.

 

That was part of CX's post that I was 100% agreeing with. I put on my survey that I wanted to see any state sick benefits afforded to any pilot base must be extended to all pilot bases.

 

I think our sick program is great - for you young whippersnappers, as you get older, things break and problems develop. As a regular user of sick leave for various issues, our sick leave policy is great. My SW buds are constantly deciding on sick usage in order to keep a healthy bank for use if something big comes up it seems.