3 Comments on “Christie On Sick Leave Payouts: “Only In Government””

1. 
   James Hogan said at 9:05 am on May 20th, 2011:

   First let me say that I’m not a business owner, or even a manager of some little department. I was once offered a nice raise and promotion to a senior management position and promptly turned it down (with a pat on my own back, I’m good at writing code and designing systems, it doesn’t mean I’m good at management, and I know my limits – Peter Principle here) – so with my Zero Business Sense(TM) stated, let me ask… like the question of double-dipping, are sick leave payouts the problem we think/make it out to be? Or are us private sector types just jealous?

   Take the county jail for an example. We pay A LOT of money in overtime costs. My understanding, which could also be wrong, is that we pay those overtime costs, mostly, because a worker who is on the schedule calls in sick, and we HAVE to ask another worker to stay extra hours or come in on a day off. If that is correct for why we pay so much in OT, then do we really want to take away the incentive that is getting paid a few extra dollars for not calling in sick in exchange for more OT?

   I suppose the jail/shift work example is on the far end of the spectrum, does the same apply to a BOE secretary? If a secretary uses all of their sick days, do I end up paying some other secretary extra or does some work just get delayed a day or few? Are there legal reasons why certainly maybe can’t be delayed and I’d have to pay extra to someone or face some lawsuits if that secretary isn’t at work, “playing sick”? I suppose maybe a worse case is even that I have to hire an extra secretary to be there just because of the amount of sick days/time off being used which means an extra salary instead of sick payouts and OT…. but with benefits/salary/training expenses, etc?

   If he’s around and has free time to share a thought, I’d love to get the TR perspective on sick leave payouts. I feel like this might be one of those things where “you don’t really want what you’re asking for” but maybe I’m missing the bigger picture problem. Surely the Gov and the business world people know better than me, I’m just looking to learn by asking because I seem to be missing some information.

2. 
   Henry V Vaccaro said at 5:54 pm on May 20th, 2011:

   James ,I think the bigger picture that you are missing is the terms and work rules contained in the union contract with the county.

3. 
   James Hogan said at 11:06 pm on May 20th, 2011:

   I appreciate the effort Henry, but I guess the terms of the contract must say if a worker calls in sick, the Sheriff doesn’t have to fill that empty shift with a qualified employee and the inmates will know to just behave on their own until the next shift starts, assuming that worker shows up and isn’t also sick and so the sheriff is just having a worker cover the shift to waste money and help a friend?

   I hate to come off as the sarcastic donkey that I might really be, but I was really hoping someone could explain in some detail if/how not offering sick-time payouts would/might impact the already high OT costs and/or if the workers in question with the sick payouts are even shift-type workers where it might or might not apply . jhogan. at . long branch republicans . dot . com if you don’t want to post as a comment, I don’t promise not to share your email though. 🙂