The thing is different companies have different policies.
I don't work for the TSA, but I am sure you will all see the point of the examples I will give.
I work for a company that has a 14 day per rolling year sick allowance - then it is a (supposedly non-automatic) warning. No "saving up the days" from year to year. And just for good measure, if you are off both sides of a rest day, the rest day gets added to the sick.
I've seen the "added rest days" at Easter when a colleague got a warnig for having 9 working days off, plus, two weekends, plus good friday, and easter monday, all of which, for that employee, were rest days! 9 consecutive work days + 6 rest days in between = 15 days = warning. There was, of course, medical documentation to back up the sickness, the company always requires a note from a physician with a very short diagnosis after 7 days (again including "middle" rest days).
If the physicians note is not forthcoming, the company withholds those days pay until it is.
The "non-automatic" warning was still issued, though.
3 warnings without a clear year between each (to "reset" the count) and you are out.

One of my colleagues had no days sick at all for 11 years. then he was sick for about a month (of course, with supporting medical notes etc.). He got a warning.
Another colleague was hit by a motorcycle (which left the raod and hit him on the sidewalk) as he was walking home. Straight to the hospital.
He was called in for a sick warning whilst still off-work, and still on crutches. And it was issued. As he works in a part of the company with a warehouse-type environment, then he can't really do his job sitting down, or with crutches, can he?
How is he supposed to avoid the sickness? He was just walking along the sidewalk minding his own business, when he was injured.

Then take me.
I am currently off work with a "massive bilateral pulmonary embolism" (that's what the doctor wrote on my hospital notes), and multiple emboli in one thigh, and a suspected small liver clot. I have been off for about 2 months. I hope to return on light-duties soon.
I expect to get a sick warning when I return.
But what am I supposed to do?
Not get a blood clot?
Not have it move to my lungs?
Not get the clots in my leg and liver?
I am on special blood treatment, because I didn't respond properly to the standard "rat poison", so maybe I should have been born with "typical blood"?

I'm not exactly a "sick-note" either - that was the first time I have been to hospital for more than 25 years.


When warnings become arbitrary, sick time tends to gets treated as an allowance.
They also distract employees from the job they are supposed to be doing, and are therefore counter-productive to the employer.
That's why I am against the idea of formal limits.
The reason why formal limits are so popular (however they are set) is because it makes the manager's job much easier.

To get really top-class managers, a company has to offer appropriate pay, benefits, training, and support. But most settle for "average" managers, because they are cheaper - but then, of course, they will only do an average job.
Top-class leaders motivate their staff, so they perform better (and motivated staff take less sick - there are endless studies to back this up).
Average managers control their staff, and that has been shown to lower morale, and statistically shorten life expectancy (both of which increase sick leave).

+1

Lao Tzu
No offence to the manager (castrobenes) who posted above. I am sure you are an exceptional individual. But I am equally sure that you know that some of your managerial colleagues are not.
The statementis, I am sure just a temporary aberration, and does very little indeed to motivate staff. Anyone can punish, or follow a set of guidelines, but the job of a leader (aka manager) is to lead. Otherwise managers just become an unnecessary drain on a company's resources (as their direct production is usually minimal - their role being the motivation of others to produce more output/quality), and in the case of government, quite justifiably lead to calls for "smaller government" and contracting-out jobs, neither of which will benefit the control-based manager. (The motivational manager, will of course, be able to find a new job much more easily!)
Poor business practices are a recipe for disaster in both the public and private sectors.
For modern business (which apply just as well to government jobs!) practices, I would suggest an exploration of The Toyota Way - which is why they have just trashed GM (not the most modern employer)


But the whole topic seems to have moved away from the title.
I wonder if the main topic of the post will be discussed.