I did not intend to imply that issues with police and fire department are identical, or that all departments have serious problems with abuse. There have been some well-publicized incidents of police corruption, of course, but on the whole, I like to assume that both police and fire personnel are honest - and potentially heroic - public servants. That is why it is more disappointing when they are not than when (for example) county commissioners turn out to be crooks again: we expect that!
I can see scheduling sick leave if, for example, you’ve made an appointment for your annual physical or a colonoscopy, and there’s not a non-work day on which you could get those appointments. Other than that, though ... it does seem very dishonest, like planning to be sick on a Monday.
I (personally) didn’t take offense - and am certainly not answering for Crapgame. I think he was right with what he wrote.
But still I appreciate you clarifying that not all places are the same or handle the problems the same way.
I always scheduled stuff on my days off. It is not a hard thing to do. But if you read through my threads here on this post. You can see how the system can be so easily abused as well. For instance, since we get 80 hours per year that accumulates to 120. After your bank has 120 hours your just giving that time back to the employer many people believe. So they “use it or lose it”. I never agreed with it, but it was beyond my pay scale to make any changes even if I could figure out a more fair way of doing it.
I was just happy to be able to have sick time to use legitimately if I needed it. I thought it quite the privilege after having worked at places where there was none. You didn’t work, you didn’t get paid.