I work in a hospital/ambulatory care clinic. When I started there back in 1989, we got x amount of vacation, and 12 sick days a year; people abused it all of the time. Now, we have Primary Time Off and Extended Time Off. The took 4 of what used to be sick days, and put them into PTO. Thus, if you didn't call in sick, you had 4 extra days of vacation. The remaining 8 sick days were banked as ETO. You could only use these for hospitalizations, surgery, or for more than 3 days off with a doctor's excuse. Also, we are able to carry over our ETO to 1000 hours, at which point our long term disability insurance kicks in. The ETO has been a godsend for me; I have at least 3 months off coming up for when I get my kidney transplant; I should have enough ETO to cover it.
There are many positive ways than to encourage any employees ( teachers ) to be honest about sick days.
One option, give the sick days as cash, retirement plan donations, or as vacation days at the end of the year if they are not used.
Having every Friday swamped with subs sends a terrible example to the students. The students are being cheated on their education.
Second option, if the students excell in state wide tests, then bonus time or money could be offered for positive results.
There are many other positive ideas, too.
Good luck on your kidney transplant. My friend had to wait 20 years for his.
Sounds like a great idea.
I worked 5 1/2 years in a NYC hospital. Used every sick day. We considered it mental health days. And as you know in nursing sick calls leave everyone there very overworked. It's like a vicious cycle.
I came to a suburban not-for-profit hospital and tried that. I was put on probation. Especially calling in on a Monday, Friday or weekend. A tough supervisor set me straight.
Before I left 15 years later I had 5 months of sick time (considered it like insurance) which would have been nice as some kind of compensation at the end. At least I left with the knowledge I didn't screw the place and have a good reputation.