VIRGINIA BEACH
City employees took 45,723 paid sick days last year.
Which of the following departments' employees averaged the fewest?
A) Library
B) Planning
C) Human services
D) Sheriff
E) Police
"Just guessing off the top of my head, I would say the librarians," said Paul Champagne, professor of human resources management at Old Dominion University. "It's not the highest stress job on earth. Police and sheriff's deputies, those are pretty high stress jobs. I would think they might take some time away to recharge. I don't know if I'm right about any of that."
He's not.
Last year, library workers averaged 8.5 sick days. Employees in the sheriff's department, many of whom work at the Virginia Beach Correctional Center, took 5.4 sick days, the city's lowest average.
Only planners, at 9.3, took more sick days than library workers, among departments with more than 100 workers.
The sheriff's department was followed closely by the city's convention and visitor's bureau, at 5.42 days.
Police averaged 7.4 sick days, just below the city average of 7.8. The Fire Department was not included because most staffers work 24-hour shifts, which skews sick day data.
Virginia Beach Sheriff Paul Lanteigne said his department's record was impressive because many of his deputies work in the jail. A recent internal newsletter devoted to the department's sick day totals noted, "overcrowded conditions results in many of the inmates having communicable diseases."
"We have a closed ventilation system," Lanteigne said. "Everybody that's sick, you're breathing that air with them."
Jim Ricketts, director of the convention and visitors bureau, theorized that setting up chairs and tables for events in the sprawling convention center keeps his employees in shape and helps them avoid sick days. "They have to walk a lot," he said.
Despite perceptions that having a stressful job or working around sick people causes people to take sick days, that's not necessarily the case, said Grace Dobson, a human resources consultant from Frederick, Md.
She wasn't surprised that the sheriff's department employees took the fewest sick days.
"It's because they have health procedures in place, like wearing gloves and washing their hands," Dobson said. "They're similar to nurses or emergency room doctors. It's not like they're in the cell with inmates."
She also wasn't surprised about the library 's high numbers.
"People in the library are bombarded by a vast array of people, from small children who are touching everything to all kinds of adults."
Library Director Marcy Sims agreed.
"Public libraries work with the public," she said. "That is our whole job."
Sims added that her 186-person staff is 90 percent women, which means more pregnancies that can boost sick day statistics.
Planning director Jack Whitney said he wasn't sure why his department averaged the most sick days.
"You could look at sick leave and say people are being diligent about their health," he said.
Or, as others suggested, you could say people are just taking extra time off.
"The truth is, people more often than not want that time when they have something else to do," said Champagne, the ODU professor.
Councilman Jim Wood said this is because there is no real incentive for city workers not to take days off.
The 5,884 Beach employees get 12 sick days a year. For each unused day, workers are paid $28 upon retirement, an amount equivalent to $3.50 an hour.
That's not enough to discourage using the days, Wood said.
"Earn and burn." Lanteigne said that's the guiding employee philosophy on sick days.
Both Wood and Lanteigne said raising the daily payoff for unused sick days would reduce us e. Wood suggested $75.
Still, Lanteigne, who hasn't called in sick in 33 years with the city, has his department's sick day us e near the bottom every year.
"We are all amazed that he keeps his number so low," said Fagan Stackhouse, director of human resources, whose 53 employees averaged 5.7 sick days last year.
Lanteigne credited some of his department's success to the small gifts he gives employees who have perfect attendance each year. Last year, 139 didn't miss a day. That was 29 percent of the department's 477 workers, the highest rate in the city. Each got a $16 black gym bag.
The standard city reward for perfect attendance is a certificate.
"The plaque on the wall is all fine and dandy, but something you can hold in your hand can be more effective," Champagne said.
Sgt. Tina Mapes, a sheriff's deputy who didn't miss a day last year, said she didn't want to burden co-workers by taking time off.
"If we're missing somebody, then somebody else has to pick up the slack," she said, adding that if she's out a day she feels guilty.
"It's internal. I feel like I'm letting somebody down."
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122. aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
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More Here Than Meets The Eye
JMO is correct. 24 hour shift and weekend workers can go to appointments during first shift (normal work hours). 9 to 5 workers have to take leave to go to an appointment. You have to follow the money. Why is Woods and the Sheriff talking about jacking up the sick leave pay out? Might be because the Sheriff is nearing retirement. There is always an angle to these things.
Perfectly logical to me
They're all perfectly logical to me. The more other people depend on you showing up for your shift, the more social pressure there will be to show up.
Sick leave is kind of an antiquated concept in today's market. Employees and employers are consistently happier with a combined leave type setup. An hour off is an hour off no matter the reason. Once good setup is to have a block of sick leave added every year and have any left over from the previous year convert to vacation. That prevents people from using up their time and being stuck if they really get sick.
sick leave
FYI City employees do not get all the 15 Government holidays off with pay. The City employees do not get paid their unused sick leave at the end of the year. I would think that Councilman Wood should check his information before talking to reporters about the City employees. He is just trying to make the employees look bad to the public.
agreeing with JMO, just this once
People who have nighttime or flexible schedules just don't understand how difficult it is for the rest of the country to get things done. 9-5 isn't even generally the case anymore... It's 9-6 or 8-5. It makes it impossible to get to the doctor, the bank, or anywhere that has daytime hours without taking leave. Most people use their sick days or their vacation just to get regular life occurrences taken care of.
I never knew that vacation
I never knew that vacation days were vacation supplemental days. Man, all those days I left on the books. I guess my parents raised me wrong, again.
BTW, I think its a matter of job satisfaction.
Committed to their fellow deputies.
There are still people out there in the workforce with a sense of commitment to their job and fellow workers. The jail is definately often very stressful job. It is also a job that mandates how many Deputies and supervisors are need each and every shift. Your place on the team is crtical to the safety of others, including the inmates, that is one reason most don't use sickdays as "vacation days". For you people that think it is a gravy train let me tell you if you were to come to work in the jail you would know that they do not get any "paid" overtime. It is all in "comp time". After a number of years working there you can only "Bank" so many hours of comp. Many will use their comp time in place of sick time rather than lose it. I'm sure you can find other reasons why the S.O. came in #1, but commitment to the job is probably the #1 reason. And for the person in the article that thinks deputies are not in close contact with the sick inmates come spend some time in the jail. Many deputies come to work sick out of a feeling of "Esprit d'corps". The S.O. is still managing to hire people with good work ethics. They should all feel proud of this distinction.
uuhhh
A.) Who cares
B.) Who cares and finally
c.) WHO CARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
common sense
Because 'sick leave' is also used for routine medical appointments and (in some cases) to care for sick family members, it stands to reason that shift workers who normally work evenings/nights/weekend would use less sick leave for these purposes. The deputies and cops that work nights don't have to take time off to go to the doctor or dentist, while the librarians and other 9 to 5'ers need to use sick leave for routine appointments.
No surprises here, really.
jmo
Gov't ain't like the private sector...
I like the way the old phone company did it: your dependability part of your appraisal rating was based on # of days taken + # of cases. More than 5 or 6 days a year was unsatisfactory, unless you had extenuating circumstances, period. Nothing was pre-planned, and perfect attendance was a big deal at one time. I have a cousin and a good friend each working for the fed govt, and they just look at weeks of sick days as more vacation days, with unused sick days carried over/paid for. That's one sick concept from a business point of view. Just call it vacation time and stop the hypocrisy. When you start out in govt, it's a compensation for low pay. But over time the pay can get REAL good and you get over-compensated by this nonsense. And WE all get to pay for it unwillingly- unlike in the competitive business arena.
Two Months!
Who gets two months off a year? Here I thought I was living large in the military with my whole MONTH off a year. Where do you work Skoops, I want to change careers.
More waste
I and sick and tired of picking up the paper and finding out how the vb council and spore wastes my money! Being paid for earned tim eoff that you didn't use. Next they will be getting paid for weekends they didn't work!
It's time they all go! November, vote RENO - Re-Elect No One! remove the sitting council, and then fire the city mangler.
Thanks...
Thank you for you best wishes... :)
skoops
I think you got it wrong, you live in YOUR world...your very own and you are so lucky. As I said may you get the rewards you so justly deserve and I'm sure you will.
...
Just telling it like it is... I live in the real world.
hey skoops
Not suprised to see a post like you made below after reading yours about Poink, the NBG eaglet. May you get all of the just rewards that you deserve, yes may you!!
what is it with the sick leave?
Seems like the Pilot doesn't have much to report on these days.
Grace Dobson is an HR person who.....
Obviously has never been in the Correctional Center. We enter cell blocks where up to 55-60 inmates are housed many times a day conducting security checks. Furthermore, we do not always know when inmates are sick as medical conditions or records are not always filtered down to floor deputies. It's kinda like walking the halls of a hospital for 12 hours. You don't always know what the person in the next room has but you walk in and say hi anyways. Maybe she should get her facts straight before making comments she knows nothing about.
What's the problem...
If you are offered 9 days sick leave and 10 days vacation, what is the problem with taking them all? It is part of their benefits. It is in their contract. I know I make sure I take all my PTO (sick, personal and vacation) every year, it is owed to me, it is mine. I have been with my company for 7 years and get close to 2 months. That’s 2 weeks for Christmas, 2 weeks in the summer and 4 weeks spread through out the year. The problem isn’t with the people taking the time off that belongs to them, the problem is with the contracts that are worked out, if there is a problem at all.
Doesn't surprise me at all...
As a former librarian, I can attest that the profession draws its share of people who suffer from, for lack of a better term, only-child syndrome. Many are used to everything being just so in their lives, and if something as mild as a scratchy throat or a sniffle should erupt, they take the afternoon off, scurry home, don the bathrobe and slippers, and kick back with a hot cup of tea or cocoa. Same thing applies if they're just having a bad day. I've never seen a group with a weaker constitution.
To all you holier than thou types
Before you climb up on your soapbox and bash the library system, perhaps you should physically step into a branch to see what's actually going on there. One branch in particular has been working short-staffed for over a year, and it's employees have been working their hind parts off to make sure that their staffing issues don't impact the quality of customer service that they provide to the public. These are also the people that have been trying their best to plan and execute the libary's Summer Reading Program for our children on a budget that the word "shoestring" can't even begin to describe. And these are also the same people you will be dealing with in the event that our area suffers a direct hit from a hurricane or similar natural disaster, because they will be staffing the public information office,as well as the emergency shelters. And last but not least, don't overlook the fact that a large percentage of library employees are (surprise!)taxpayers too.
If they have it to use. . .
If they have sick days to use, they should be allowed to use them,I know I would. Isn't that what the days are for??? Aren't the sick leave days earned?? I think some people are jealous, cause they can't do it!
Perhaps its the most obvious reason
Maybe people who actually choose to be librarians are the ones with the weaker gentetic immune system, work out less, eat worse, ect. I know police have fitness standards. Also, perhaps police and sheriff forces are filled with a higher percentage of professionally aggressive people who are less likely to use a sick day to take a break than librarians. There must be differences in ambition and health with the people most likely to apply to become police or librarians. But the most obvious reason is probably that the public misses police and sherrifs more when they don't come to work. Crime doesn't stop but the books will be there tomorrow.
Virginia Beach Sick Leave
It's funny that Councilman Wood says that we get paid for our unused sick leave annually. Maybe he should go back to the office and look up the policy. City employees only get paid for unused sick leave if you stay long enough to retire. And then you only get a small portion of what that day is worth. If anyone gets $3.50 and hour to work please post to this article so we can feel sorry for you.
Also, no one bothered to include in this article all of the sick leave that is donated to fellow employees who have a major illness and may require weeks off at a time, the Family Medical Leave Act, staying home with sick children because both parents must work to make ends meet (or would you rather I sent my kids to day care or school and made yours sick?), or just needing a mental health day in the summer after dealing with irate citizens and tourists who want everything now and don't care if you can't even help them.
And, yes BR, we do get paid that whopping $28 per day for unused days. Next time there is an emergency declared in the city, I'll call you to join me manning the public information office helping frantic citizens cope, work a shelter where everyone has been uprooted f
Why is this news?
Why is this news?
give me a break
Are the people in the library the only ones who work with the public?? I think NOT. We're not stupid.
A different angle
Working in an environment that offers no creativity, real job satifaction, and the lowest morale I've witness in 30 years, I fully understand those using leave. The obvious answer is to get a new job most would say. Well, how about those of us that have half a lifetime invested in the present employment? How about those that can't pack up and move to a new locality because of family obligations? I have often fought the urge to take leave (sick or annual) in my IT gov't job. I find this position to be totally without gratification (except for the paycheck). The crux is I can't afford to take a pay cut for another position and I can't leave the area for another job because I'm a dedicated single dad (rarity these days). My motto (and that of MANY others I work with)is "There's no such thing as a bad day off".
Beach Vacation
Maybe the reason the prisoners are so sick is that the workers don't stay home when they are sick. The prisoners can't control their environment and who they come into contact with. The workers can. You can't say they don't get sick, they just don't stay home.
2 Months of Vacation
Let me get this correct, you can get paid for not taking your sick days?? Give me a break! And now you are complaining that the $28/day that you get paid for not using the day is not enough. Than you got the people in the planning office, the most non-active job in the list, running 9 days of sick time per year. Thats essentially TWO WEEKS OF VACATION on top of the already TWO WEEKS and 15 Goverment Holidays. LOoks like I need to go work for the planning dept where you get 2 months off every year.
2 Months of Vacation
Let me get this correct, you can get paid for not taking your sick days?? Give me a break! And now you are complaining that the $28/day that you get paid for not using the day is not enough. Than you got the people in the planning office, the most non-active job in the list, running 9 days of sick time per year. Thats essentially TWO WEEKS OF VACATION on top of the already TWO WEEKS and 15 Goverment Holidays. LOoks like I need to go work for the planning dept where you get 2 months off every year.
Just a guess but...
It is at least possible that the librarians are actually getting sick from the masses of children and general public coming and going, handling and sneezing on books, then having them re-shelved. You can't spray a book with lysol.