3 ms·

I may be an incredibly naive European, but when you’re burned out, can’t you just get sick leave from your employer?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
sascha_sl 5y ago
even in Europe, there are few doctors that take burnout (which is only really formalized in the ICD-11) as serious as it should be taken i've had aquantances that walked out with 3 days of sick leave (in Germany) - not even connecting to a weekend
TrueGeek 5y ago
In my entire career as a US software developer (15+ years) I've only had 1 employer that offered sick leave. Every other employer offered a "bucket" of time off. So even if you just have a cold you either go to work or you have one or two less vacation days that year. It's not uncommon to only have 10 days total for the "bucket", even for senior developers.
dominotw 5y ago
> Should I just take a couple of weeks' vacation? I'm kind of lost at the moment. clearly an option for OP. why do you think its otherwise?
- Nashooo 5y ago
  Sick leave is not the same as vacation days.
  - dominotw 5y ago
    what does it matter what its called though. why should i have to reveal my health conditions to my boss.
    - ac29 5y ago
      There are legal differences between sick leave and vacation, at least where I live. The former is required by state law, the latter isnt. Vacation hours can be accrued and have a cash-out value, sick leave will expire. There are a bunch of other rules as well. You should never have to reveal the nature of any health conditions to an employer to take sick leave.
      - dominotw 5y ago
        gotcha. thank you for that explantion!
    - stingraycharles 5y ago
      Well for starters, you typically have a limited number of vacation days a year, while sick days don’t have these limitations. Secondly, in case of burnout (or similar), it’s not unheard of (at least over here in .nl) that you stay at home for extended periods of time, and gradually restart picking up your workload. That kind of thing is very different from vacation.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

even in Europe, there are few doctors that take burnout (which is only really formalized in the ICD-11) as serious as it should be taken i've had aquantances that walked out with 3 days of sick leave (in Germany) - not even connecting to a weekend

TrueGeek 5y ago

In my entire career as a US software developer (15+ years) I've only had 1 employer that offered sick leave. Every other employer offered a "bucket" of time off. So even if you just have a cold you either go to work or you have one or two less vacation days that year. It's not uncommon to only have 10 days total for the "bucket", even for senior developers.

dominotw 5y ago

> Should I just take a couple of weeks' vacation? I'm kind of lost at the moment. clearly an option for OP. why do you think its otherwise?

Nashooo 5y ago
Sick leave is not the same as vacation days.
- dominotw 5y ago
  what does it matter what its called though. why should i have to reveal my health conditions to my boss.
  - ac29 5y ago
    There are legal differences between sick leave and vacation, at least where I live. The former is required by state law, the latter isnt. Vacation hours can be accrued and have a cash-out value, sick leave will expire. There are a bunch of other rules as well. You should never have to reveal the nature of any health conditions to an employer to take sick leave.
    - dominotw 5y ago
      gotcha. thank you for that explantion!
  - stingraycharles 5y ago
    Well for starters, you typically have a limited number of vacation days a year, while sick days don’t have these limitations. Secondly, in case of burnout (or similar), it’s not unheard of (at least over here in .nl) that you stay at home for extended periods of time, and gradually restart picking up your workload. That kind of thing is very different from vacation.