A lot of companies in the US either give you a fixed amount of sick days – they won't fire you if you go over, but you won't get paid – or they consider paid ti

A lot of companies in the US either give you a fixed amount of sick days – they won't fire you if you go over, but you won't get paid – or they consider paid time off and sick days to be equivalent, and so if you're sick for a week, you're seriously eating into your vacation time unless you can afford to go on an unpaid leave (and your supervisor lets you). Dunno about the UK.