I agree that strictly regimented sick/vacation time is something a lot of us suffer under. My organization goes as far as to call the combined sick/vacation poo

I agree that strictly regimented sick/vacation time is something a lot of us suffer under. My organization goes as far as to call the combined sick/vacation pool "Earned Time". As though you have to work in order to earn the right to rest at home when you are sick or want to take a day off. Unfortunately, there's another side of the coin. I have worked alongside a couple of groups with a "take whatever you need when you need it" vacation/sick day policy. Either by choice or by necessity, they're disgusting workaholics without exception who routinely grind for 10-12 hours a day, every day, for months, fearing the work that will accumulate if they are home sick for a day or away for vacation for any period of time. They don't get paid more for working late. When I asked, they seem to each take one 5 day vacation once per year. The saddest part of it all is their personal lives-- the wife of the boss of that group refuses to vacation to anywhere with any kind of internet access because she knows her husband will work instead of be mentally there with her. The other employees are single and friendless outside of work. I'd very much prefer a more relaxed and less exploitative vacation/sick day system, but I think that a large cultural change has to happen in the US first. We don't have the luxury of the philosophical position that work is an intrinsic good-- the real consequences of this position are pretty brutal, and evident everywhere. Once we accept that work is value-neutral, we can start to be more relaxed about how much we actually have to work, and when we actually work. And we might just be a bit more relaxed about staying home when we're sick, provided that we understand our work is rarely more important than our health.