Sick time can be used when you’re sick, have a doctor’s appointment, or need to take care of family members who are sick or have doctor’s appointments. It is time given to the employee so that they do not have to burn up their vacation time.

Granted, if you run out of sick time, you either have to use vacation, or you take unpaid time off. My state has a sharing system, where other employees can give you some of their sick time. This is usually for extreme circumstances, such as on-going long-term care (e.g., chemotherapy) and the person is out of both sick and vacation time.

I’m sure it sounds weird and possibly convoluted. It probably is weird and convoluted. Employers here don’t trust their employees, so they feel the need to treat us like children. Some employers even require employees to get doctors notes excusing their absence or tardiness.

I’m sure there are some people who would take advantage of any kind of unlimited/untracked sick time. I’m not naive to think everybody would work in the honor system. I think that employers here take it to the extreme, and decided that treating everybody this way was easier than working with those who abuse the system. Might be because we are a litigious society in America; a lot of people looking for any excuse to take someone to court for money.

Anyway, I’ll answer any other questions you have.