what do childfree/childless people get instead of "parental leave?"

[haele]

149. Problem is that "PTO" usually isn't enough for anyone who has a family or needs extended sick leave.

Okay, this sounds like frivolous grousing to people who don't have leave at all, but putting all leave in one box really is for the company's benefit rather than the employees benefit. PTO has been used as an excuse to cut the amount of time off employees used to get, by making all time off cumulative and ensuring that it's difficult to accrue enough hours to actually have a vacation or take a trip unless you've been with the company long enough or are at a more managerial/executive level.

My current company has a "PTO" policy. Depending on if you're salaried or not and how long you've been employed, my company currently gives either 120 hours (or 15 days - Tier 1 Benefits) or 152 hours (or 19 days - Tier 2 benefits) until you hit 20 years with the company, then it's 200 hours (25 days) across the board, because if you've been with the company, you should be at Tier 2.

While that seems a great deal now-a-days, my first couple non-military employers would give us a cumulative 80 hours a year "roll-over" vacation leave - which became a cumulative 160 hours after you were vested (5 years), and every three years after, they added 10 hours. So after 20 years, you would be collecting a total of 310 vacation (7 3/4 weeks) a year, vice the 200 you would be collecting at my current employer.
We could also cash out our leave at 320 hours, the point we were required to "use or lose" if we wanted to "bank" vacation hours. was great for single people who might not be as interested in the time off as they might be for the occasional bonus to put in savings or buy a large ticket item with.
While it might have seemed be a bit hard on a new employee or if you cashed out, they also wanted to ensure that the employees were covered for health if they were running short.
Every year, employees got an additional "Beginning of the year" block of 80 hours medical time off (true, a doctor's note was required for anything over 16 consecutive hours/2 days). While it did not roll, an employee could donate it into the next year's emergency medical pool to cover people with additional medical or family conditions that would not be covered under disability (like pregnancies, child/spousal care, or adoptions) and did not have enough vacation to use.
That was because the companies felt they were invested in their workforces. We would also be offered short term/long-term disability packages that could kick in after the use of 40 hours of sick leave to keep employees paid instead of taking LWOP (Leave without Pay) if they were sick or injured enough that they couldn't work for a significant period of time.
And those companies were the same size as the company I'm current working with - mid-sized, with between 10K - 20K employees.

In most situations, vacation plus sick leave tends to be much more equitable in the long run; the onesy/twosy sick hours usage for running yourself (or family members) to the doctor, or for a morning migraine didn't count against PTO leave you could otherwise be taking or banking for a family trip or potential "need to take a month off to settle something" situation.
I ended up with quite a bit of money on banked leave back in the day, which ended up helping out with several emergency situations.

With the "PTO covers everything" benefit packages I've had since 2004, I've been lucky if I average 24 hours on the books for the past 10 years, between doctor's visits and being sent home from work for a day or so because I picked something up from the kid or grand-kid, and I "might be contagious". If I had sick hours, even just 40 hours a year, I'd have a lot more PTO hours available for, say, visiting my out of state widowed and somewhat luddite Mother once a year to help her with the updates and maintenance she needs on all the electronic equipment around the house, all the things Dad and some of his reserve center buddies used to do.
That trip (we drive; cheaper than flying) would require at least 50 available hours even if taken over the occasional three-day weekend.
But I just can't seem to save up enough because there's always a cluster of family doctor's appointments or "gotta take a few hours off" emergencies that come up right when I've nearly saved 40 hours...

Haele