I get that.

I do think there are a lot of other issues though... in some environments, for some people, sick days are another form of PTO. So "'Joe is sick today' ... 'ok, yeah he got allocated a day, we expected that'".

On the other hand, if you don't take them, and retire/get laid off/ etc ... "thank you for your service".

Some organizations do treat unused sick time as a retirement allowance (eg., 0.60 credit). That's an incentive to bank them but maybe not if you run the numbers...?

This seems like a 'hard problem'... I'm interested in stirring up a discussion!

I’ve been in plenty of places where someone has pulled one form or another of “I’m quitting, I don’t care”. It’s not fun, not professional.

Most places I worked eventually phased out sick days in favor of PTO that gets paid out.