Years ago, I worked for a regional financial firm that was infamously behind the times. The elderly owner, who tried to micromanage everything, said there should be a policy that no one gets vacation days for the first year. They could however get sick days.
We also worked in a downtown area with no parking with the nearby lots averaging $15/day. We made $20/hr.
So, we just all called out sick all the time.
For one thing, everyone was sick. Most of us drank deeply from depression and had hangovers all the time. We were also always getting sick from things like trying to ride public transportation. For another, it just made sick days the default solution to everything.
Get written up from the horrible working conditions? Sick. Bunch of work thrown on your desk because everyone was sick? Call in sick. Want your paycheck without paying for parking or a bus? Sick.
The old man patted himself on his back until his last days that he had a company that was better run than those slacker filled firms like Raymond James and Morgan Stanley. I couldn’t help but laugh as I filled out a legitimate PTO card today. Turnover was through the roof and he probably wasted thousands or even literal millions.