Time-Out Zone

Sick leave that doesn't touch anyone's PTO

Log a sick day in seconds, past or future. Unlimited by design, tracked separately from every balance, with proof rules your company controls.

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Sick days by the numbers: US and DACH

80%

of US private industry workers have access to paid sick leave

8 days

is the average fixed sick allowance for US workers after one year of service

19.5 days

is the average yearly sick absence per employee in Germany

5.4%

of the German workforce is on sick leave on any given day, 54 in 1,000 employees

  • In the US, paid sick leave depends on the employer and the state. There is no nationwide mandate, and one in five private employers pays nothing.
  • In Germany and Austria, employers continue paying full salary for weeks of illness before health insurance takes over most of the cost.

Estimate sick pay with our sick pay calculator

Figures from public 2025 labor and health insurance surveys (US and Germany). Rounded.

Unlimited and separate

Sick leave is unlimited by system rule and never counts against PTO. No quota, no accrual, no carry-over math to explain.

Record or request

Log an illness that already happened, or announce a future medical day. One dialog, two modes, done in seconds.

Proof rules you control

Require a doctor's note for past days, future days, or only above a day threshold. Uploaded as PDF, JPG, or PNG.

Instant when policy allows

With auto-approve on, sick entries skip the approval queue entirely. Turn it off and they land with the manager, attachment included.

Built for how sick days actually happen

Working days only

Weekends and public holidays are never counted as sick days.

Attachment on the entry

The doctor's note travels with the entry, visible to whoever approves it.

Threshold rule

Above a set number of days, proof is required even when the per-mode toggles are off.

Sick tab on the profile

Admins and managers see a read-only sick history on every profile.

Sick leave is available to every employee from day one. No policy assignment, no setup, nothing to configure per person.

Employees

A sick day takes seconds to log

The dashboard card opens a dedicated Record Sick Leave dialog, not the standard request form.

  • Recorded mode logs a past illness, the one flow in the app built for backdating.
  • Requested mode announces a future medical day before it happens.
  • A calendar-year counter on the dashboard shows sick days used this year, separate from every PTO number.

Admins

One sick policy, set in minutes

Sick leave is configured once for the whole company, outside the leave type wizard.

  • Auto-approve decides whether sick entries skip the approval flow entirely.
  • Proof can be required for past entries, future entries, or both.
  • A threshold in days demands a doctor's note for longer absences even when the per-mode toggles are off.

Managers

In the loop only when it matters

When proof is required or auto-approve is off, sick entries arrive as pending requests.

  • The doctor's note is attached to the request, ready to review before deciding.
  • Every team member's profile carries a read-only sick tab with the full history.
  • No balance math to check: approving a sick day never deducts from anything.

Separation

Sick days never touch PTO

Sick leave lives outside the balance system entirely.

  • No allotment, no accrual, no carry-over: sick leave is a counter, not a balance.
  • Only working days count; weekends and holidays are skipped automatically.
  • Vacation balances stay exactly as they were, no matter how many sick days are logged.

More resources

Feature

Balance tracking

Feature

Holidays and calendars

Feature

Policy engine

Ready to get started?

Give us a call. We'll show you how sick leave stays simple while every PTO balance stays untouched.

Balance Tracking

One PTO balance every role can trust.

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Carry-Over

Decide what happens to unused days at cycle end.

Explore

Frequently asked questions

Do sick days count against PTO?
In Time-Out Zone, never. Sick leave is a separate, unlimited category by system rule: it has no allotment, no accrual, and no carry-over, so logging a sick day leaves every vacation balance exactly as it was.
Can employees log sick days that already happened?
Yes. The Recorded mode exists for exactly that: you were ill yesterday, you log it today. It is the one flow in the app designed for backdating, up to and including today.
When is a doctor's note required?
Whenever your policy says so. Admins can require proof for past entries, future entries, or only when an absence exceeds a set number of days. Notes upload as PDF, JPG, or PNG and stay attached to the entry.
Are weekends and holidays counted as sick days?
No. Sick leave counts working days only. Weekends and public holidays inside the range are skipped, and a span that covers only non-working days is rejected.
Is sick leave unlimited?
Yes, by system rule. There is no sick day quota to configure or run out of. What the company controls is approval behavior and proof: auto-approve, doctor's note rules, and the day threshold.