My father once told me that honor is what separates men from animals, and honor is what you do when nobody is looking. We all get to choose who we are.

I was also fortunate to attend a university with an honor system, to the extent that exams weren't even allowed to be proctored. Whether you cheated or not was up to you, nobody would know.

I appreciated that system, and have tried to live it long after graduation. I could go on, but it has proved to be more than worthwhile.

The honor system should extend to trusting employee's assessment of them being sick enough not to be able to work.

No, we don't all get to choose who we are. People don't choose to have depression, or <<insert any chronic illness>>

The honor system in the university trusted people to not cheat and they did not proctor exams. That doesn't mean cheating was condoned. If two students made exactly the same mistakes on an exam, there'd be an investigation, and consequences if it were found they'd cheated.

Not when they get sick every year the last week of December.

Even then, and I can appreciate that it might not be likely, but what if the holidays are a rough time for some and their depression spikes?

I’d rather live in a world where I can believe that most people are trustworthy and only a few are not.

You don't want a world where being untrustworthy is easy to get away with and incentivized though, IMO. That contradicts your goal, since it means more people will decide to be untrustworthy.

That would be a valid reason to ask for a doctor's note. But even then I'd only do it if their absence is negatively impacting productivity and they're really needed at work. Or if there is something else in their performance I was concerned about.

Otherwise a lot of offices are basically empty at that time, so who cares? As long as they're not coming to work when they're actually sick so they can hoard sick days, does it matter?

:If your sick your sick,and you do not need a doctors note to take you sick time you just change it in your Amazon AtoZ. How you use your time is up to you. Rachel-Amazon FC Ambassador

Employment is a business arrangement and both parties are merely obligated to fulfill the letter of the contract they have entered into - honorable or not. If the company hits hard times will "honor" keep them from getting rid of the employee who keeps getting sick? If the company allots a limited number of sick days, the employee is entitled to take them whenever they feel they can't be productive, for whatever reason.

Honor, responsibility, and sacrifice are important in personal relationships. You should still be honorable and reliable in your relationships with each individual within the company.

Just to clarify, your argument is that sick days should be used as PTO, because the term “sick” is impossible to define and therefore meaningless?

I’m actually a big proponent of generous but reasonable PTO that doesn’t require a designation between sick and vacation.