Block it in your public calendar as “doctor’s appointment” weeks in advance, so nobody schedules a meeting with you at that time. And send an email to your boss so they have it in writing.

Be prepared to show the receipt to hr the day of, for documentation.

Other things like friends meetups, laundry, grocery shopping happen after work and on weekends.

It doesn’t work for anyone. People use up their vacation days.

I am sorry you don’t want to burn up sick time or PTO… you have no choice, or find a care giver that works on weekends.

It really sucks.

I have flexible time fortunately, which means I can start later if I have a doctors appointment. I make over hours most of the time so I can use those for these kind of events. Also I reduced my weekly working time to 80%

It’s a privileged situation, but it is the only way to keep me sane. I can go shopping groceries at 3:30 instead of 5 or go to the gym earlier, it makes huge differences.

Sometimes it’s using PTO or sick time (normally I’ve been able to take the time in 2 hour blocks), sometimes I’ve just been able to arrange with my supervisor for an extended lunch break, or just taking an unpaid break during the day and making up the hours later in the day or the week so that I’m not hitting my income or not completing my work.

Also, there’s reasons dentist offices often open early, or work on the weekends. Other necessary services like that may offer extended hours on certain days of the week.

EDIT: And things like chaperoning the kid’s field trip? Yeah, you’ll just have to use PTO or not do it. There’s a reason schools usually don’t have many parents volunteer for field trips; most parents can’t get the time off work.

I spend all my sick days and a non-negligible number of vacation days on the kind of chores you can only get done during work hours. Back when we had “Work From Home”, I would also squeeze these tasks in during my lunch break.

I don’t want to burn sick time for a doctor’s appointment (I need to save those for when my kid is actually sick), and I sure as hell don’t want to use up a “vacation” day for it.

Well, good luck with that. My retired mother-in-law helps a lot with my son when he’s ill. And we can juggle my son between our individual sick-day allotments such that I haven’t run out yet. But yeah, eventually they’re all just “hours to spend that my boss won’t gripe at me for when I use them”. That’s meant dipping into vacation days when I needed to justify not being on the clock.

We have an “occasional absence” policy where you can take a few hours in the middle of the day for a doctors appointment or such.

that’s the point. the capitalists want every minute of your life they can get to work for them, then make you scramble to fit the rest of your life in the gaps. they make more profit and you have less time and energy to educate yourself, think, and organize

I don’t get this either. Good fucking luck getting to the bank when you work bank hours.

I had a boss tell us we should forget about work-life balance.

Go get a PhD and an academic position. The pay is shit but nobody will care whether you show up or not.

Late shift— no social life but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make appointments a breeze

DMV (or, our equivalent here) isn’t open on Saturday’s where I live. You have to go during the day 9-5 M-F, which yes, is when most people are working. Same with doctors appointments.

The companies I’ve worked at are generally very understanding, and allow you to make up time later (which is easy to do especially since it’s remote work) if you have to take an afternoon off, that kind of thing.

Personally, vacation days are for medical appointments.