Sick time, UPT or PTO: which one covers a sick day at Amazon?

What time-off types does Amazon's public policy sheet name?

Amazon's public pages use one word for paid time: PTO. Amazon's public PTO page, "Paid time off (PTO) for US Amazon employees," says: "Amazon provides employees with paid time off (PTO) to rest, recharge, attend to personal matters, or use for sickness or other medical needs." Amazon's public benefits page lists "Paid Time Off (PTO)" and says it "includes paid personal time and vacation time."

Amazon's public policy sheet for US Customer Fulfillment, last updated October 10, 2023, names its time-off types under its own headings:

• Vacation. "Eligible hourly employees earn vacation each pay period, up to a maximum cap."
• Paid Personal Time. "Paid Personal Time (PPT) can be used for any reason, including sickness, unexpected emergencies, or for your own personal reasons."
• Unpaid Time. "Amazon provides eligible employees with Unpaid Time (UPT) to cover unexpected absences."
• Voluntary Time Off. "VTO is unpaid." "It does not take away from your available time off balances."

The sheet has no heading called sick time. The word "sick" appears on it once, as "sickness," under Paid Personal Time. So the public pages say PTO, the sheet splits paid time into PPT and Vacation, and UPT is the unpaid bucket for unexpected absences.

The names and balances on your own A to Z time-off screen are the ones that apply to you. Your current numbers, and the caps behind them, sit on that screen and in the PPT and UPT policies.

Which one covers a sick day?

On the sheet, the paid type that names sickness is PPT: it "can be used for any reason, including sickness, unexpected emergencies, or for your own personal reasons." The PTO page says the same thing under the wider name, paid time off "to rest, recharge, attend to personal matters, or use for sickness or other medical needs."

UPT is the unpaid type, and the sheet is specific about when it applies: "UPT is automatically applied when you miss any part of your scheduled shift, unless you have applied for another time off." A missed shift with no other time off applied is where the sheet says UPT goes. If you want the day to draw from PPT instead, the sheet's instruction is "To request PPT, visit A to Z." Vacation has the same instruction.

Whether a same-day request for a sick shift goes through as PPT or vacation depends on the balances and rules on your own A to Z time-off screen and in your site's attendance policy. Where a state or city sick-leave law applies, its rules sit alongside the policy.

How to report the absence itself is on calling out sick at Amazon.

Do you need a doctor's note to use PTO or UPT for a sick day?

Amazon's public policy sheet says nothing about a note, under any heading, and nothing about a note changing which type a missed shift comes from. The PTO page and the benefits page don't mention a note either. Whether Amazon asks for one is covered on calling out sick at Amazon.

What a note does is document the absence: for your own records, and for a manager who asked for one. It is not a time-off request; PPT and vacation are still requested on A to Z.

If a note is asked for, the $29 Certicare note is built for this: a mild, self-limiting condition, up to 3 scheduled workdays, with a limit of 6 days in any 30-day window. You answer a short online intake, usually no appointment. A state-licensed provider reviews it, and may follow up, or decide a note isn't appropriate; if the note isn't written, the $29 is refunded in full.

Payment buys the evaluation, not a particular answer. If the note is written, it's completed and signed by a state-licensed provider, dated the day it is written, and kept private and never sent to your employer or school without your say-so.

If the days are already behind you, that's fine. A note written today can cover days you already missed, up to 45 days back, where the evaluation supports it. How that works is on doctor's note for days already missed.

What if the balance runs out, or you're sick longer than a few days?

If PPT and vacation are at zero, the sheet's rule still runs: a missed shift with no other time off applied is where UPT is applied. For how that balance works, the sheet says "Refer to the UPT policy"; your current number is on your A to Z time-off screen. What happens when UPT itself goes below zero is on our negative UPT page.

A sick stretch that runs past a few days is different. Then it may be a leave question rather than a note question. The $29 note covers up to 3 scheduled workdays for a mild condition; an absence longer than a few days, or one tied to a serious condition, may call for the $49 Amazon DLS forms, a different product on its own timeline. Whether yours counts is covered on what counts as a serious health condition.

At Amazon, leave runs through Disability and Leave Services (DLS). If a leave case is open, what happens to UPT in the meantime is on UPT while a leave case is pending. Where to start is on Amazon DLS help.

If a note is asked for, answer the intake questions, and a state-licensed provider reviews them and signs the note where the evaluation supports it.