Pablum. Offhand, I get 5 sick days a year.I'm Gen X and I started that myself when they took separate sick and vacation days and lumped them into "Paid Time Off".
With vacation days, it's implied you need to plan ahead for those, but if they wanted to lump them into PTO, well to me one day here or there doesn't need to be scheduled as long as I am reachable by phone in an emergency.
Only government employees these days get actual sick time anymore.
Any I do not use, I get paid for in January.