What do you mean by “abuse”? Personal time is personal time. The reason an employee takes it is none of his/her employer’s business. Whether they’re caring for their sick mother, taking the kid to the pediatrician, recovering from a night of partying, or just don’t feel like going to work that day, who cares? That shouldn’t be the employer’s concern, at all. If you think they’re taking too much personal time, you limit the amount of personal time they can have. My company for example, has 10 sick days, two of which can be used for personal time. The other 8 require caring for self or family due to medical reasons. Of course, this is still on the honor system as we don’t require “doctor’s notes” or any such thing, but still…