Everywhere I work has been noticeably unfair about sick time/time off

At my first job as an attorney, I was sick with the flu. Didn’t get my flu shot in time and got incredibly sick over the winter holidays. I was sicker than when I had covid, stomach bugs, genuinely the worst of my life. I was sick for 3 weeks but my boss made me come back to work after a week and a half, even though other coworkers were uncomfortable with me being there. Meanwhile, we had a paralegal who was late to work everyday (by multiple hours), called out every week and a half or two, and ultimately was unreliable. He was never disciplined or reprimanded by our boss, meanwhile I took no time off and was half dead at my desk with a fever that would come and go and not break.

My second job, we had unlimited PTO. I rarely utilized this benefit because it put me behind on my billable. However, I did use it for one day to take engagement photos, and then used it for a day and a half to get married. We had a local wedding so I didn’t travel or anything. We didn’t go on a honeymoon. In those three days I took off (non consecutively), even though I had made up the billable time in advance, they emailed me nonstop, and even asked if I could cover a remote appearance on the morning of my wedding day. Meanwhile, we had two other attorneys (senior and associate), senior associate took off 3 more months than originally planned for maternity leave with full pay, and the other associate would not come into work as required (we were hybrid and she would work fully remote most days), and for the summer months she took every Thursday to Friday off for 5 weeks in a row. She was openly in a billing deficit, again with no reprimand or issue from the partners/our bosses.

Again at my new job, my coworkers take time off pretty freely with limited issue and pushback, whether it is for personal or medical reasons. I broke my ankle and torn my Achilles in an accident, and have not missed a day of work and have only gone to limited appointments during the beginning or end of the work day. Not missing work has also impacted my pain management because I wasn’t able to take opioids or muscle relaxers as prescribed due to driving myself to work. Meanwhile, one of my coworkers calls out once every 5-10 work days for a “headache” or being “sick,” again with no reprimand. Meanwhile, I was forced to work remotely and they even sent out our tech person to my house to make sure my internet was adequate while I was in a splint and immobilized.

I feel like this can’t be normal. Why is it that everywhere I have worked, even though I limit my time off for special occasions, illness, or injury, I am still penalized and forced or expected to keep working even when I am clearly not in a state to do so? Why is it that other attorneys and employees seemingly get unlimited or un-penalized time off? My current job even tried to dock me additional sick time I did not use (which didn’t make sense to me since I am salaried anyway, and still meeting my billable).

Leaning more towards going out on my own everyday.