I worked for a major government agency for over 20 years. For about 1/2 of those years, I was not often late but even though I accrued sick leave/vacation monthly which would carry over if I didn't use it, I took so many sick days and vacation hours due to despising management techniques & policies that I rarely had any sick leave or vacation hours left to carry over into the next year. My final 1/2 of the time I worked there, before I retired, I had a new manager (over my immediate supervisor, who was unfortunately just like my previous bad bosses) who had a true "open door" policy.
Not only did she treat all levels of her employees with actual respect, holding weekly meetings where she listened to every employee's ideas/complaints, but also rewarded all of us with periodic acknowledgement & celebrations for our work. It made all the difference and by the time I retired, I had accrued quite a large buy-out amount in unused sick leave and vacation. Good management gained the respect of the employees, including me, and instead of "mental health" days when I called in "cough, cough" sick, I became one of those employees who never used sick time unless I was scheduled to see my doctor, and even then, usually for only a few hours, not an entire day!
TruHart1