Calling in sick

[HelloStereo]

I rarely take sick days (I think I've had one sick day in the passt 3 1/2 years), but I like to think I've worked long enough that the owner would know it was genuine. I still feel a bit anxious about calling in sick though, and almost feel as though I have to dramatise sounding sick haha. You know, like if you have an illness that doesn't affect your voice yet you still put on a slightly weak voice.

I also feel weird about asking for holiday as well.

 

[orangelolly]

I got back from A&E at 3am and emailed work to say I wouldn't be in the following day along with photo evidence I was there. I never even received a reply. Nice to know I work for a caring family

 

[orangelolly]

Come to think of it, it was a regular occurrence in the supermarket I worked in for people to be taken ill mid-shift. Fainting, upset stomach, migraines etc, often they would mention in the morning that they weren’t feeling great.

People shouldn’t have to drag themselves into work only to be sent home just so management sees that they’re really sick. I do hope after covid there’s a bit more understanding and less judgement when it comes to this. There will always be chancers constantly trying to get time off, but I believe most people only call in when they’re genuinely unwell and they don’t need to feel guilt on top of being sick.

Coming in and then going home mid shift happens a lot where I am

 

[SpiceWeasel]

I worked for a full 6 days with possibly swine flu... absolutely grim when you think about it. But the landlord and his partner were on holiday, so I was running front of house and didn’t feel like I had a choice at the time. Not even sure who I would have called in sick to, thinking about it

That’s awful. I had similar when left in charge and I’d get so run down from being there from open til close I’d come down with terrible flu. If I complained all I’d get was ‘oh well now you know what it’s like having to be there all the time’ and I was like yes but there is a difference between sitting at the end of the bar getting shit faced on the stock as opposed to running around like a headless chicken for 14 hours a day on minimum wage!!!

I would hope since the pandemic that people will be taken more seriously when saying they are ill/don’t want to pass on to others. Although I doubt it in hospitality

 

[Cleopatra]

I had to go for a hospital appointment and they frightened me so much with what they were saying was wrong with me. I rang work to say what had happened and would not be in and the response was are you going to take today as a day off!!

 

[jaymie]

I wasn't sure if I should post this in "Off topic" or "Advice" Does anyone else hate calling in sick to work? My first ever job (I worked there for 10 years) the two managers were absolutely vile about anyone that called in sick. They'd try to force people to come in, they'd slate you to other people and they would make you call mid afternoon to say if you'd be back the following day. I no longer work there but feel like this has had an impact on me. I always feel like my managers won't believe me, that they'll think I'm faking it etc. I'm currently off sick but instead of resting I'm worrying about what they're thinking. I very rarely call in sick, often going in when I probably should have called in sick.
Just wondering if anyone else ever feels this way? Any tips for changing my mindset? They've never said anything to me to make me think they don't believe me but I just keep thinking that I don't know what they're saying in their office.

Hmmm my personal opinion is that everyone get sick. If you are really sick, then you're sick, there is nothing much you can do about it. As long as you over do it or being spotted in the mall, you should be fine. You cannot technically be framed for anything if it is genuine, you can go to HR if anything. Then of course you will have people who take the mick that ruins everything for everyone.

Also depending on the culture of the company, no one call in sick in my husband company, if you are sick, you stay at home to work. Is completely fine in my company though.

get well soon!

 

[bellinibobble]

I once had to tell a male manager that I was going to have to go home cause I had period pains. He asked me how bad is it? Speechless.

I am speechless wtf

I feel so lucky where I work now. Don’t get me wrong, the system is definitely open for abuse and it can be annoying when you see others take the piss, but I know it could be so much worse.

 

[TaylorSlattery]

I actually find big companies are more compassionate about sick policies, partly because they have such a strict HR rules that manager cannot side track from that. It is usually the small fry companies that think they can blatantly ignore sick policies and benefits entitlement.

I don’t know, I worked for a huge Japanese finance company here in the uk and well... I’ve already said how that played out

 

[Kim Mild]

I always feel like they don't believe that I am unwell .I saw on the back to work interview it said ' assume the absence was for a genuine illness, unless proven otherwise '

In my experience, staff did tend to come in for their shifts when feeling unwell with colds and headaches etc .

I do always think that if people are just off for one day with something minor, it may be an excuse and they are having a mental health day.

 

[orangelolly]

I’m that person who turns up half dead... I’ve never taken an actual sick day in 8.5 years at the same company. I’ve been sent home because nobody wants me in the office, a couple of times but not willingly.

I get migraines but not badly, so for those days I save my boring monotonous admin and carry on working... dark room, screen brightness right down and I find it helps forget how much it hurts.

even if I’ve been sent home, I’ll still do my best to work from the sofa

Isn't it crazy what we put ourselves through?!

 

[Jellybeansoup]

I don’t begrudge any of my staff for calling in sick if it is entirely genuine, but the hours were given from head office sometimes mean that shifts are run literally to the wire and one person not coming in could mean the difference between being able to take a lunch break or not. I’m a retail manager and I’ve done double shifts (13+ hours) on no break because a staff member is hungover (or so I’ve seen on Instagram.. ) and I never get thanks for it from the staff member, the staff on shifts or my bosses. So I’m literally on both sides of this! I still come in to work with colds and there are times when maybe I shouldn’t have been at work to try and set a precedent that ‘the sniffles’ is not a valid excuse. That’s probably way harsh to a lot of people but that is unfortunately the culture in retail - everything is trimmed right down to the wire with budgets for hours etc!

 

[Bitofthebubbly]

I’m a nurse and hate calling in sick. My brother in law was in a serious accident at Christmas - basically he was missing, we filed a police report and then found him as a John Doe in an ICU. I rang in work hysterical on the Sunday, saying I wouldn’t be in for the Monday. I got written up as I didn’t call on the actual Monday. Sorry Jenny hun, you guys were the last thing on my mind

Oh my gosh petty shit like this drives me mad.

My partner had to go into hospital with kidney stones years ago so it was up to me to call his employer (McDonald’s at the time) to tell them he wouldn't be in for a couple of days. All I remember at the time is that they tried to ask me to get him to call himself, I was like well no because he’s laid up in hospital with no signal you idiot, me calling up on his behalf should be good enough, and then I hung up on them.

I think even if you had died some work places would still expect you to call up yourself to confirm

 

[mochibean]

I will now if I need it but always feel guilty. My manager now is so nice and understanding, if we say we need to go we can go.

Whilst at my last job I developed pneumonia after what felt like a mild chest infection. Called in sick ONCE and I wish I still had the screenshots. First tried guilt tripping me, then when he realised it was pneumonia he was like oh shit no worries, then by 3pm that SAME day he was pestering me to be back in the next day. Needless to say I went in the next day.

He blew my phone tf up. I didn't need the hassle. Definitely hindered my recovery but I was fine.

 

[under the ivy]

The idea that you have to have an interview to return to work after having ONE measly day off is horrendous! I'm lucky in that we simply have to fill out a form which states the date we were off and a brief description of why (writing "felt sick" is fine). I can't imagine how demoralising having to sit and have an interview about your one day off must be!

I’ve had this in my last job! My manager watched me fill the form in! This was half a day taken as sick to go to the dentist with wisdom tooth pain

 

[orangelolly]

Some of these stories are awful. I feel lucky that I work at a great place with a good manager, who just asks us to send him a message when were are ill.

You should never feel bad if you are genuinely too sick to work properly. It’s what sick leave is there for.

I don't want to out myself but in my line of work there are lots of managerial horror stories. I'm just not qualified to do anything else

 

[Ohflogoff]

This resonates with me so much.

Yup. My folks were never off work. I have no memories of them missing days off work or calling in sick. They worked hard and still do. I guess it’s engrained in us.

 

[emm]

Also if you go in, you run the risk of infecting somebody else in the time that you’re there.

It’s terrible what some managers and companies will do to their staff though. At the end of the day, we’re all just numbers to them. Easily forgotten and easily replaced.

yeah I agree, for people in office style jobs how many paid sick days do you have? (if there is a limit, I know some (few) companies don't). We get 3, which clearly isn't much and just means that people always come in sick as they cannot afford to lose money, meaning then colds etc spread round the office like mad, and it is kind of pointless as no one is working well if they are ill anyway. I am wondering if when we go back to the office this attitude will change

 

[Xjd991X]

I remember a few years back I had the flu really bad, to then have a allergic reaction to the cold/flu medicine I was taking to then get ontop of that a ear infection cause damage to my ear causing me now to have vertigo (yay) all in all I was bed bound for around 10 days and including a visit to a&e for the reaction and vertigo.

After being off for 8 working days (sick for 10 total days) - I go back to work to be pulled up into a meeting as I have used up all my sickness for the WHOLE year as your only allowed to be off 5% of the year and anymore sickness will become disaplinarys


Any job I've worked in I hardly ever go off sick maybe 1 or 2 times for vertigo/migraine attack but when I have/do call they've made me feel so awful about doing so I rather go into work and either try to work through it or be sent home.

I'm one to if I'm sick in the evening the night before I try to call and let them know in advance so they can get cover in a previous job I had to stay and cover certain people so many times as they would call 30 mins before their shift when the rules was no less than 2 hours before and some how they always got away with it logic? (One of those you see on fb/insta the same evening out or looking not ill )

 

[Clickbait]

Yes but I take it a step further and hate taking any time off. I accrue paid time off (PTO) each month and it carries over year to year until you reach a certain amount of hours. We have to use paid time off for everything including sick days and holidays or basically for any other reason why you may want time off work.

I know rules vary by companies. A lot of my friends have a sick note rule at their job. If they've called off for 2 or more days in a row then they're required to bring in a doctor's note explaining why they were off.

Where do you live? In the U.K. there is statutory leave entitlement and sick pay. You only have to produce a sick note if you’ve had 7 consecutive days off work.

 

[DuckDuck]

I have this at my place , I very rarely go sick , has to be done at 8am no later , not before , no texts this won’t be acceptable. But on the very odd occasion I did go sick I felt guilty ,,, funny how the regular sick notes never get pulled in for a disciplinary or never get spoken to , it’s the ones that rarely go sick get seen by area team ... I literally stood there while one of my colleagues was bored and an hour before his shift finished rang to say he was going home as ‘ I think I have a kidney infection ‘ it hurt to take a piss apparently....he’d just been showing me his Micheal Jackson moves ... he went skipping out the door .. no skin off my back , glad he went to be fair as there were so many staff in social distancing was impossible... we had received an email a couple weeks previous about ‘ overlapping’ staff and how it wasn’t to happen under any circumstances due to social distancing There were huge overlapping much to me being very fucking vocal about if YOU don’t leave then I will ... completely unacceptable which is why he made up the kidney thing ,