Calling in sick to work-do you do it?

[SFG75]

I never take a day off as in teaching, it's a pain to come back and grade a giant stack of papers. At the same time, there are days when the tank is on "E" before the first bell. On those days, I just drink lots of coffee and try to get myself pumped up So do you folks call in when you are "sick" of work? I use to do that all the time in college, I had no respect for the work that I did. To me, it was beneath me and didn't deserve my best effort, at least, that was the underlying thought process that I probably wouldn't admit to at the time. For some reason, swindling old ladies with telemarketing offers of credit cards with super high rates annoyed me. Come on, be honest.

 

[clueless]

I don't call in sick but I cannot vote in the poll because I don't agree with any of the answers. I don't call in sick because I think it's wrong, not because I am a slave.

 

[SFG75]

I don't call in sick but I cannot vote in the poll because I don't agree with any of the answers. I don't call in sick because I think it's wrong, not because I am a slave.

Okay, I can live with that. In creating this poll, I made the options out of jest more than anything else. "The man" isn't so bad, he's actually pretty nice once you get to know him. For the sake of conversation, you don't call in sick if you have the flu or something like that? Or are you talking about malingering and calling in? The two are quite different, which is why I put in two yes options. But, if you feel it's wrong, then it's wrong to you-all viewpoints are welcome.

 

[clueless]

I am lucky to be healthy -must be a compensation for being always ill as a child - and I don't think of a cold or a normal flu as being ill.

 

[Peder]

I am lucky to be healthy -must be a compensation for being always ill as a child - and I don't think of a cold or a normal flu as being ill.

A 'normal flu'? You are lucky. I haven't known any of them. And when I am worshipping at the white throne I definitely call in sick. Just now I have a normal cold for which, if I had a place to call, I would call.
I would count my self as pretty healthy with not much lost time at all, but when I'm out of it, I'm out of it. I know many people who 'use up' their sick time, and I have also known office environments where people have cringed away and taken several steps back when they noticed I had a sniffle, (that makes one feel wanted!) and my supervisor told me I should stay home If I was not feeling well. [!] I've concluded that in dealing with people a fair amount of flexibility is needed, and if things get really out of hand there has always been the performance review where things can get adjusted. Just a few days ago we had a big snow, and nobody went to work (hardly). Could they really not get through the snow? I could have if I had to. After all what's a two hour wait standing in the cold for a tran to come along, instead of the normal fifteen minutes? But most people don't look at it that way, and neither do I, and when you come right down to it I don't really either (anymore).
But obviously everything depends on the standards set by managment, since most people I know of work "at the pleasure of" (that magical phrase).
So now, where do I vote? Can't wait.
Peder

 

[Motokid]

If you are paid for sick days, and you call in "sick", and you are not, you are stealing from the company. It's theft. You are taking their money, giving them nothing in return, and doing it in a dishonest manner.

It's a form of embezzlement.

If you need a day off that bad take a vacation day.

 

[SFG75]

If you are paid for sick days, and you call in "sick", and you are not, you are stealing from the company. It's theft. You are taking their money, giving them nothing in return, and doing it in a dishonest manner.

It's a form of embezzlement.

If you need a day off that bad take a vacation day.

I totally agree with you on that. Five years ago, I worked with a colleague who was the most unprofessional person I ever knew. Ever year, you get ten sick days. Well, she'd been here for awhile and knew she was leaving. She had something like 40 sick days and managed to use 20 in something like 5 months. The "higher ups" heard about that and the next year, when she was gone, gave us dire warnings about ever doing something like that and stated they would come after our certificates if we ever did that. Of course, the person who was there was gone. And even if she hadn't left, they wouldn't have said anything to her, they feared her. They handled the whole thing in the absolute DUMBEST manner.

 

[abecedarian]

My husband uses vacation days for those "I just don't wanna go" days. He rarely gets too sick to limp in.

 

[steffee]

I have had the flu once and either it wasn't "normal" or I can't cope very well with illness because I could barely get out of bed for three weeks, and even being in bed, could get no sleep. It was just before my baby was born, so I was on maternity leave at the time, but conisdered it a complete waste.

I had three days sick when I was 17, and had pneumonia, and have had three days off since having children, all of which were to look after my children who were ill, not myself. I told my employer the reason though, and those days were still "sick days" even though I wasn't sick, so I don't consider it to be thieving from the company.

Other than one bout of flu, one bout of pneumonia and measles and mumps which I got together (how unfortunate?!) at the age of 18, and continued working throughout (my employer told me to, despite my working in a school!!), I have rarely even had so much as a headache.

 

[blueboatdriver]

I worked for twenty something years at sea on a fishing boat. We'd stay at sea for six days and have one day ashore. I can honestly say I never had one day off sick. I got ill plenty of times whilst at sea but we never had the opportunity to take anytime off as it was seen as letting the rest of the boys down.
For the last five years I've been working indirectly for an oil company and it took quite a while to adjust to a totally different work culture. When someone is ill they are encouraged not to come in as the illness can be spread to others. I can see the point here but do find it hard not to feel that I've been slacking off on the three or four days that I've have had to take. The employees who work directly for the oil company are allocated so many days a year sick leave and they make sure they take them all whether they are ill or not. It's not something I could do.

 

[venusunfolding]

i called in sick once at my current job and i've been there for over 2 years. the only reason i did call in was because i was running a fever and didn't have the energy to get out of bed, let alone run up and down the stairs all day helping customers.

 

[abecedarian]

There was one time not long after we were married, where dh had to make a difficult choice about calling in when he wasn't sick. He had agreed to take pics at a wedding,and when he checked his schedule, he was due to be off work, but was scheduled for over time at the last minute, He felt he would be putting the couple on the spot if he didn't show up. Adding to the problem, he worked with the brother and father of the groom. I can't remember if he actually wound up calling in sick, or if he arranged to switch with someone, but he was very upset about the whole thing, and after that, he only did one other wedding. The only reason he did that one was it was a family member, and he'd changed jobs within the company, so the scheduling was a little different. But he still sweated bullets about being scheduled for last minute overtime.

 

[Motokid]

Steffee: I don't think SFG's question has anything to do with being a good parent.

I think his question is geared towards a healthy adult calling in sick just to get a day off work.

Taking care of kids is a completely different ball game. My comments were in no way meant to imply that calling out to take care of a sick child was doing anything wrong.

Quite the contrary. Taking care of a sick child is the ultimate in doing "your" job as a parent.
The toughest and most rewarding job on the planet.

 

[Peder]

Well, she'd been here for awhile and knew she was leaving. She had something like 40 sick days and managed to use 20 in something like 5 months. The "higher ups" heard about that and the next year, when she was gone, gave us dire warnings about ever doing something like that and stated they would come after our certificates if we ever did that.

SFG,
I am struck with how variable the situations described here are. What you described in your post there is simply called 'terminal leave' at two places I know of, and it is expected and planned by management that people will use up their untaken sick leave as their final paid leave before they terminate. I'm not an authority one way or the other.
Peder

 

[steffee]

I think his question is geared towards a healthy adult calling in sick just to get a day off work.

Taking care of kids is a completely different ball game. My comments were in no way meant to imply that calling out to take care of a sick child was doing anything wrong.

No, I know you didn't mean that. But I just used my own experiences of calling in sick to illustrate other examples of why someone would.

Some people get ill a lot, some people never. Some people need to take time off work to look after poorly children, some people have lots of family and friends who would look after them instead. Some people have lax employers, some people don't. And then some places of employment (like the oil rig mentioned in a post ^^^) prefer their emplyees not to pass on illnesses, some people couldn't care if the entire workforce was on death's door, as long as they showed up to do their jobs.

Then again, some people do call in sick just because they couldn't be bothered to get out of bed, or they just fancied a day shopping, or whatever. I do agree that habitual "skivers" (malingerers, to use a more technical word) are, in essence, stealing from their employer, and will most likely suffer the consequences eventually.

 

[SFG75]

SFG,
I am struck with how variable the situations described here are. What you described in your post there is simply called 'terminal leave' at two places I know of, and it is expected and planned by management that people will use up their untaken sick leave as their final paid leave before they terminate. I'm not an authority one way or the other.
Peder

I've never heard of that. I guess it's not that bad of an idea though. If someone's leaving, you might as well allow them to use it so that they aren't in the office with a bad attitude or at least one where they know they won't be working their tails off.

 

[Peder]

I've never heard of that. I guess it's not that bad of an idea though. If someone's leaving, you might as well allow them to use it so that they aren't in the office with a bad attitude or at least one where they know they won't be working their tails off.

SFG,
Some places are tolerant, some places aren't. It's striking how different the workplace 'culture' can be just depending on the attitudes of the people in charge. Beats me.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

If a company wants people to come in sick, they should take responsibility for all members of the employees families that catch a terrible cold or flu from that sick employee. Its just not fair to expose young children or elderly relatives to that sort of thing. In the past I've caught terrible colds (and the Hong Kong Flu years ago), the kind that put one in the bed from co-workers that came in ill. I frankly resented it.

For an employer to require an employee to come in sick, is short sighted, and possibly criminal. And that employee should look for a new company to work for.

 

[G4G]

It's what your phone is for.

 

[ruby]

It's what your phone is for.

LOL it certainly is