..............................

[C.Ann]

What do people do when they work for employers who do not offer any sick days and are very strict about attendance?

Or those who truly cannot afford to miss a day (or more) of work?

Risk your job and stay home - or go in sick?

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I risked getting in trouble with my work when I was sick last month. I work in a grocery store kitchen, and I had to call in two weekends in a row due to illness. It is actually a health code violation for me to go in when I am sick because I could accidentally contaminate the food. I knew I was leaving them short handed when we were very busy, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I was sure I was at the very least going to get a reprimand.

Thankfully I have a good reputation there and my manager just expressed worry that I was sick. He was very understanding.

I should add, since I am a part time employee I do not have sick leave. I can only work on weekends, so missing two weeks in a row was a bad thing for me financially, but it had to be done.

 

[Justanopinion]

Call a neighbor or a friend or a family member to watch the child. If one truly can not miss work then make other arrangements.


My BIL owns his own restaraunt and his short staffed right now. His wife works for a major hospital and is one of the top 6 admins. She had a lot of very important meetings this week. So when their daughter was sent home sick on Thursday and couldn't go to day care on Friday they called me.

Do I really want to be around their sick child, no. But I washed my hands a lot and made the best of it. My DD is on an antibotic anyway so I figured I couldn't pass that much on to her, why not. I was helping them out.

I do have to say though, she was running fever, very congested and coughing and it wasn't until she threw up on her daddy when he came by after lunch that they decided to call the Dr. and get her in that day. They should have already done that. Maybe it was just me, but with as congested as she was, I would have made the appointment way before they did.

 

[Breezie]

Even when I don't have sick time, my job is pretty lenient about it. I work 30 hours a week in a health care facility, so if I am truly sick, they want me to stay home.

One of the women I work with told me a couple years back someone came in when they had the flu (what were they thinking?!) and gave almost every single resident and worker on our unit the flu. They said it was miserable.

But I feel for people who don't have understanding employers. It would be a hard decision.

 

[Michelle67]

I've always been very fortunate to have understanding employers who would rather I missed work than came in and shared the germs with them and everyone else. In fact a couple of my employers would be a lot madder at you for coming in sick than for staying home and leaving them short staffed. Better one person out for a few days than the whole crew knocked out. My last job we were perpetually under-staffed and it was hard when people were sick, but since we were delivering medications to elderly patients you really can NOT go in sick and be giving bugs to frail elders!

I know not everyone is fortunate to have reasonable, thinking employers, though, and that is a shame. It should be a no-brainer that it is better to keep germs out of the workplace as much as possible.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I thought of another job where this was a huge problem.

This summer I waitressed at an Italian restaurant in town. When I went through the food safety training they provided me, it was specifically stated that it was violation of the health code to come to work if you had certain illnesses. One day I was very sick and called in. Our psycho assistant manager told me that I either had to find my own replacement or come into work. I had two problems with this: 1.) This policy had never been communicated to me, and 2.) I was not provided with a phone list. I had to go in and start calling people, but nobody would come. When she saw how sick I was, she finally relented and allowed me to go home.

I don't know what I would have done, I probably would have had to quit my job. This was the same psycho assistant manager who called me up out of the blue and suspended me after I had received a very positive evaluation from the owners of the restaurant the week before (they told me I was one of the hardest workers in the restaurant.) We believe she was scared I was going to file for worker's comp for a previously existing knee injury. I quickly quit my job and went back to the grocery store where I had worked the year before even though it meant taking a pay cut.

 

[golfgal]

When we were growing up we went to Grandma's when we got sick-even though my mom didn't work. I LOVED being pampered by Grandma when I was sick.

Now, how to keep DH home because he is sick--he just doesn't understand that NO ONE wants him there when he is sick, especially right before Thanksgiving!

 

[castleview]

I think a lot of moms can get away with being called by the school nurse then they can not going to work at all.

Plus, kids sicknesses seem to last so much longer than they did when we were kids. Mine don't get sick much, but when they get do a high temperature can last almost a week.

 

[taximomfor4]

not an issue for work, but I took out student loans to go to nursing school when my youngest was a baby. Lucky nursing school and clinicals kept me out of the house so much. I rarely saw the kids, but I never caught their viruses! Nursing school, 1st semester you could miss ONE day of clinicals. 2nd semester, you could miss one day of clinicals. 3rd semester, 100% attendance MANDATORY, and 4th semester plus practicum were the same. ZERO sick days. We all knew we were all one sprained (or broken) ankle, or one influenza, away from failing a semester. Happened to a few of us, but thankfully I was never so sick I had to miss.

 

[taximomfor4]

Do I really want to be around their sick child, no. But I washed my hands a lot and made the best of it. My DD is on an antibotic anyway so I figured I couldn't pass that much on to her, why not. I was helping them out.

You did the best thing you could : Lots of handwashing. Just wanted to mention, in case anyone has to make a similar choice in the future, that being on an antibiotic does not protect against ANY virus at all. It only works against certain bacteria, too.

 

[ReneeA]

not an issue for work, but I took out student loans to go to nursing school when my youngest was a baby. Lucky nursing school and clinicals kept me out of the house so much. I rarely saw the kids, but I never caught their viruses! Nursing school, 1st semester you could miss ONE day of clinicals. 2nd semester, you could miss one day of clinicals. 3rd semester, 100% attendance MANDATORY, and 4th semester plus practicum were the same. ZERO sick days. We all knew we were all one sprained (or broken) ankle, or one influenza, away from failing a semester. Happened to a few of us, but thankfully I was never so sick I had to miss.

That's the situation I'm in now...I'm in nursing school, and you don't get days off for clinicals. At all. Miss some time and you are done, sorry about your luck. I've been fortunate that my DH and family hs been picking up some of the slack with the kiddos, and that they are normally very healthy kids.

As for DH, he does not have paid time off - vacation or sick time. He was laid off for about 8 months and couldn't find another job (we live near Detroit), and then he was called back to his job. The only stipulation? That there is no promise of full time hours, no paid time off, and a very, very stripped down bennies package. Our insurance allows 2 dr. visits per person, per year and everything else is OOP. No dental coverage. He goes to work when he's sick.

I'm happy we've got something coming in, but it's going to be a long year until I can take the boards.

 

[monkey68]

I am going to be a doctor, and recently, I had this same conversation with a few friends regarding residency. You basically can't take a day off during residency, because there is nobody to take your place. Somebody who was scheduled to be off is not going to want to come in to take your place because you got the flu, let alone coming in so you can take off and take care of your kids. What's ridiculous is that this is in a hospital, you're working around sick patients, you really want to bring in more germs? But in a way, you're stuck.

My mom works in the school system, and gets a certain number of sick days/year. Only she has to bring in a doctors note because it looks better to the school, and they don't really care if you were out because your kid got sick. When i was sick, my mom would ship me off to grandma's for the day. Normally my grandparents would come and pick me up, take me back to their place, and then my mom would come by and pick me up after work. I have a surgery scheduled in a few weeks, and my mom wants to take the day off because I need someone to drive me and get me my pain meds, and apparently, the school is giving her a hard time because it's right before the winter break.

 

[Miss Park Avenue]

I'm in school to become a Surg Tech and when I first started I was sure that if you had any kind of illness that they would certainly not want your hands all over surgical instruments, much less in someone's body cavity. Nope, I was told that I had to be there. On my first day of clinicals, I was at the tail end of a sinus infection. I had been hacking and coughing that gross, "wet cough" all day. I was so afraid that I was going to be kicked out of the OR (I had been taking antibiotics for almost two weeks at this point but still...). No one had a problem with me. At least I was just observing.

I do have my parents to help with my girls if they get sick. But that would be a bad option for THEM as my mother has asthma and my dad has just been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer and his white blood cells are really low (along with low platelets, and red blood cells). But what can I do??? And I know that there are those with worse situations that I do so I do feel for those who are SOL when they or their kids get sick. I would just LOVE a world where people who HAD to stay home when they are sick. We don't need it here!

 

[Camicar]

When I worked in retail, we had no sick days and if you took more than 3 days off (even with a doctor's note), you would be fired. We saw staff get fired for having the stomach flu and pneumonia. So yeah, it was great. We had a woman there with pneumonia coughing all over our customers and our staff but she was told if she went home she'd be fired. we had customers complain to the manager about this (and we had enough to staff to cover absences), but she was resolute in her stupidity.

 

[happygirl]

Most of the jobs I have had are strict on call offs. Most have a point system you get a point for each time you aren't there and after so many points you were gone.

 

[taximomfor4]

That's the situation I'm in now...I'm in nursing school, and you don't get days off for clinicals. At all. Miss some time and you are done, sorry about your luck. I've been fortunate that my DH and family hs been picking up some of the slack with the kiddos, and that they are normally very healthy kids.

As for DH, he does not have paid time off - vacation or sick time. He was laid off for about 8 months and couldn't find another job (we live near Detroit), and then he was called back to his job. The only stipulation? That there is no promise of full time hours, no paid time off, and a very, very stripped down bennies package. Our insurance allows 2 dr. visits per person, per year and everything else is OOP. No dental coverage. He goes to work when he's sick.

I'm happy we've got something coming in, but it's going to be a long year until I can take the boards.

I had no idea how difficult nursing school was going to be, when I signed up. Otherwise, I would have NOT done it when I did. I've had time off between nursing jobs now, and am having trouble getting a new job now. Hospital hours do NOT work with my dh's work hours or my kids' school latchkey program. EEK.

Best of luck to you. I hope your luck holds out, and you get through without illness~

Beth

 

[C.Ann]

I once worked where a new boss fired a girl after three days of absence - because she was in intensive care after having been involved in a serious car accident the weekend prior.. And the really sad part? Her job was not one that actually "required" her presence - there were plenty of other women in the pool to handle her work without being overwhelmed..

 

[Camicar]

I once worked where a new boss fired a girl after three days of absence - because she was in intensive care after having been involved in a serious car accident the weekend prior.. And the really sad part? Her job was not one that actually "required" her presence - there were plenty of other women in the pool to handle her work without being overwhelmed..

We had that happen at my current job too. A long-time coworker was fired after getting out of ICU. Right before Christmas. Best part: I work at a Christian organization. Not one person in power said boo to the supervisor who fired her.