Calling in sick to work

[ronandannette]

I just send a text and say “I won’t be in today.” I don’t give a reason. I don’t know if they get annoyed. The only time I was asked anything was during covid. My boss did ask if I was sick she if I was did I have covid like symptoms. I told her no (I had an allergic reaction to iodine dye and looked a hot mess) and thst was it. Sometimes you just need a mental health day too. Or have a family emergency. My time is my time to use. I either use it to call out or take a vacation day. I’m not being paid out if the goodness of their heart.

Yes - on the occasions my staff members called in sick during the worst of Covid I did ask (and would probably ask now - nobody's called in sick for a while). It was part of our corporate protocols. Otherwise, just text me - please!

 

[E&Cmom]

I work in healthcare so especially now if you are sick you stay home and if you get sick during a shift, go home. Until last month, we had to do a health check before coming in every shift and if you had any covid like symptoms , stay home and get tested.

I don’t even talk to my manager to call in. We have an absence line through our health authority you call which directs the call to the in charge person that shifter if no one picks up leave a message. You just tell them you are sick and they generally say OK , feel better. No other questions asked. In the past, there was a system that if you you went above certain percentage of sick time during a period of time you may have a “wellness check “ with your manager but now with Covid that is never done. I never went over. In our union contract, we accumulate 1.5 shifts per month of sick time, Not that it is used that often.

I find the older I get, the less stressed I am about calling in.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

When I was at the insurance company it was PTO and a don't ask don't tell policy. It was none of their business why you wanted off work they weren't really allowed to ask anyways and there was no sick time just PTO. You want to go shopping? Fine? Got the flu? Fine. Doctor's notes were not accepted anyhow. You did time off stuff through a computer system.

On the other hand call outs day of were part of your performance and thus it could impact you there. Also PTO was taken in 15mins increments and therefore if at any point in your shift a 15 mins time slot wasn't available (meaning enough people had already called out based on estimates of call volume-employee ratio) it became unavailable and while you were still granted it as far as time off unavailable was another strike against your performance.

Day of call-ins when you hadn't gotten to work yet were handled through an automated absence line where you left a message and just said what your name was, that you would be out, who your supervisor was and what was the time off usage for (PTO, bereavement, jury duty, FMLA, etc).

 

[bcla]

I've never really had a situation where I was questioned about whether or not I was really sick. One company we had unlimited sick time and they wanted it reported for some legal reason. Another place we technically only had PTO that included everything (vacation, holidays, sick days) but it was unofficially where we just called in and they didn't care to report it. However, I was salaried, so that might have been part of it. And I was laid off once, but I had a couple of months notice where I was still coming in to finish up my project. We had extensive PTO dates and I had a ton saved up. But also 5 days of sick time. I asked HR if we got to cash out sick days and was told it was 5 days per calendar year and they were always "use it or lose it". So when I was actually feeling pretty bad, I called in sick for a couple of days until I was feeling better.

At another employer it was the same unofficial deal. Nobody ever forced us to report when we were sick - just inform the manager by phone or email. I think the only time I ever used any actual sick time was when I needed to take my wife in for surgery and it was just a day.

 

[smokeyblue]

I decided a few years ago I wasn't going to stress out over calling in sick because it really isn't any of their business why I need to take my hard earned PTO. My script is "I am not feeling well, I will be using PTO for today. I will see you tomorrow."

 

[Jennasis]

I will never work anywhere that would give me a hrad time about calling out sick, or taking a planned day off etc. I work both a PT job as well as having a full-time small business. In 9 years at the PT gig I have called out actually sick maybe once? 2 or 3 times I've had to call out due to emergencies with my full time business. Twice I went home "sick" (it was back pain). It is never a problem.

If one of my employees calls out I never ever give them grief or ask why. I may scream into the void since it means I have to do all of their work on top of my own, but life happens. I also don't make them work holidays.

 

[Karin1984]

So for some TMI. I am having a bad day for my medical issue(IBS). I usually have mostly good days, but today is not one of them. I called in sick to my part time job and let my boss know because, anyone with any knowledge of this stuff knows how it is impossible to do anything on bad days, that does not revolve around a toilet. I hate how they act like they don't believe you and get ticked off. I rarely call in sick and I don't usually talk about my medical issues because it's not their business. Anyone else have their boss act as if you are lying sack of poop for calling in? And why do grown adults act like this?

My first question is: Does your boss have any knowledge?
If you have a chronic condition, all you can do is explain and educate them on your disease. If it is impossible to do anything on the bad days, your boss needs to know. Only then they can help. I would say: it is their business to keep you as a happy employee.
You cannot expect anyone to have knowledge of every disease and know what they can do to accommodate you, without information from you.

 

[gopher101]

I don't mind if they call in expect for two things. What gets me is when they only ever callout on the weekend like clock work every weekend. Or hangovers, I have never believed a hangover is an excuse to call in. You made the choice to drink that much, get your butt to work.

Besides that, if you call in. Ok. Bad day, feeling off, need to take care off love one. Do what you need to do.

 

[White Cat]

I decided a few years ago I wasn't going to stress out over calling in sick because it really isn't any of their business why I need to take my hard earned PTO. My script is "I am not feeling well, I will be using PTO for today. I will see you tomorrow."

How do you know you will be better the next day?

 

[Wendy1985]

It’s not just big Corporations that treat employees like poop I volunteered for a small business and I started running a fever and I was too sick to work Unfortunately it was virtual so the owner did not care

keep in mind that I never run a fever I had strep no fever once so when I run one I take it seriously

 

[SteveH]

One of the happiest days of my life was getting rid of the old Vacation/Sick time system and moving our business to a PTO system. I got sick of lame excuses, if it's a planned day off great! If it's a sick day, great (I don't want details) if you're going to take a week off then we need to talk. But like @Mackenzie Click-Mickelson shared we do keep track of absences, particularity the frequent blue Friday's. Attendance matters to us, but if we know of a chronic condition or disability we're very willing to work with the person. One thing COVID showed us was keeping sick people out of the building matters and we can accommodate a lot more then we thought we could for some positions, others just need the person to be on duty. I wish you all the best.

 

[amcnj]

I worked at places where the culture was to not take sick days. And there were some supervisors any place l I worked who were always suspicious when someone called out.

But I also worked with people who viewed sick time as leave time and used all of it up in the first month or two of each year. And no, they were not really sick and freely admitted/bragged about it.

 

[slo]

As a boss, it actually makes me feel uncomfortable when an employee tries to tell me what's wrong with them; sometimes the more they talk the less genuine the story sounds. I prefer they just notify me by text if they are taking a sick day. We are all entitled to 7 per year and that's that.

Coincidentally, I have IBS myself and awkward as it was, when the condition first flared 5 years ago, I did discuss it with my boss. It was necessary to do so because it was initially so severe it required accommodations to my job to relieve me of having to do site visits or take meetings away from the office. Over the years I've developed some coping strategies that work well for my situation and it very rarely interferes with work anymore. I do however take a sick day a couple of times a year if my acid reflux has caused a completely sleepless night.

I totally agree with discussing your situation with your boss.
I have moderate to severe UC and when I’m out of remission I’m in bad shape - I have to wear Depends just in case I can’t make it to a bathroom in time. My boss knows this and when I’m in bad shape I tell him that when I gotta go to the bathroom then I gotta go NOW. Luckily, he understands and has appreciated my honesty. It wasn’t an easy conversation to have with him, but I’m glad I did it. You, I and others have an invisible illness that others have a hard time understanding because they can’t see it on us. Good luck with your condition and I hope you feel better.

 

[DisneyOma]

I had a verbal review one year and the principal noticed I was out a day or two every month, about 4 weeks apart. The principal was female, as am I, and it was easy for her to see why I was out. A simple procedure rectified those monthly absences, and I'm back to using only 4-5 of my sick days a year. I get 12. That was the only time I got "called out" for using my sick days, and it wasn't really a huge issue. But it did make me see that I needed to do something about a health issue I had - so I am actually grateful we had the conversation.

 

[EACarlson]

One of the greatest things about working from home 90% now is that if I'm sick, but can still work, I'm not exposing anyone. If I'm sick and can't work, I only have to make it down the stairs to my computer to email my boss. If one of my kids is sick, they can be in the playroom 10 feet from me all day. I might only be able to work at 75%, but that's a lot better than the 0% they'd be getting if I had to leave the office to come home and watch them.

In previous jobs I had lots of bosses that wanted to try and pass judgement on whether I should actually be home sick. For most of those I worked in food, I knew if I said one of the two magic words, diarrhea or vomiting, they couldn't ask say a thing.

 

[smokeyblue]

How do you know you will be better the next day?

I don't, but that puts a stop to the conversation. In the instance that I was unable to return the following day I just said, I am not feeling better, I will be using PTO today.

The one time I was sick during Covid, I also stated that I did not have Covid symptoms so there would be no need to question me further.

 

[AndreaDM]

I hate that it's become a badge of honor to show up to work feeling sick, and that management has put fear of job loss into people over concern for their health. I'm actually sick right now, left early Friday and was sick all weekend. Messaged my boss that I'm sick and will be working from home, probably not at full capacity but at least staying on top of my projects. If I didn't have the option to work from home I would have had to take PTO and I hate wasting PTO for being sick lol, I want to use that time for vacation!

eta: Not Covid, I got tested. I DO have a lot of the symptoms thought and I'm sure no one would appreciate me being in the office right now while coughing my head off.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Because the people who pretend to be sick when they are actually not, ruin it for everyone else who is telling the truth.

But why does it matter why someone called out? If someone wants to use their time to call out and sit on the beach that’s their business. PTO or sick time is part of your benefits package. Businesses aren’t paying people out of the goodness of their hearts. And if you don’t have sick time as part of your job I assume when you call out sick it is unpaid.

 

[dez1978]

Where I work used to require a drs note even if they sent you home sick lol. They don't do that anymore. I do think how it's treated depends on the type of job you have and the hardship it causes others when you are not there. For a while I worked in an office where the switchboard had to be covered from 8-5 no matter what. In the year I worked there the switchboard person called in 27 days. And that did not include the 4 weeks she took off scheduled during the year, or the days she left early or came in late. How do I know? Because I was her back up. Which meant since I worked 730-430, I would be late picking my kids up from daycare those days (closed at 530) which cost me $15 every time. The bosses didn't care, but it did cause some issues with other staff in the office. If your job requires someone else to pick up the slack in addition to their own work, then I can see the issue with frequent callins (I know you said you didn't call in often). However if you have a job where the work just waits until you get back then it's not as big of a deal.

Unfortunately, in many situations, too many employees call in when they aren't really sick at all and ruin it for everyone else. And sometimes those call ins can result in businesses having to close for the day, which costs the business money, so yeah, I can understand why they'd be crabby about that.

 

[dez1978]

But why does it matter why someone called out? If someone wants to use their time to call out and sit on the beach that’s their business. PTO or sick time is part of your benefits package. Businesses aren’t paying people out of the goodness of their hearts. And if you don’t have sick time as part of your job I assume when you call out sick it is unpaid.

because depending on the business too many people calling in can shut the business down. If not being able to open one day was going to cost you $10000 in sales and then you saw your employees who called in "sick" posting pics on FB of whatever they were really doing that day, you'd probably be upset too. Employees really expect businesses to care about them and value them as employees, yet they don't have that same energy back towards the employers.