When did this become acceptable?

[dakcp2001]

So I worked last night, and I am dreading going back tonight. Most of the staff called out sick. I realize it is a holiday and no one wants to work,but you really make it hard on those of use that do show up. We were already scheduled bare bones before everyone decided not to come. According to my coworkers, this happens every holiday and there are no consequences. So people continue to do it. Please make this reason 100000000001 that I want a new job this year. I cant wait to go back tonight and experience it all again. What happened to work ethic? Sense of responsibility? It really makes me want to just not show up myself, but well, I wont. Sorry, had to vent.

 

[hereyago]

That is ok vent away:

2 of our local news stations have not reported news today, by basketball and one is showing local high school's chorus singing Christmas carols. However, they are on facebook. We were expected to get a small amount of snow, we are now looking at more. However, 1 of the news channels-the one with the chorus signing has not made any further update from 3 hours ago, not been on tv to interrupt and say we now have a warning instead of a watch.

I know it's Christmas, but this is truly news worthy. I mean if the weather guy came do a podcast or whatever the word for facebook, update your stuff. The news doesnt stop for the holidays.

 

[dakcp2001]

Perhaps the news people all called in sick as well.

 

[Art 1]

So I worked last night, and I am dreading going back tonight. Most of the staff called out sick. I realize it is a holiday and no one wants to work,but you really make it hard on those of use that do show up. We were already scheduled bare bones before everyone decided not to come. According to my coworkers, this happens every holiday and there are no consequences. So people continue to do it. Please make this reason 100000000001 that I want a new job this year. I cant wait to go back tonight and experience it all again. What happened to work ethic? Sense of responsibility? It really makes me want to just not show up myself, but well, I wont. Sorry, had to vent.

If they fire one person that should solve the problem. Why don't they?

 

[MrsToad]

I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Our workplace partially solved this problem by changing the employee handbook's holiday pay section. If you have an approved, pre-scheduled day off on either side of a holiday, that is fine; you will still get paid for any holiday pay you are otherwise entitled to. If you call out sick on either the day before or the day after a holiday, you do NOT get paid for the holiday. I know this won't work for all employment situations, but it helps ours. Good luck tonight.

 

[minkydog]

I hate when that happens. I have worked my share of holidays and there's always some bozo who comes up with some lame excuse to stay home. My personal favorite was the nurse I worked with who had a 9 month old baby. All we had heard for weeks was how saaaaad she was to miss her baby's fiiiiiiirrst Chriiiiiiistmas. How unfortunate when on Christmas Eve said nurse "sliced her thumb open" with a knife. Of course, it wasn't bad enough to need actual stitches but she was in soooo much pain and she was sooooo worried about getting an infection that she just HAD to stay home for 36 hours. The thing that really chapped my butt was this woman had just spend the better part of a week taking time off for Hannukah.

 

[McKelly]

I worked in a hospital for three years and every one of those years I ended up working at least 12-16 hours on either Xmas Eve or Xmas Day because of someone who called in sick. Nothing happened to them either. to you - thank goodness you have a conscience!

 

[mom2rb]

My MIL works in a hospital. She was very sick this week. She showed up at work and they immediately sent her home. I think she just didn't want people to think that she was faking for a holiday off.

 

[MM27]

It happens in my school all the time. We are not allowed to take personal days before or after a holiday or other day when school is closed. Even sick days are supposed to be documented with a doctor's note. There are some people that take off all the time before or after the holidays. They do it all the time and there are no consequences for them, so they continue to do it.

We had one teacher that has taken off Monday-Wednesday before our Thursday/Friday Teacher's Convention for the past three years and she brags that no one says a word to her about it.

 

[shortbun]

My last job required a doctor's note for days around a holiday or a suspension-unpaid -was levied. No one complained and most everyone showed up.

 

[Melmac]

My last job required a doctor's note for days around a holiday or a suspension-unpaid -was levied. No one complained and most everyone showed up.

My workplace is closed for holidays but this is what happens at our place - unless you have a doctors note excusing you the days before/after a holiday, you definitely don't get holiday pay and an unpaid suspension could be handed out. You asked when it became acceptable - I believe never. However, maybe when people realized there was no consequences, it became "acceptable" in their eyes.

Too bad your employer can't make an exception out of one person - it is grossly unfair to cover holidays at bare-bones only to have those "bare-bones" call in sick. I hope tonight is better for you.

 

[tvguy]

Maybe things are different here in California (we ARE a different planet here)
but punishing anyone about calling in sick is almost impossible. Because of medical privacy laws, they can't ask anything about an illness. Only thing that does happen, is if you call in sick for more than 5 consecutive work days is you have a doctor's note documenting you were sick......and that's only because they shift you from sick time to short term disability after 5 days, and the insurance carrier requires the note. We only get 7 sick days a year, so this is actually to the employees benefit because shifting you to short term disability insures you will get paid until you get back to work, or until long term disability kicks in.

 

[mhsjax]

I realized that people do call in sick on a holiday just so they can get the day off, but if you are sick for a day, it really isn't that easy to get into a Dr's office for a note.

I have worked on Christmas day more than a few times, I hated it but I never called in sick. However, I will say that any employer that required a note from a Dr for me being sick on one day would just have to deal with my germs. If it came down to me getting in trouble or being fired without a note, I would just show up and share my germs with everyone. I don't play that game and won't work for someone that required this of it's employees.

 

[Mermaid02]

I guess it's hard to prove they weren't sick and that is part of the problem. My son got sick in the early morning hours on Christmas Eve. He's got a horrible junky cough and a fever that comes and goes. He's not old enough to work, but if he were he would have had to call in sick.

 

[bicker]

My father used to own a business; about 40 years ago. Back then, if you called in sick on the day before or after a holiday, you weren't paid for the holiday. Over time, such severe punishments for letting the team down have been made illegal, thereby paving the road, I suppose to more rampant transgression along these lines.

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

Unfortunately, my guess is that if they have the sick time to cover calling in there's really nothing that can be done. Things that are put in place to protect people can also be taken advantage of.

I agree with the poster who said that if I required a doctor's note for taking off one day, I would go to work sick as a dog and infect everyone else. There is no way I'd go to the doctor for something that will clear up on its own.

And, unfortunately, people can get sick on a holiday. I'm sure the majority of those calling in sick are not, in fact, sick. But it does happen.

Hope your day wasn't too miserable.

 

[mickeymedic]

I've been sick since last Sunday. I didn't want to be "that" employee and call in for my shifts on Christmas Eve day and the Christmas Eve overnight. So, I went to work and was absolutely miserable. Now, today I finally did call in...and will probably have to call in tomorrow. It's definitely time to go visit the doctor. In retrospect, I probably would have been better off calling in and not further stressing my body. But, I didn't want to be the bad employee.

 

[arminnie]

That is ok vent away:

2 of our local news stations have not reported news today, by basketball and one is showing local high school's chorus singing Christmas carols. However, they are on facebook. We were expected to get a small amount of snow, we are now looking at more. However, 1 of the news channels-the one with the chorus signing has not made any further update from 3 hours ago, not been on tv to interrupt and say we now have a warning instead of a watch.

I know it's Christmas, but this is truly news worthy. I mean if the weather guy came do a podcast or whatever the word for facebook, update your stuff. The news doesnt stop for the holidays.

OMG the new Orleans stations managed to stay on the air even after Katrina

 

[MrsToad]

My father used to own a business; about 40 years ago. Back then, if you called in sick on the day before or after a holiday, you weren't paid for the holiday. Over time, such severe punishments for letting the team down have been made illegal, thereby paving the road, I suppose to more rampant transgression along these lines.

In my earlier post, I mentioned that our employer had put the "no holiday pay" policy in the handbook many years back. Your comment, together with a couple of other posters' comments, caused me to go back and look at the most recent handbook. I checked the holiday and sick time sections and the no pay policy is no longer included. It should have occurred to me that this practice might not now be legal, especially with employers being limited with the types of medical questions they are allowed to ask.

 

[englishteacha]

A friend was supposed to meet us for dinner on Veteran's Day. He had to work, and 2 of his coworkers called in sick that day. He ended up working a 16 hour day and couldn't meet us. That just seems really, really unfair, that he had to do their work. Couldn't things have been swapped around so the other people could have done their work on another day?