WHy do people do this?

[diznygirl]

For some some people, it might not be financial at all. It may be that they have a very demanding boss and will be let go for missing too much time.

Yup. That was me. At one job we were given 5 sick days. I took 2 1/2 one January with the flu. They called me into the office and asked me what I was going to do the rest of the year. I only had 2 1/2 days left. I told them I guess I just wouldn't get paid. I was fine with staying home - they were not.

 

[Robinrs]

This same topic has come up about once a week it seems for the past few months, and the answers are always the same. Not everybody has the ability to stay home when he or she is sick. Really, how many people wouldn't prefer to stay home when they are sick? If they are at work I assume it's because they were not able to stay home for whatever reason, whether it is due to loss of income or a boss who isn't sympathetic.

I was sick as a dog this week but had to come in anyway. I run a deadline oriented dept and my entire team is new. The work HAS to be done and boy would I have LOVED to stay in my bed!

Luckily I have my own office and anyone who doesn't have to deal with me doesn't have to!

In the 30 years I've been working I've never had a job that I could just STAY HOME from. It's always been a job that someone else had to double their workload to accommodate me or they had to bring someone in to do it. I promised myself that ONE day I will have a job that I can just kick back and relax and let it wait till I got back!

 

[DebbieB]

This same topic has come up about once a week it seems for the past few months, and the answers are always the same. Not everybody has the ability to stay home when he or she is sick. Really, how many people wouldn't prefer to stay home when they are sick? If they are at work I assume it's because they were not able to stay home for whatever reason, whether it is due to loss of income or a boss who isn't sympathetic.

We have someone in our office who each winter has a cold/cough, etc. at least once. Comes in sick. We don't exactly have sick days, we have PTO. This person has been with the company many years, so she has 30 PTO and buys another 5. So she has 35 days to work with. She usually takes 1 full week of vacation in the summer to go away. The rest she takes off a day or two at a time. She comes in sick because she doesn't want to possibly giveup her every Friday off in the summer. It's just selfish.

 

[Carly_Roach]

It begs another question.... if you can't afford to take ONE day off without pay- are you living above your means? Or is the job situation so desperate people are taking lower paying jobs than they are qualified for?

Things are bad for a lot of folks....

I am making approximately 60% of what I used to make in 2000 - a 40% pay cut - and I'm happy to even have this job. The economy in the past 10 years has forced tremendous pay cuts for many. A perfect example is the former IT Project Manager we know who is now happy to have even a simple Help Desk job to keep food on his family's table.

So no, I doubt many people are "living above their means" when a $100 chunk out of their paycheck (if they call in sick) will create problems in paying the heat bill. Especially this time of year.

I just think it is so inconsiderate to come infect everyone else. I don't care what your reasons are, there are a lot of people in the office that do not want to get what you have. It is not appropriate to come in and be the outbreak monkey at the office.

To which the person living life on the edge of losing everything would have to say, "I don't care if you catch what I have. I need to feed my family". Basically it comes down to this: just as you don't care about me, neither will I care about you. Or, to put it simply, no one cares.

I'm sure that all of those people who are feeling miserable but still going to work wish they had the option to stay home.

You betcha.

 

[just4today]

We have someone in our office who each winter has a cold/cough, etc. at least once. Comes in sick. We don't exactly have sick days, we have PTO. This person has been with the company many years, so she has 30 PTO and buys another 5. So she has 35 days to work with. She usually takes 1 full week of vacation in the summer to go away. The rest she takes off a day or two at a time. She comes in sick because she doesn't want to possibly giveup her every Friday off in the summer. It's just selfish.

According to this website http://cold.emedtv.com/common-cold/common-cold-contagious-period.html


First, scientists involved with common cold research do not know exactly how long a person with a cold is contagious. Based on previous studies, their best guess is that a person becomes contagious about two to three days before developing the usual symptoms of a cold. Second, this contagious period can last until the person no longer shows any symptoms. So in theory, a person is contagious for about two weeks.

We should all take off two weeks every time we get a cold, right? Sign me up!

I guess it makes people feel better to have a scapegoat to blame their cold on when in reality there is no way for you to know for sure where you picked up the virus unless you live in a bubble.

 

[kilee]

There is no way that someone could take off every time they have cold symptoms. I for one suffer from severe allergies........cannot happen. I frequently have a runny nose and cough.

Anyhow, we have 6.5 dedicated sick days per year. First time you call in after your sick days are gone is automatic written warning. Second time is immediate dismissal. No matter what the reason. Thankfully we also get 6.5 "long term" sick days. To use those though you MUST have a doctors excuse and be out longer than 3 days.

My benefits refill in April-- I used:
1.5 sick days in May when on a Friday afternoon my husband called me at lunch to go w/ him to the hospital they didn't expect is grandfather to live much longer. Then another full day for the funeral because "grandfather-in-law" doesn't fall into bereavement pay at work.
1.5 sick days in June when I had a terrible cold w/ fever
2 sicks days in September when I had another awful cold w/ fever
1 sick day in early December my husband had a seizure (never had them before) right before work.

So, I've used 6 sick days and only have 1/2 a day left until April.....the world will have to be falling apart for me to call in now.

 

[Nancyg56]

The company I used to work for had a very strict attendance policy. If you missed the scheduled day prior to or after a holiday you did not get Holiday pay. I had to share a desk with a gal who was as sick as a dog but could not afford to lose her Holiday pay. I never understood why the management continued to follow this policy, some folks were so sick but did nto want to lose their jon so in they came.

 

[Handbag Lady]

Our work has generous sick pay/time-off, so there is no reason. Our jobs are timeline-based, but we are all cross-trained to be able to cover for at least one day or so if someone is ill.

There is no excuse here. Most people do stay home but there are the martyrs who insist to come in.

What I truly don't understand is those who bring in their kids when they are sick. The kids are too sick to go to school so you bring them to my workplace?

 

[dakcp2001]

This is also a work environment where people come to work sick all year so they can cash in their sick days at the end of the year.

 

[cheermom1]

some people have to work ..I know if you have sick time at my dh's company it doesn't matter the reason if it is a snow day and the company is shut down they make everyone use their sick days..so if he has no more sick days what is he to do when he is sick? I know for us we are NOT living beyond our means ..dh has a lot of child support plus we live in a home that dh's ex step dad has for very very low rent but if he misses a day we are screwed...some may be living beyond their means but my point is that you don't really know if someone is or not or what their reasons are for not staying home...

of course we all would love to home when we are sick and we really do think about the other people at work but what can you do??

 

[clovergirl5]

At dh work, strict sick day policy too. I believe they are only allowed 48 hrs off sick time for each quarter. He tells me about the people who come to work and are puking in the garbage can, cause they can't stay home or they get written up. Its very aggravating.

 

[pixiewings71]

Our work has generous sick pay/time-off, so there is no reason. Our jobs are timeline-based, but we are all cross-trained to be able to cover for at least one day or so if someone is ill.

There is no excuse here. Most people do stay home but there are the martyrs who insist to come in.

What I truly don't understand is those who bring in their kids when they are sick. The kids are too sick to go to school so you bring them to my workplace?

You're lucky, we don't have that generous a policy here. And you're right, why would someone bring their kids in if the kids couldn't go to school??

I get 6 sick days a year, that's it. If I go over I'm using vacation time, but I'm also over my vacation time due to an HR mistake from 3 years ago. Each year I start minus a week of vacation already, this will continue for another couple of years until I've been here long enough to get 3 weeks of vacation. I've got 2 kids at home so when someone gets sick I get to stay home. Work is normally understanding but my time off is not infinite so I have to juggle when the girls are sick. I was sick last week, I stayed home on Monday, worked half days on Tuesday & Wednesday. Should I have stayed home? YES! Without a doubt I should have but I couldn't. Our company had a trade show last week, there were 3 of us in the office for most of the week, had I not come in nothing would have been done at my desk and neither of my co-workers would have been able to take lunches. So yes, I came in, yes I felt like crap, and no, not one of my co-workers has the cold that I came in with. In addition this week I've worked 2 days with no lunch break, I've eaten at my desk. It's busy right now, these are things we do when it gets busy.

 

[cheermom1]

I remember a long time ago I was working with a single mother who her dd was very sick and had to take time off to be with her...when she came back it was very obvious she was very sick from getting for her dd...the boss told her that if she went home sick she would be fired ..this poor woman was running to the bathroom every couple of minutes..it was so sad..in my opinion it was the bosses fault that several other people got sick as well..he should have told her to go home till she wasn't puking or running a fever and then come back..I mean waht was she supposed to do..a single mom with no child support...that is why a lot of people come in sick...

 

[C.Ann]

I understand the sentiment, but in this economy there really are people who just can't take the chance of losing their jobs because they don't have "sick leave"..

Just another sign of the dire straights that people are continuing to face on a daily basis..

 

[hanutedmansionmomma]

I had a cough from Thanksgiving 'till New Years..I took off a few days, but couldn't possibly stay home for the whole time I was coughing.

 

[aristocatz]

This happens at my work all the time & it really is a double edged sword.

I work in a poor urban and overcrowded school district & I supervise the autism classrooms, which are extremely overcrowded with some pretty severe behavioral issues. Our paraprofessionals do not get paid much at all to do this very involved and exhausting job. Plus, these kids get sent to school sick all the time, in turn the teachers and paras get sick. The teachers are all afraid to stay home though because if they stay home, then the paras will have a pretty tough day without their teacher's support so the teachers feel guilty. Paras get very few sick days and many paras at our school are low income and many are single parents with multiple mouths to feed.

I definitely know it's wrong for them to come to school sick, but I can sympathize with the teachers and paras at my school when they do.

 

[JerseyJanice]

For some some people, it might not be financial at all. It may be that they have a very demanding boss and will be let go for missing too much time.

So true!

The "culture" of certain companies can really frown upon taking off from work beyond whatever allotment they give you. I've worked for places too where unless you had some seniority, it was a huge no-no to take more than 2 or 3 sick days a year unless it was obvious you had been really sick at one point.

 

[aprilgail2]

\

The company I used to work for had a very strict attendance policy. If you missed the scheduled day prior to or after a holiday you did not get Holiday pay. I had to share a desk with a gal who was as sick as a dog but could not afford to lose her Holiday pay. I never understood why the management continued to follow this policy, some folks were so sick but did nto want to lose their jon so in they came.

.

We have that at my job too- you have to bridge the holiday on both ends or you lose the holiday pay. Also they have a "point system" - 5 points for each time you take off sick- if you take off more than a set number of points worth you go on trial- you start out with a warning then a 5 day suspension no pay, then go to 10, then 30, 90 and finally 6 months-after that they fire you. I went over the points last winter when I had 3 bad months in a row- pneumonia, bronchitis and then swine flu--so I got the standard warning- first one in my 26 years on the job!! I guess according to my job I should have went to work with swine flu and shared it rather than taking off...

 

[DebbieB]

According to this website http://cold.emedtv.com/common-cold/common-cold-contagious-period.html


First, scientists involved with common cold research do not know exactly how long a person with a cold is contagious. Based on previous studies, their best guess is that a person becomes contagious about two to three days before developing the usual symptoms of a cold. Second, this contagious period can last until the person no longer shows any symptoms. So in theory, a person is contagious for about two weeks.

We should all take off two weeks every time we get a cold, right? Sign me up!

I guess it makes people feel better to have a scapegoat to blame their cold on when in reality there is no way for you to know for sure where you picked up the virus unless you live in a bubble.

This isn't a typical sniffle. She comes in very sick. One year it turned into pneumonia and she then had to take off over a week. If she would have taken care of herself in the first place it probably would not have got that bad. She is in her early 60's and takes public transportation (because she does not drive in the winter) so she wears herself down when she's sick to the point where she can hardly function. My point was she has a ton of PTO days, take a couple. She would not be penalized as far as her work record. She just might not be able to take every single Friday off from May to September.

 

[marsha123]

at my job ,if u miss 3 days in a niney day period u are fired.so anything anybody gets everybody gets,