Action Line: It's OK to report sick employees

[sprocket79]

http://www.mercurynews.com/action-line/ci_13747386

This is one of those consumer advocate type columns. The guy says you should report sick employees. It's really rather mean because he doesn't take into account that many of these people can't take sick time otherwise they would. I mean really! Who wouldn't take a sick day if it were available to them?

[astyn-dbs]

Do employees in the States not get paid sick leave? Here in NZ we get 8 days a year once we've been in a job for 6 months. Seems crazy to me to not give your employees time off when they're sick.

[Bright_Star]

Reporting sick employees? 9 times out of 10, management already knows an employee is sick & they figure as long as they're able to handle their work load then they don't give a shit. ONLY time management does give a shit is if the employee passess out or throws up & even then they'll have have the employee sit for a spell to see if they improve. "Tough it out" as they like to say. I've heard this happen more than once.

[drunkenwildmage]

Do employees in the States not get paid sick leave? Here in NZ we get 8 days a year once we've been in a job for 6 months. Seems crazy to me to not give your employees time off when they're sick.

Nothing National, it depends on the state and the business, and/or union contracts. I'm not aware of any states that have a requirement, but I've seen some try to pass a law. In my state, it was rejected, for fear that business's would start moving out of state, or cut employees to keep costs in line.

[Anthony K. S.]

About six or seven months ago, there was a thread on Customers Suck! that led to a discussion of the issue of employees working while sick. I posted my views on the subject :

Let's leave the management out of this for a moment . . .

Over the years, I have seen the issue of employees working while sick brought up on several different Internet message forums (including, of course, right here on Customers Suck!).

One of the arguments most commonly made by those who believe that employees shouldn't be working while sick is this :


"I understand that retail workers often can't afford to just lose an entire day's pay. However, if a company offers paid sick leave to its employees, as most companies do, then an employee who is sick can take the day off from work and STILL get paid his/her regular salary for it.

Therefore, there is no reason at all for an employee who is sick to still come in to work. By calling out sick, the employee can avoid spreading his/her sickness to the customers AND still get paid for the day."


I have noticed that there are at least a few people right here on Customers Suck! who apparently believe this, as well.

Unfortunately, although this reasoning may seem logical on the surface, it is actually seriously flawed.

As others have pointed out, some managers and companies are very strict . . . and sometimes quite unreasonable . . . about when employees can and cannot take sick leave time.

But, just for the sake of argument, let's leave the management out of this for a moment.

The real flaw in that apparently logical reasoning I quoted above is that companies don't offer unlimited sick leave time to their employees.

(At least, I've never heard of a company that does. I'm open to correction here, if such companies actually do exist.)

At my present job, for example, I am permitted 24 hours of paid sick leave time each year.

Now, suppose that on a day when I'm scheduled to work an 8-hour shift, I happen to be suffering from a mild cold. Not a bad one, not enough to impair me, but I'm definitely not feeling well. I have two choices :

1. I can go to work as usual. I will get paid my regular salary for the day, and at the end of the week, I will still have 24 hours of sick leave time available to me.

2. I can call out sick. I will still get paid my regular salary for the day . . . but at the end of the week, I will only have 16 hours of sick leave time still available to me.

Since an employee who calls out sick will still get paid for the day, it is all too easy to conclude that the employee has not lost anything by calling out sick.

But, in fact, the employee has lost a day's pay. It was simply replaced by an equal amount deducted from the employee's available sick leave time.

In my earlier post, I mentioned that I need to conserve my paid time off as much as possible. The reason for that is that when I expend my sick leave time on a day when I'm only feeling a little sick . . . then I run the risk of not having sick leave time available to me on the days when I really need it.

In a worst-case scenario, I could use up most or all of my sick-leave time on three separate days when I'm only feeling a little under the weather . . . And then, later in the year, if a day comes when I'm feeling really sick, I'll be in trouble. I would be forced to choose between (1) going in to work when I'm in no condition to be working, or (2) taking an unpaid day off.

And as has been repeatedly stated on this thread, that latter choice is simply not an option for many retail workers.

That's the real flaw in the argument that paid sick leave makes it possible for employees to call out sick without losing anything.

Bad or unreasonable management can certainly make the situation worse, but the real problem is that the system itself simply doesn't allow employees to just take the day off whenever they happen to be feeling a little under the weather.


EDIT :

I want to make one thing clear. The system doesn't allow employees to take a paid day off any time that they happen to be sick . . . and it CAN'T allow that. If it did, it would open the door to massive abuse from employees who would use it take a paid day off whenever they just don't happen to feel like working. Companies HAVE to impose limits on how much paid sick leave time they give out. They have no choice. At least, none as far as I can see.

I still stand by everything I said.

Until medical science devises a way for us to control how many times we get sick in a given year, this will be an issue that will simply HAVE no solution.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Those douchenozzles at the Olive Garden actually tried to get me to come in when I called and told them I was sick.

You know what? That job sucked. I am not coming in sick. I think I had the flu, or something that really kicked my butt, I don't remember. But they TRIED to get me to come in. Oh, yeah, I'm sure our customers really wanted to be served their pasta by a chick coughing and hacking all over it.

Fire me, dingleberries. I don't care. The job sucked!

They didn't fire me.

Jerks.

[Shangri-laschild]

I guess I see it both ways...

It sucks not being able to afford to take a sick day off and being sick.

It also sucks not being able to afford to take a sick day off and then having to work with people who are sick and still coming in and worrying about getting sick yourself.