Sick Policy

[TNT]

Adding to my earlier post, we have 8 personal days. They're supposed to be for... whatever. Sickness, emergencies, a day too beautiful to work, whatever.

Under our old attendance policy, we'd get an "incident" if we didn't give a week's notice we were going to use a personal day. When the new policy was being discussed earlier this year, many of us made the point that personal days ain't very personal if we have to give a week's notice.

Management -- to everyone's great surprise -- agreed. Now we can them any time we want without them counting against us.

[jparenti]

The way I see it, the number of times it happens is the key. If someone calls in once every six to seven months, that's acceptable. Every six to seven days is a problem.
Honestly, you don't need to go to the doctor every time you have something like stomach flu or a bad cold. And you don't want a bunch of customers and coworkers getting infected, too (no matter how much they may deserve it). So let 'em stay home if they get sick occasionally. Just because you and me will work while ill doesn't mean you should expect everyone else to be as dedicated.

[Tria]

Oh, your best friends cousins brothers sisters former roommate died?

What does that make us?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Sometimes a sick day is a mental health day. Or, perhaps, a "Sick and TIRED" day. Every blue moon, I take one. Usually if I don't have a lot of jobs cued up or due and the weather's nice outside.

It's amazing how completely WELL you are when you come back the next day!

[aniwahya]

I guess the idea would just be to cut down on abuse. I sort of see it like...the rules are going to be broken no matter what they are. however, maybe it wouldn't be as bad. I.e. people now will call out because they have a slight headache, which to me isn't really worth it. My knees hurt, my back hurts every day, i go to work. I got serious emotional problems, I still get my butt to work. Part of that is because I know it's really, really important that I be there. If we had an overstaffed place where one or two people calling out sick was no big deal, I'd take days off all the fricken time.

I understand, and agree, what you have written, however I wish to share my experiences as a severe asthmatic to help with perspective. I am a severe, severe asthmatic who is also severely allergic to almost every form of grass (I carry my nebulizer and epi pens with me 24/7). A case of the sniffles for me is life threatening, and not only to I get very, very sick for "little" reason I also get deathly ill within hours.
Unfortunately because so many people do call off frivolously, just because someone calls off for something that seems frivolous or improbable does not mean that they are slacking off. Every single job that I have ever had (including ones in health care) I have literally had to come in to work when i could not breathe and almost die in order to demonstrate that it *IS* possible to go home perfectly fine one night and be deathly ill the next morning due to circumstances beyond control.

So please, whatever system you go with, keep in mind that some people just have really sucky circumstances and are doing the best they can.

*I have always provided documentation. My medical record is like the Encyclopedia Britannica >< because I always go to the doctor (he appreciates the warning that he may get a frantic call from an ER doc) and I always provide notes.

Tig hath spoken

[tacohuman]

I understand, and agree, what you have written, however I wish to share my experiences as a severe asthmatic to help with perspective. I am a severe, severe asthmatic who is also severely allergic to almost every form of grass (I carry my nebulizer and epi pens with me 24/7). A case of the sniffles for me is life threatening, and not only to I get very, very sick for "little" reason I also get deathly ill within hours.

something medically documented like that should qualify you for fmla leave (assuming you're in the u.s.). you may want to have a chat with your doctor and with your company's hr department. absences under fmla are supposed to be tracked and documented differently than other absences, and shouldn't be counted against you.

do people abuse this? yes, and it sucks. i'm covered myself due to chronic debilitating migraines, but i never use fmla leave unless absolutely necessary. if i have a cold or the flu, or i just want a day off, i'll use a regular sick day or a personal day. i have seen people however that use it for every absence, even when i'm fairly certain the absence doesn't qualify. however, we can't really do anything about it, because once a medical condition has been documented and approved to be covered under fmla, punishing someone for using that leave can be seen as discriminatory.

[AirHostess]

I once phoned in sick as my acne had flared up and I had a huge infected spot. (Nice) Working for an airline that was a valid reason not to work!

[Andara Bledin]

I used to be really, really bad about punctuality and absenteeism at my job. I've been there for over a decade, and it's a really laid back place, so I got really lax about it all.

They'd had talks with me, but since I do so much for them, and I put up with what are undeniably low wages for the work I do, they've let it go for the most part. But this January I was thinking about not really having anything to resolve and it hit me that I could make a resolution to be on time and not call in so much. Lia (the Lady in accounting) really appreciates the effort I'm making to be a better employee. I've actually gotten a raise since then.

Anyway, our company policy is that you accrue sick leave and vacation leave based on how much time you spend at work. For a 40-hour week, I get about .93 hours of sick time and nearly 3 hours vacation. Everybody gets the same amount of sick time, but I've been there so long, that I accrue about 4 weeks of vacation time over the course of a year. Plus, Lia tries to have at least 9 paid holiday days every year. Some years we only get 8, some we get 10.

If you run out of sick time, they used to let us go negative, but I guess people were abusing it. (I wasn't one of them; I would either ask to use vacation time, or just not get anything for being out) They will usually let us use vacation time instead of sick time, and if we have sick time at the end of the year, we get paid for it.

As for sick days, I'm the type that will get miserably sick for a single day, and if I sleep through it, I'm almost completely fine the next day.

.... um... I had a point somewhere....

Oh, a fun fact: By the time you're showing symptoms, you're pretty much no longer contageous and everybody that was going to catch what you've got already has it.

^-.-^

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

'cause I don't want to get sick too?

'Cause sick people don't work very fast or efficiently?

'Cause they're around food?

'Cause I wouldn't go to an emergency room until I was afraid of dying, and the same with most people, who don't have insurance because the company keeps them as part time?

'Cause once a year or so, something happens in my life that requires a mental health day, and I either need to take care of emergency shite, or stay in my room and cry?

'Cause shite happens?

'Cause people have priorities, and there's stuff in the world that's more important than Target or K-Mart?

Not to be smartass, but that's how it is. I call in maybe 2 times a year. Sometimes a person needs to remind themselves that there is a world outside Targmart.

[Aressel]

Quote:

Oh, your best friends cousins brothers sisters former roommate died?

What does that make us? What does that make us?

Absolutely Nothing!