the real problem has been peoples fear of taking sick days at all tbh - ThreadSky

darthbluesky.bsky.social • 534 days ago

the real problem has been peoples fear of taking sick days at all tbh

Good.

Comments

YES https://open.substack.com/pub/indignity/p/mr-wrong-in-sickness-and-in-health?r=1yhcd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

rorigreen.bsky.social•534 days ago

My pharmacist bro would get a negative write-up on his file if he took more than 3 sick days in a certain amount of time (months... a year?). He won't take them because of this.

Crazy

smphelan.bsky.social•534 days ago

Or vacation.

quijohn.bsky.social•534 days ago

At my current job we have “unlimited” sick and vacation days.

During the hiring process the HR screener straight up told me this was a scam that ends up getting people to take less time off because of our inherent guilt conditioned into us, and he told me not to fall for it.

anspoka.cz•534 days ago

When I was looking for a new job, I looked at listings claiming this benefit and avoided them because I suspected it goes exactly like this. Thank you for confirming

pdxpup.bsky.social•534 days ago

That person is right and they're a hero for telling you not to fall for it, hahaha.

travbot.bsky.social•534 days ago

100%

stevepaskvalich.bsky.social•534 days ago

I got an eye problem. I can’t see working today.

hansfaffing.bsky.social•534 days ago

And these articles are stoking the “prove you’re not lying” bullshit of before
Too many jobs already require doctor’s notes…

frostbitefox.bsky.social•534 days ago

The last time my boss asked for a doctors note, the urgent care doctor printed it out and I took a shakycam picture of it up against EKG leads pouring out from under my shirt. I haven't been asked for one since.

hansfaffing.bsky.social•534 days ago

Lol whew

drakehusky.bsky.social•534 days ago

I take em when needed like this week where my neck and back have been giving me headaches and a migraine. Have had to get doctors notes and there a pain and get charged for em.

frostbitefox.bsky.social•534 days ago

Honestly if your work has any way for you to remit things for them to pay, send them that. Since they specifically asked for it. You shouldn't have to pay for that crap.

drakehusky.bsky.social•534 days ago

Here in Canada unfortunately we have to pay for them, so it makes it more sour when they ask for a note.

stonewolf.bsky.social•534 days ago

Nobody here asks, they know it takes weeks to see a doctor in some places so why bother

hansfaffing.bsky.social•534 days ago

Same day for non-emergency is not feasible in any place. It is just a way for employers to dissuade and pressure workers to work sick

rinzy.art•534 days ago

Even when you can see one that day, your co-pay might be too high, your insurance might make you hit a deductible first, or you might have to go to an urgent care out-of-network :/

stonewolf.bsky.social•534 days ago

Oh it's free at point of use (taxpayer funded) here, it's just deliberately mismanaged by the vulture capitalists running the country who want to sell it off.

We take sick days when we're sick but skip the doctor unless it's serious/needs medicating.

rinzy.art•534 days ago

Oh yeah, no, ours is fucked up enough that you *might* be able to get a psychiatrist to write you a note that your day gone was for your mental health, but it'll be months before you can get in, you need a referral from a GP for insurance to cover it, and your work may still not see it as valid :/

goodcitizen.bsky.social•534 days ago

Productivity is up, darth. *sigh*

goodcitizen.bsky.social•534 days ago

Many bosses have a very antiquated view of work and growth in the workplace, I try very hard not to be but I have no control over my superiors…who apparently may have read this.

sugarcubedog.bsky.social•534 days ago

My Dad took so few sick days throughout his teaching career that he only earned one extra year of pay when he retired.

sugarcubedog.bsky.social•534 days ago

That was the max they could pay him. He earned far more than that.

flycuttlefish.bsky.social•534 days ago

I get legit panic attacks if I call in sick. Like, I've been told off by friends and family while I'm so sick that I can't get outta bed because I feel so bad for calling out.

Nobody should ever be made to feel guilty for calling out. Take the sick day. Take care of YOURSELF.

soobeeinny.bsky.social•534 days ago

Whaddayamean?! What about all those wonderful companies who went to "unlimited (let's see if anylists actually take it)" sick and vacation days?! So great *headdesk*

formicadinette.bsky.social•534 days ago

Thinking back to the job where my taking sick time for an onslaught of sinus issues caused a major rift between my boss and me even though I was a high performer (I'd been promoted into the role at her request), never had any urgent work, was frequently not busy.

afrobatic.bsky.social•534 days ago

And the system reinforcing that through nonpaid sick days.

darthbluesky.bsky.social•534 days ago

and that is squarely on the bosses tbh

seecat42.bsky.social•534 days ago

It’s crazy bosses prefer sick people coming in. Do you really want me to hack a lung up on Chad?

flannerywynn.bsky.social•534 days ago

I have musculoskeletal issues, diagnosed and had to go to physical therapy over just to alleviate (not even get rid of). There are days where the pain I feel is so severe it hurts to so much as lay in bed. You can imagine how happy bosses are about that.

youinthebushes.bsky.social•534 days ago

Well and like, weird fact that apparently only some people know: illnesses are contagious. So if one sick employee comes in then other employees become sick. This is actually less productive than letting somebody take a few damned days off.

bjscreek.bsky.social•534 days ago

And because just about every office has an “open floor plan”, those germs travel FAR and WIDE!

jillblacksheep.bsky.social•534 days ago

My entire team has been hacking this week & I’m ok only because I have an office away from them. 10 people in a room fit for 5-6.

letseatnachos.bsky.social•534 days ago

I will never forget being forced to come into work on a New Year's Eve with a very obvious case of flu, and then they had the audacity to get mad at me after the entire office caught the flu from me even though I tried to tell them

thecactuarmatt.bsky.social•533 days ago

Managers are dipshits

letseatnachos.bsky.social•533 days ago

honestly wasn't even the managers in this case. it was the owners. the managers were advocating for me to go home because they didn't want to get sick (they got sick) but the owners demanded all hands on deck so my flu was everyone's problem

thecactuarmatt.bsky.social•533 days ago

When COVID first started but before we'd had a case in Indiana, one of my co-workers walked in with a mask on because they had some sort of upper respiratory illness, probably also the flu. I, despite having no actual authority, sent him home.

2xaught7.bsky.social•534 days ago

YES. Exactly this.

snickelfritz.bsky.social•534 days ago

I had a guy call in once. his excuse "Have you looked outside? I can't work on a day a nice as this"

barbsgarden.bsky.social•534 days ago

I called those "vitamin D deficiency " days. Took the dog to the dog park

snickelfritz.bsky.social•534 days ago

I call them mental health days

wishfulexpat.bsky.social•534 days ago

I know I was afraid to take them. I went down with the flu and my husband pretty much had to carry me to the doctor. And I am 100% certain my boss thought I was making it up.

mrsalakleguin.bsky.social•534 days ago

I used to work for a healthcare system and got yelled at if I took more than two sick days in a row. Also got yelled at if I came to work sick.

klingonpopwarrior.com•534 days ago

If employees calling in sick more often is a really hurting the bottom line, 10000000% of the time that means that they don't have enough employees to do the work they need done.
And that's probably far less hyperbolic than it's supposed to be.

eddytheaxe.bsky.social•534 days ago

There go those americans thinking they invented everything again..

gooddoggoodmom.bsky.social•534 days ago

How many times we all went to work through thick and thin and fought being sick while at work because we were always expected to work.
We even had a joke about “calling in dead.” ☠️ ☎️

swojack.bsky.social•534 days ago

Yeah, the metro and bus ads telling us to stay home if we felt sick to protect others always used to piss me the fuck off. Those signs seemed like they were just there to insult anyone who works because they have bills to pay.

fwordleproblems.bsky.social•534 days ago

i am not scared darth i am brave enough to stay home sick any day of the week

fwordleproblems.bsky.social•534 days ago

maybe i will go home right now, maybe i am developing a headache we will see

jenface.bsky.social•534 days ago

Yep. When I had covid summer 2021 it was busy at work so I just soldiered through it 🥴

josephusbrown.bsky.social•534 days ago

My god, right? and if you’re a boss you should want people to not come in sick and make more people sick! There is *no way* the actual productivity loss of an employee being gone for two days is more than the total loss of productivity if two thirds of the office gets sick too.

bexone.bsky.social•534 days ago

Also even if you’re positing that your sick employee doesn’t share a single virus with anyone else in the office, what’s worse for productivity: that guy out for two days to rest and recover or that guy feeling lingeringly shitty and working at 50% of normal for a week or longer?

rimrunner.bsky.social•534 days ago

My last boss was great that way. We got paid sick leave (which everyone should have!) and worked in a library with literally thousands of people coming through every day. If anything was going around someone would catch it. She actively encouraged people to call off when sick.

smilner.bsky.social•534 days ago

I will look my boss in the eye and say, "I'm going to have a sore throat on Monday," but I realize that I can only do that because I have been at my job for over 10 years, and it's more of a career than a job.

josephusbrown.bsky.social•534 days ago

Far cry from those stories of HR departments angry that nearly 40% of absences are on fridays and Mondays

heyblue.bsky.social•534 days ago

40% of all days in the workweek are Fridays and Mondays

smilner.bsky.social•534 days ago

Big if true

smilner.bsky.social•534 days ago

I work in a brewery, which is sort of food services, and the supervisors here are very clear that we neither need nor want your snivelly sneezy asses here if you've got a real issue.

There's also a tacit understanding that asses will drag on Monday mornings, especially if Buffalo has a late game.

reynoldswrap.bsky.social•534 days ago

I've been with the same organization for 20+ years. They encourage us to take "I'm feeling great" days. Does wonders for morale.

josephusbrown.bsky.social•534 days ago

There’s a bit in a Tom Robbins book where a character calls in well to work, saying “I’ve felt terrible every day I’ve been there and today I feel great so I’m not coming in.”

rolypolynori.bsky.social•534 days ago

Unpaid days off due to Covid = people coming in to work even tho contagious, to pay the bills.

blowdart.me•534 days ago

I’ll say one good thing about msft and the “unlimited time off” it really is like that, at least with my management chain. My Covid lasted for two weeks and people would shout at me for answering IMs.

sagebiel.bsky.social•534 days ago

@charles-ex.bsky.social

cestlah.bsky.social•534 days ago

Darth, I wish everyone had access to union representation. I took a sick day Tuesday because I was sick and didn’t give it a second thought.

mikethemadbiol.bsky.social•534 days ago

And:

youinthebushes.bsky.social•534 days ago

"I think if someone takes a sick day they should be fired. Sick days are a benefit, not for using. Also all medical appointments should be on personal time. Take a vacation day if they won't see you after work hours." - the natural evolution of that article

iwilk.bsky.social•534 days ago

Darth I only learned a couple years ago I can use a sick day for a scheduled doctor or dentist visit. Honestly didn't know I could do that.

thebarbarienne.bsky.social•534 days ago

My staff were mostly older folk who I inherited (a bunch retired in the last 3 years), and they were all like, "I'm afraid I'll get fired if I take too many sick days."

And I was like, "I will murder all your previous managers if it will MAKE YOU TAKE A DAMN DAY OFF WHEN YOU NEED ONE."

coxitron.com•534 days ago

The bosses are having a tough time guys

kinokosaur.bsky.social•534 days ago

I legit had a manager at a previous job try to tell me I should come in when having a migraine because migraines aren't contagious. Okay, so you want me clutching my head in pain and vomiting all over the office, got it. Thankfully, this person wasn't my boss and my actual boss stepped in.

pyrholidon.bsky.social•534 days ago

We need to be able to use "I'm too high to work" as a legitimate excuse to call off.

yoboseiyo.bsky.social•534 days ago

i have had coworkers use that excuse. the bosses were like "know what? fair. enjoy your night."

robertus.bsky.social•534 days ago

I read Pedro Pietri's "Telephone Booth (number 905 1/2)" in college and that basically carved my work philosophy in stone

lizardry.bsky.social•534 days ago

I vividly remember one of my coworkers calling in because her daughter went into labor and the weekend supervisor told her no, she wasn't allowed to because there had already been call-ins. And SHE CAME IN. Missed her grandchild being born.

yoboseiyo.bsky.social•534 days ago

fuck. that.

funkyroc.bsky.social•534 days ago

unironically did this once and it was my best decision in a while

i woke up late for a shift and called in a lil panic, letting them know that i got their calls and texts, but i wasn't even dressed and i was too stressed to speak full sentences

taking a rest day was better for my mental health

funkyroc.bsky.social•534 days ago

it is really weird tho at every other job i've worked

if you're sick and stay home everyone's mad you're not there
if you're sick and work anyway, everyone's mad you're spreading it

if you try to use PTO for a vacation your managers keep asking "are you sure?"

there's no winning, only working

thecaseface.bsky.social•534 days ago

one time I had a job that separated it’s vacation days from it’s sick days, and I always thought that was at least a step in the right direction darth.
the pay was very bad, but at least I didn’t have to choose being sick and burnout.

cpo10za.bsky.social•534 days ago

As a kid, I had a friend whose parents let her stay home from school when she wasn’t feeling it. Most parents were aghast, but it was a good policy of a mental health day, rather than having the kid fake sick. The occasional time off didn’t hurt her grades, & taught her to prioritize mental health.

raspberry2022.bsky.social•534 days ago

I give my son 1 guaranteed mental health day each semester that he knows about. He's not actually limited to just 1, but if given the option, he would never go to school, lol.

bexone.bsky.social•534 days ago

If I wasn’t obviously externally symptomatic, I had to get up, get dressed, and eat breakfast. At which point I was free to decide I still felt like not going to school.

garethlpowell.bsky.social•534 days ago

Innit

katanaangel.bsky.social•534 days ago

Darth I'm currently dealing with this right now, and a boss who gave me a condescending speech when I was stepping out.

ivalaine.bsky.social•534 days ago

My workplace implemented a new leave policy. We have 10 days a year sick/personal/carers leave. But if you take more than twice in a year they wanted proof. Or if it was a mon or fri. Its so silly. The old rule of >2 days at a time have sick cert was enough.