Planning sick days off

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

spen666

Legendary Member
simoncc said:
One of the odd developments in the workplaces I've been at recently is the post sickie interview. My current employer calls these 'welcome back' interviews even if you've only been off for one day.

Just what is the point of them?

They make it less pleasant to take a day off if you are not ill as you have to facelying your way through the interview

However- in your case it is probably the BBC's fault
 
I think you people need to get better jobs. I jump out of bed every morning raring to go. The idea of pulling a sickie never crosses my mind.

No wonder this country is going to the dogs etc.
 

yorkshiregoth

Master of all he surveys
Location
Heathrow
we have to endure a "return to work interview" and we are given items for days off. If you exceed the items (5 shifts in 26 weeks) you get a level one warning. The third warning is the final one and ones P45 normally follows.
 

Pete

Guest
I'm in two minds about this. Personally (let the 'Victor Meldrew' taunts come flying my way!) I loathe people who milk the system, I have no time for them, don't do that sort of thing myself, ever (last time I was off sick - for three days - was after I face-planted and honestly couldn't have been any use at work). But - I have recollections as to how nasty an employer can behave towards sickies.

Two anecdotes:
1) A colleague went on a sickie for about two months: allegedly 'work related stress'. Well, I suffer from that at times, I don't go on sickies though, I try to keep going. Anyway, this guy was unavailable at the time it was his duty to approve and accept a piece of software done for us by an outside contractor. Since he wasn't available, it fell to our IT techie to approve the software in his place. Trouble was, the IT techie was apparently a personal buddy of the outside contractor, and he approved the package, and authorised payment, without even looking at it. The package is a load of crap and we have never used it since. I've often thought, I ought to have tried to get both guys strung up on a Disciplinary, or even gone outside the company to the police, but I know I'd have been wasting my effort. Anyway, that little episode has coloured my general opinion of sickies.

2) On the other hand, at a different place, a small company I used to work for, where, with a small workforce, the company used to be hurt badly by too many sickies: the boss invented an interesting ploy. Whenever anyone phoned in sick, he used to dispatch his secretary to buy a bunch of flowers and then proceed unannounced to the invalid's house. And then report back as to whether anyone answered the door! I don't know what the follow-up was - I thought the whole thing was rather mean-spirited - but nevertheless ;):tongue::biggrin:.

Be warned!
 

simoncc

New Member
spen666 said:
They make it less pleasant to take a day off if you are not ill as you have to facelying your way through the interview

However- in your case it is probably the BBC's fault

No, in your case it's probably the BBC's fault. I expect you take sickies so you can catch up on missed episodes of Eastenders and Top Gear.
 

bonj2

Guest
Abitrary said:
One of the things that got me thinking about this, was going abroad on holiday with a mate.

When he got there the first thing he did was ring in sick to work???? He made himself look all moany and fragile, rang in, did a heartfelt 'phewwwww...', and then it was like 'are the bars open yet?'

surely making himself LOOK all moany and fragile isn't going to help - he needs to make himself SOUND all moany and fragile?

simoncc said:
One of the odd developments in the workplaces I've been at recently is the post sickie interview. My current employer calls these 'welcome back' interviews even if you've only been off for one day.

Just what is the point of them?

Beauracracy - that's the public sector for you.

Pete said:
2) On the other hand, at a different place, a small company I used to work for, where, with a small workforce, the company used to be hurt badly by too many sickies: the boss invented an interesting ploy. Whenever anyone phoned in sick, he used to dispatch his secretary to buy a bunch of flowers and then proceed unannounced to the invalid's house. And then report back as to whether anyone answered the door! I don't know what the follow-up was - I thought the whole thing was rather mean-spirited - but nevertheless ;):tongue::biggrin:.

Be warned!

If the company suffered 'cos people kept phoning in sick all the time, it can't have been the sort of company where people enjoyed working. Most small companies don't have this problem. He probably would have done well to treat the cause, rather than the symptom!
 

mr_hippo

Living Legend & Old Fart
Pete said:
1) A colleague went on a sickie for about two months: allegedly 'work related stress'...

Is this the new phrase for 'lazyitis? If you are suffering from 'work related stress' - you probably can't do the job so change it!
 
mr_hippo said:
..... 'work related stress' - you probably can't do the job so change it!

I dunno; I often think that expectations these days are unrealistic. Phrases like 'giving a 110%', 'exceed expectations' along with personal development goals etc... etc.. put both false expectations and false promises in place. So you end up being expected to continually exceed what you've done before on the promise of a reward which never materializes. The only thing it does it set you up for a fall because eventually everyone knows they can't achieve the objectives and finds a way out in advance but still pay lip service to the goals whilst piling pressure on everyone below to try and achieve them. That way when the doo hits the fan they can wash their hands in public.

Well that's my cynical view anyway and its this that often spoils anotherwise enjoyable job.
 

Pete

Guest
bonj said:
If the company suffered 'cos people kept phoning in sick all the time, it can't have been the sort of company where people enjoyed working. Most small companies don't have this problem. He probably would have done well to treat the cause, rather than the symptom!
Wanna bet? You can't force people to 'enjoy their work', no matter what. And you can't force people to 'snap out of it' when under stress. Anyway, as I said, not my problem, mate. I do have work related issues, yes, now, and I also had them with that particular employer (this was 30 years ago mind). I don't, and didn't, evade them by throwing sickies, that's all.

mr_hippo said:
Is this the new phrase for 'lazyitis? If you are suffering from 'work related stress' - you probably can't do the job so change it!
Wanna bet? Don't know how things are round your way, chum, but over here, the 'perfect' job isn't always there on a plate...
 

Speicher

Vice Admiral
Moderator
On a very serious note. Watch out if you decide to take a Friday and a Monday as a sicky - false or otherwise. I did this for genuine reasons a few years ago. Employers count the Saturday and Sunday as "sick leave" even if you don't normally work at the weekend, this effectively doubles the amount of sick days you have taken, in that example.

I had also had a complete week off sick (with a doctor's note) and when they incorrectly calculated my sick leave over 13 months instead of 12, and added in the four weekends, I was in Big Trouble ;). They were adamant I had taken 17 days "un-certificated" leave. :tongue: I tried not to point out that they could not even count to twelve, never mind keep accurate records.:wacko:
 

Plax

Guru
Location
Wales
Crackle said:
I dunno; I often think that expectations these days are unrealistic. Phrases like 'giving a 110%', 'exceed expectations' along with personal development goals etc... etc.. put both false expectations and false promises in place. So you end up being expected to continually exceed what you've done before on the promise of a reward which never materializes. The only thing it does it set you up for a fall because eventually everyone knows they can't achieve the objectives and finds a way out in advance but still pay lip service to the goals whilst piling pressure on everyone below to try and achieve them. That way when the doo hits the fan they can wash their hands in public.

Well that's my cynical view anyway and its this that often spoils anotherwise enjoyable job.

Here here. The company I work for has just been bought out. The new company has tried to brainwash us with all these silly vision statements and stuff (Like one of the things in the personal developement review is to "Live and breathe XXXXX" (Where XXXXX is the name of the company). I mean what the eff. It's a load of b*ll*cks, I'm not living and breathing XXXX when they just have the shareholders interests at heart, and if push comes to shove I'm a dispossable "asset". They've also brought out a new "bonus" scheme which sets you up to fail with unrealistic goals and they are using it to try and get rid of the annual salary review where you get at least the rate of inflation.

Anyway enough of that rant. I never used to take any time off sick regardless of how ill I was. Now I fully utilise the sick pay, as I don't like this new companies mantra (I am looking for a new job, just nothing suitable has turned up yet). I had a bad cold & cough a few months ago, and took 3 days off. I used the time effectively to order a new bike on the internet, and didn't go back in to work until it had safely arrived.
 

bonj2

Guest
Pete said:
Wanna bet? You can't force people to 'enjoy their work', no matter what. And you can't force people to 'snap out of it' when under stress.[/ Anyway, as I said, not my problem, mate. I do have work related issues, yes, now, and I also had them with that particular employer (this was 30 years ago mind). I don't, and didn't, evade them by throwing sickies, that's all.
You can't force people to enjoy their work, but you can often make it enjoyable - i.e. at least the work's ABLE to be enjoyed. This obviously depends on the nature of the business though - for instance, there's only a certain amount of job satisfaction you can give to someone who's job it is to sweep shoot out of pig stys, for instance.

Pete said:
Wanna bet? Don't know how things are round your way, chum, but over here, the 'perfect' job isn't always there on a plate...

It's never there on a plate, you have to look for it. As I've done.
 

Johnny Thin

New Member
Should you have to be sick at weekends though, or when on holiday? I am just dropping out of an audax tomorrow not because I'm ill but because I'm not well enough to risk the exertion. So should I go into work on Monday when I've spent the weekend moping around the house and missed my fun?
 
Top Bottom