What do you think of co-workers that are always calling in sick?

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y2kc

Platinum Member
Sep 2, 2000
2,547
0
76
What's the difference between taking days off and wasting time posting on internet forums all day (while at work)?

Hmmm...
 

dabuddha

Lifer
Apr 10, 2000
19,579
17
81
Originally posted by: TheAudit
Originally posted by: Amused
Originally posted by: TheAudit
I wouldn't care. If they can get away with it then more power to them.

Even if your workload doubles on those days?

Sure. You or whomever is doing it, right?
Complain to management if it's a problem.
They are doing it, if it was an issue someone would say something and they would stop or find other employment.

You don't work, do you?
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
18
81
They call them "PTO, Personal Time Off" at my work. Which means, you don't really have to be sick to take off. I haven't heard them called "sick days" in a long time. Although a lot of people are trying to get a 3 day weekend, people have other reasons for taking off work other than being sick.
 

Grey

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 1999
2,737
2
81
Same here, sick days and vacation days are combined into personal time off. You don't need any prerequisite to use them. You give notice of vacation weeks though.
 

mchammer187

Diamond Member
Nov 26, 2000
9,114
0
76
i dont see what you are complaining about

if these people are alotted sick days and then punished when they use them why even give them to them in the first place

i can understand 3 consecutive days thing but other than that i see no other restrictions

if you don't want your employees doing this give them LESS sick days

but don't say oh one of the great benefits of working here is you get 12 sick days a year and then reprimand people for taking them
 

Silverbullet28

Senior member
Jul 4, 2000
666
0
0
Originally posted by: trmiv
They call them "PTO, Personal Time Off" at my work. Which means, you don't really have to be sick to take off. I haven't heard them called "sick days" in a long time. Although a lot of people are trying to get a 3 day weekend, people have other reasons for taking off work other than being sick.

That is the same thing they do where I work. We don't have sick/vacation days, we just accumulate PTO.
 

geecee

Platinum Member
Jan 14, 2003
2,383
43
91
What do you think of co-workers that are always calling in sick?

Where I work, if it really is excessive, I won't have to think about them for very long as they won't be one of my co-workers for very long.
 

Toasthead

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
6,621
0
0
If there isi no policy against it, there isnt much you can do. It sucks but oh well. (we have a lot of that here too)
 

CChaos

Golden Member
Mar 4, 2003
1,586
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Personally I take alot of sick days but as my work never suffers (it gets very slow here) I couldn't care less. Frankly, I think my manager would have a tough time calling me on it because I often have literally nothing to do.
 

Kyteland

Diamond Member
Dec 30, 2002
5,747
1
81
Originally posted by: kranky
Originally posted by: Triforceofcourage
Originally posted by: kranky
People in my group who take more than 5 sick days a year on Mondays and/or Fridays get a little talk from me about their ability to do the job. If it continues, it affects their evaluation in the areas of Integrity, Commitment, and Teamwork. Those are three of the five main areas so it has a big impact.

I don't look at the total number of sick days used as much as the number of different times they are claiming to be sick.


taking 6 sick days in a years span is nothing. You must be a real ass to repremand employees for 6 days. Get a hobby buddy and leave your employees alone. I rarely if almost never take sick days and if I am sick I usuallly come in but if you have them to use why let them go to waste.

Thanks for the career advice, but in my experience people who miss 5 or more Mondays/Fridays are not always sick, they just want a long weekend without using a vacation day. There are five work days in a week, and the chance that someone only is sick on either a Monday or a Friday creates suspicion. The vacation policy is extremely generous plus we get 13 paid holidays a year, so it's not like they can't use a vacation day if they want a long weekend.
This reminds me of a Dilbert strip.

Boss: "My secretary has informed me that 40% of all sick days are taken either on Monday or Friday."
Intern: "Hahahahahaaaaa! He's not serious right?"
Boss: "This disturbing trend had better not continue."

Yeah, only Scott Adams made it a whole lot funnier.

The point being your boss can tell the difference between you being sick and you abusing the sick leave policy.
 

PanzerIV

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2002
6,875
1
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We work our lives away anyway so if somebody wants to take a sick day off and they aren't really sick then so be it. We have the least amount of vacation days of any industrialized nation as it is. Calling in every week is one thing but the occassional phony sick day throughout the year doesn't bother me.
 

CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
5
0
I don't like people who always call in sick.... I only get 3 days a year, and I rarely use all 3.
 

welst10

Platinum Member
Mar 2, 2004
2,562
1
0
My company fired one 2 yrs ago for calling in sick too often, even though we have "unlimited" sick days.
 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,844
1,049
126
if it really bothers you, tell HR of the pattern. It actually affects your ability to perform your duties.
 

Anonemous

Diamond Member
May 19, 2003
7,361
1
71
It depends on the boss/company. Usually I get 8-9 hours of sick leave a month. If I don't use it, it'll disappear and I don't get reimbursed for it. That's why I use my sick days near holidays. But these ppl taking off on Mondays/Fri every week must've built up alot of sick days...
 

Arkitech

Diamond Member
Apr 13, 2000
8,356
4
76
Originally posted by: PanzerIV
We work our lives away anyway so if somebody wants to take a sick day off and they aren't really sick then so be it. We have the least amount of vacation days of any industrialized nation as it is. Calling in every week is one thing but the occassional phony sick day throughout the year doesn't bother me.

I kinda agree with this. I normally don't take sick days unless I'm really sick but I can understand why someone would want to use the occasional sick day even if they really are'nt. The only drawback I see to that is if someone else is forced to cover for you.
 

Mandos

Banned
May 20, 2004
1,478
0
0
This girl that just started here a few months ago has already called off 5 or 6 times. She isn't here today either. Iunno, I've only called off once in my 10 months of being here, and I was geniunely sick.
 

Wuffsunie

Platinum Member
May 4, 2002
2,808
0
0
I'd be getting ticked off at them, too. Definetly something to complain to management/HR about.

As for those who says it's none of the person's business, they're dead wrong. As soon as you become responsible for picking up the slack of these other people, it becomes your business. You're all of a sudden doing twice the work for the same pay and no thanks. It's not your responsibility to carry anyone else's lazy ass in a company. To pick up extra work when there's legitimate reasons to do so, that's one thing, but to have to do it because the coworker just does not want to come in that day (yet again), that's a whole other matter.
 

mchammer187

Diamond Member
Nov 26, 2000
9,114
0
76
Originally posted by: welst10
My company fired one 2 yrs ago for calling in sick too often, even though we have "unlimited" sick days.

that is alright if they clearly abused the "umlimited" sick day rule

imo if you have accrued sick days that you can either use or lose i sure as hell am going to use them
 

300MDemon

Senior member
Jun 10, 2004
348
0
0
Originally posted by: Amused
My employees must have a Dr's note for any sick day past 3 days a year.

Sick days are not there to give employees 3 day weekends. They are there if you get sick. When I notice a pattern in an otherwise healthy employee, they lose my trust and must prove to me they are sick.

This is why I'm glad I moved to a company with simply PTO instead of categorizing everything into sick days, personal days, vacation days. This way you can be absent for whatever the hell you want without having to lie about being sick.
 

phreakah

Platinum Member
Feb 9, 2002
2,883
0
76
there is a girl that works here who is in LOVE with her cats...... she uses the following excuses pretty often:

my cat turned off my alarm
my cat threw up i have to stay with him
and then other times she'll just use the stupid oh, sore throat, upset stomach excuses to get by....

everyone knows she's lying whenever she calls in sick
 

shopbruin

Diamond Member
Jul 12, 2000
5,817
0
0
i'm always suspicious of people who do it on a friday or a monday, because most of the time they are just extending their weekend. i usually get annoyed because i wind up having to cover their crap, and that's when they discover how freaking behind they were, and now i have to do my usual monday workload, which is pretty heavy, along with theirs, AND try to make up all the crap they didn't do yet.

i mean once, fine, everybody does it. but if i notice you do it every other week or every three weeks and there is a semi distinct pattern, something has got to be up.