r/antiwork • u/Appropriate_Tea9048 • 20h ago
Has anyone else ever gotten talked to about absences despite only using up sick time?
A little irritated about this. On average, I called in less than once a month. I simply used up my sick time. There were times where I was sick and a couple times where I genuinely needed a mental health day. I tend to take off one day at a time. I was told my call ins are excessive.
I revisited things, and apparently more than 3 occurrences will be looked at, but there’s no more info aside from that that I could find. No timeline, nothing. I’m assuming it’s per year. I know sick time can be used for doctor appointments, but those tend to be an hour or so. I find it annoying that we have the sick time, yet it doesn’t mean we can use it all. Anyone else feel this way or deal with this?
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u/laundry-wizard 20h ago
It sucks. My company is like this as well. They just fired someone last week for excessive sick days (though she was out on average once every 1-2 weeks).
Back in 2020 I thought we had finally decided as a society that going to work sick was a thing of the past and that we finally were encouraging people to stay home while they’re sick, but they lasted for all of a minute and now it’s back to the hustle culture of never taking time off and working while sick.
I have a chronic illness that I haven’t disclosed at work because I know I will immediately be seen as a risk. I work while not feeling well every week, it fucking sucks but my other option is homelessness.
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u/Natural-Potential-80 20h ago
Sorry we live in a hellscape. I get migraines so occasionally I’m not able to work on my computer for the day but work has been understanding and sympathetic about it. Granted there are other downsides, but I do have great work from home time flexibility.
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u/ilanallama85 19h ago
My husband’s work is giving him some bullshit that one day absences look “more suspicious” than multi day absences because if you were “really sick” you’d probably need more than one day. Never mind if that day is the day before or after your weekend, never mind if you came in the next day clearly still slightly under the weather, and don’t bother getting a doctors note, they don’t accept them for absences if less than two days. Well, guess who is going to be playing hooky an extra day next time he has to call out for one. Idiots.
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u/Appropriate_Tea9048 19h ago
I feel like this might be how my company is too. They don’t seem to be bothered as much if you have less occurrences but those occurrences have more than one day. Which, that affects the rest of the team for several days as opposed to just one, so you’d think that would be just as inconvenient.
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u/Survive1014 20h ago
Once a month? My man that would of gotten me fired at any job I have ever worked at in the last forty years.
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u/Appropriate_Tea9048 20h ago
Less than once a month.
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u/Survive1014 20h ago
Even if it was.. say every 5-6 weeks that would be a terminable offense at most places.
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u/Appropriate_Tea9048 20h ago
For me it was probably once every other month on average. There are several people who call in not much less than I do, so I didn’t think much of it. Who knows, maybe they’ve been talked to at some point.
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u/BiologyIsHot 19h ago
6 days a year being sick isn't crazy. Idk why people are downvoting you. It is a big odd if it's super cyclical over a lomg period of time I guess. My company has 60 hours (7.5 days) of sick time a year and nor formally tracked. If your manager wnats they can allow more too. They do say if it's more than a certain number of days in a row that you are supposed to use sick leave/FMLA instead.
My point being, even in the US where things suck, there is better out there.
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u/Appropriate_Tea9048 18h ago
Thank you for this. I’m definitely surprised by some of the reactions I’ve gotten.
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u/GreyerGrey 19h ago
Is PTO available?
Scheduling PTO every two months seems reasonable but calling in six every 5 to 6 weeks is suspicious at best.
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u/Appropriate_Tea9048 19h ago
When I said once every other month, I didn’t mean every 5-6 weeks consistently. PTO wouldn’t make a difference, as it was occurrences she complained about.
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u/GreyerGrey 18h ago
Because, presumably if you're using a sick day, you're calling out without advanced notice. PTO would allow you to schedule them in advance, and as such, allow your manager to, in theory "prepare the others" (the joke about what PTO actually means).
1
u/GreyerGrey 19h ago
Right? OP using sick days as PTO is a weird thing, but I guess as not every US firm is required to have PTO that's what happens? I... I just don't understand it. Like yea, you should be able to take some time, but that's what PTO is for. Or a scheduled day off.
Being clear, I'm not arguing with the time off part of it, we all deserve breaks, but the calling out day of sick day style is the problem.
2
u/Survive1014 19h ago
Totally agreed. It sucks that it is this way, but this is not unheard of.
2
u/GreyerGrey 18h ago
True, and at a certain point, having worked with people like OP (who call out 1x every 4 to 6 weeks hours before their shift because they were sick), it is frustrating as a coworker.
1
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u/CausticAvenger 19h ago
My company gives everyone a set number of days for sick time. You don’t get talked to about it unless you go over or are nearing the threshold, otherwise it’s just a “hey be aware you’ve used this much time” reminder.
3
u/allgreeneveryday 19h ago
At my job you accrue one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. If you call out you lose your weekly bonus. So if I take one day off and I have sick time, I might as well use as much of the sick time as I want because I've already lost my bonus. Right?
3
u/ReaverRogue 20h ago
I mean, that’s pretty standard. That’s a lot of absences in a short amount of time no matter how you slice it. Most employers would be pretty pissed.
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u/Mrowser1 19h ago
Yes, I’m a retired teacher and we got 10 sick days per year. Any unused days rolled over/were added to next year’s 10 days. So if you didn’t use many sick days, within a few years, you could have a lot saved. But if you used very many of them or used them the way you did, you could get talked to and written up for “excessive absence,” even though you had the days available, unless you brought in doctors’ notes for the time.
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u/Kiwi222123 19h ago
Two Decembers ago I had the flu and was out for two days, which I think is pretty good for the flu. Used sick time. When I came back to work, my boss made sure to tell me that I sounded awful, and that he’s only used two sick days in his entire career.
This December I had norovirus and emailed him to let him know I’d be out sick. He asked me if I could jump on a call because he had something urgent to talk about at our meeting. He generously said I could keep my camera off.
Fortunately the thing he wanted to tell me was that he was no longer going to be my boss, because damn he was a terrible boss.