Ok so I have a question and I’m interested to know everyone’s reasons . So we have all had sickies from time to time , but we have also been sick or would like a “mental health day” but then we chicken out and don’t bother .
Why do we not bother ?
My reason is I don’t want to make the daunting phone call to the boss , what’s your reason ?
Calling in drunk always reminds me of a Rodney Carrington sick call excuse I once heard… (NSFW link)
I'm not one to chicken out. I'll duck out if I'm feeling foul. And if my boss gives me a spray it's water off a back.
gives me a spray it's water off a back.
I expect no less from a duck!
I'm not a dishonest person.
Your personal morality should not be linked to the morality of others. There are also lots of other solutions. If you believe your company is unethical, you could leave & work somewhere you feel you can support.
My employer and I both pay taxes.
Everyone seems to text or email at my work rather than an actual call.
They love texting my boss - hardly anybody calls these days 🙄🙄
I have kids.
So one up side is "my kid is sick, won't be in today"
What's the other?
there is only the one :(
with my work I can telecommute, so if I have a sick kid then actually I just work from home.
In my job (teaching) it is more work to have a sick day than going to work.
My job is a bit like that. I have a set list of things I need to do each day, and if I have a day off, no one does those for me, so when I get back to work, I have all that days off work to do plus the new days work. To “chuck a sickie” would have a lasting work backlog that would take 3 to 5 days to clear.
Preach!
I barely do any work at work, just check ozbargain to ensure i dont miss a bargain. If i took a sickie my boss will realise they don't need me
This is gold! Best reason ever!
My current work is deadline-driven so if I'm not there today, it means I'll have to work twice as hard tomorrow. Otherwise the work just continues to build. For someone else to do my work, I'd need to do some sort of handover. Clients still want their stuff completed on time.
When I was in a more junior position before and there was a whole team who did the same thing that I did, my work would simply be split amongst the other members of the team while I was not in for the day. There was no build up the next day.
I should mention that I actually plan my days off (and no-one cares).
Just take sick days when you are sick….
Sick days are your insurance. It's nice to have a large amount there for when you need it, like the month I took recently following an operation. I wouldn't have had that if I had squandered it on days I wasn't I'll or injured.
Not every workplace lets you accrue sick days indefinitely. The legal requirements is to give you 10 sick days per year, so a lot of places cap the saved days at 10.
Why is it that there is so much misinformation regarding industrial relations? If a workplace is capping it at 10 days then it is doing so illegally. The Fair Work Act 2009 requires personal and carers leave to accrue uncapped.
I've accumulated over 800 hours of sick/personal leave. That's more than 100 working days, or 20 working weeks. It'll come in handy one day when I get really really sick :-)
I thought that, too.
Worked for employer for 10 years with 6 sick days until my role was abolished.
Entitlement was 20 days/year so I left with almost 10 months of unused sick leave.
Interestingly enough, a report came out the year I left that the average number of sick days taken per employee was something like 19.2 per year.
The APS average is still more than 2 weeks per year, with some departments > 19.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/department-of-h…
One can only surmise that I was remarkably fortunate to have immunity to the plagues which swept through the organisation - damn that freakish immune system ;-)
You should always take your sick leave if ill. They accrue, but won't be paid out when you leave.
One time sickie was called in. Then dropped off kids, using company vehicle. BIG MISTAKE. Worst time ever as the boss tracked the vehicle and said " if you're so sick, why are you driving?" WTF.
if you're so sick, why are you driving?
Boss, how else am I meant to get that medical certificate???
Nothing i said would appease him. It then turned into using company vehicle for private matters.
I'm surprised that your boss tracked you like that. Being sick enough to be productive at work is one thing, but that doesn't stop you from driving locally to get things done, like dropping off your kids to school or getting a medical certificate.
You're sick, not terminally ill.
In your private car.
To the doctor's, boss.
Isn't it fraudulent to 'chuck a sickie'?
Its tradition, not fraud!
It's malingering.
It's Australian to chuck a sickie mate.
I like the people I work with. Work is interesting and my customers are great. If I need a “mental health day” the boss just gives me one. But, the down side is, no one does my work while I’m away, so it just builds up while I’m away.
I like the work I'm doing at the moment so it keeps me interested in coming in, even if I'm sick. I just get told to go home by the boss if I look too bad. It helps that my boss is around my age and a decent manager that looks after his employees. Pretty much all my other supervisors and managers beforehand weren't like that, they were all 100% about the company to the detriment of everyone else.
Previous jobs I would have no problem to take a mental health day when I needed it. Better than having a shit day at work and accomplishing nothing. You might as well have had it off!
I find my boss scarey, so easier to just come in and work . My last job I had 2 sickies in 10 years , had over 6 months leave , then left , lost the lot , only to come back 3 months later with zero sick hours .
sad
Have a look through fairwork. I recall reading something along the lines of your entitlements may be reinstated if you’re re-employed within 6 months.
Combination of factors:
1. Telling the boss, and all the crap you catch from the boss when you go back,
2. How busy things are at work and whether you have any critical appointments, and
3. How long ago you took your last sickie.
You should take sick days when you can. They don't get paid out to you when you leave, but you're taking less pay to be able to have them (I am a contractor now, get paid more but no paid leave, and when I left my old job I had loads of sick leave but it wasn't paid out).
If you have an unbusy time at work, you shouldn't feel any moral problems taking some, you've effectively paid for it.
ethics
They take the most!
working in brisbane, i had 25+ sick days a year relating to flu, injury, mental stress and fatigue. All work related, and deep down inside i really hated the place and the work (and the people), despite good money and conditions. On top of that I also had leave to take for holidays.
Ive since moved to Japan and teach here, working longer hours, opposite conditions, less money, yet I'm so much happier that its added to my health and I havent had a sick day in 3 years. I get 20 days of leave a year, and thats both sick and holiday leave. Good incentive to not get sick! and 10 days can carry over to the next year, for a max of 30 days.
If youve got sick days, take them. But work towards a role or job where your health is more valued personally, and you can achieve a record of 0 sick days. You are extremely lucky in australia to have sick days.
OP good work on your streak of 2 sick days in 10 years.
I never used to take any sick days, I had hundreds of hours sick leave accrued. Then I took over 50 days in one year just before getting made redundant. I'm glad I took them otherwise they would have been lost.
I am a public servant in a department that was cut to the bone post GFC.
Any day off just puts the load onto others and that's unfair.
I will take a day, perhaps two a year if a flu gets hold or whatever, but sickies are not for me.
But in saying that, I would always urge someone to call in if it all felt a bit much.
If it's a day off for just for the sake of it, that's what annual leave is for.
Boring answer I know.
I'm with you. I will quite happily exercise my right to take time off to recover from illness, and take annual leave. Haven't yet taken a mental health day, but absolutely support it and I expect I will one day, and will do it with no qualms. I don't think it's ethical to take a day off when not really sick (or caring for someone sick) though.
I would feel guilty if I was sick and didn't take the day off. Why should I be entitled to get paid my regular wage when I am working at less than 100% productivity due to illness?
I’m disabled, for every 10 days I get there’s probably another 50 where I’m causing damage to my health by going to work instead of resting. Not gonna waste it on a day when I’m hungover.
I take sickies all the time. In fact, I'm having one today. Four day weekend! I work casual in a factory and have other sources of passive income, so when I'm rostered on in an area of the factory where I know I won't be missed and feel like calling in sick, I do it.
As a past employer I knew when workers where chucking a sickie, as long as it was not done regular as in every second Friday I would rather they did not come in. If their head and heart is not in doing the days work it has a on flowing effect retarding the rest of the team. I would just write it of as a mental health day.
Maybe we should ask ourselves why a ‘mental health day’ isn't considered a genuine reason to take a sick day?
Mental health is important to your functioning at work. If you need a day of due to stress/anxiety/depression etc then I say take it!
Eh…. if you think you should take sick days because you're feeling under the weather but not actually sick, this makes sense. But if you think you should actually be sick to take a sick day, then this logic doesn't work - you'd still be diagnosed with having a cold, or a throat infection. You can't be diagnosed with being 'stressed', short of actually having a mental illness.
I like that we're giving mental illnesses more visibility. I don't like that we're almost certainly going to dilute its seriousness because everyone and their dog is suddenly going to be "stressed" or have "anxiety", because if the bar is lowered that far, everyone is stressed or anxious from one thing or another all the bloody time.
Everyone IS stressed. That's what modern work does to you
Sure, and I'm sure everyone would like to take sickies. At the same time, I'm fairly sure if you had a bank issue and went into a branch only to see 4hr wait times because everyone was taking sickies, you wouldn't be too impressed.
You don't have to remind me that work is stressful. At the same time, I still also keep in mind that I've got responsibilities to my clients that are more than just, clock-in-clock-out-get-paid.
Do you think mental illness just pops up out of nowhere?
It starts with feeling stressed and anxious and then builds over time into a serious problem UNLESS you take time for yourself and do things that improve your mental state.
Basically you’re just saying that psychological dysfunction isn’t as debilitating as physical illness so you should be able to work through it.
You don’t need to have a diagnosis before you start caring for your mental wellbeing. In fact you’ll miss FEWER days of work if you look after yourself early.
Because I enjoy inflicting the influenza on all the people I work with. Also, getting burnt out at work gives you fully sick street cred
Where's the "I do take sickies" option?
I despise sick people coming into the office and spreading their illness. They think they're so conscientious, and not factor the loss of productivity having heaps of people working at reduced capacity or off sick.
I have to admit having to ring is a disincentive and might make some reconsider just how sick they are, whereas a text or email is much more convenient.
Have a few drinks before you ring.