5 reasons you SHOULD call in sick

[Lace Neil Singer]

That's all well and good for office settings, but retail? Yeah, right.

I've lost count of the number of times I've gone to work with back spasms. If *I* call out, I don't just inconvenience my department, I inconvenience at least one or two others.

Ditto. -.- Cuz I refuse to let down my co-workers, I've gone to work with bad colds and even once with a chest infection. My boss actually sent me home once, cuz I was so ill I was physically sick. She stayed late to cover my shift, but I still felt bad about going home.

I've actually only pulled a sickie ONCE. Yup, just once only during my entire working life, did I take an unauthorised day off. It was for last minute Alice Cooper tickets.

[tropicsgoddess]

You can call out for those reasons if you work in a call center but you can bet your ass that you'll either a: get a good ear chewing from your supervisor b: accrue point(s) on your record c: get written up for it d: all of the above. Call centers tend to be notoriously strict about their attendance policies. There was one call center that I worked for that if you even came back from your breaks/lunches or punched in your shift late you get a point on your record. I quit that place, the pay sucked, the commute was insane and the insanely strict rules were just too much for me.

[Gibbo]

I had a cold for most of last week and was sitting at my till with packets of lockets and pockets full of tissues. I would have to be really ill before I took a day off, and we do get disciplined if we take too many sick days.

[PepperElf]

i've had to work with colds, gastro-stuff and pinkeye.
go navy!

i remember getting yelled at by a co-worker about the pink eye...
Him: If you get me sick....
Me: Well then don't rub your eyes.

i was careful and washed my hands constantly but ... not much i could do about it.

on board ships... i can recall being "siq" (sick in quarters) maybe 2 or 3 times.
and one of those times - on my first ship - i think i was only given the siq chit because i threw up while I was in medical.
(they were pretty stringent on giving those out on that ship)

the last time i got one i was actually surprised they gave me SIQ. came in as a victim of a gastro outbreak.
i guess they figured i wasn't lying (some people tried to)... i put down how many times i'd thrown up etc and what i'd eaten since then.
(normal healthy people don't eat dry rice krispies with a small glass of water).


but most of the time... in the navy it gets to the point where you're feeling sick but you know they won't give you time off anyway .... so you just go down to medical, list the symptoms and ask them to just throw some pills at you so you can get back to work.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I had a cold for most of last week and was sitting at my till with packets of lockets and pockets full of tissues. I would have to be really ill before I took a day off, and we do get disciplined if we take too many sick days.

Same here. You're only able to escape that if you get a doctor's note, which is stupid in the case of colds. -.- Same goes for migraines. I know what causes them, ie humidity, and there's not really much I can do about that, not being able to control the weather and all. And if I went to the doctor for a note, ironically, I'd only go down with something else cuz of all the other people being forced to go to the doctor to get sick notes to avoid being disciplined. -.-

[blas]

I don't get paid sick days, if I call in sick I lose out on precious PTO (which yes, still paid, but still, I don't want to waste vacation hours to stay home ill!) or take it unpaid if I don't have enough.

I have faked once or twice, but it's nothing compared to the losers I used to work with who call in every time a snowflake falls or the temperature goes below 0 or anytime they get a sniffle or a slight pain in the neck.

I can't afford to miss work these days. I really can't. I have been working all week with a box of tissues right at my side, stopping work every once in a while because my nose starts dripping again, and every other break I have to take more cold medicine......

I will not call in unless I cannot stop throwing up or cannot get off the toilet or am so dizzy that I can't stand up straight long enough to shower.

[Lace Neil Singer]

If I can work with a bad cold, one that's so bad I'm coughing all the time and necking cough sweets and medicine all the time, then someone else can work with a sniffle. -.-

Tho I did come in with a chest infection once, I did so only cuz it was the last two days before a week off and I figured that all I had to do was survive two days then I could recover over the week off. Also, bosses tend to suspect people who call in sick before time off. -.-

[Hyndis]

I've gone in to work while in a semi-catatonic state due to a bad relapse of my illness, or with a fever of 104.

Then there was the time my back was so wrecked I couldn't walk, but still somehow managed to hobble to work.


Sick days? What are those? Only sick time I get comes out of my PTO, which I don't want to waste on being sick.

[SG15Z]

I've been coughing and sneezing my head off all week this week. Have I called in. Heck no! If I can still stand and I'm not vomiting I'm probably gonna go to work. I can't afford taking a day off with no pay. I almost never call in. It's just not worth it unless I really can't do the job.

I have been sent home sick, but that's because I was extremely pale and couldn't stand at one point.

[Hyndis]

I have been sent home sick, but that's because I was extremely pale and couldn't stand at one point.

I've done that once. I was feeling light headed, and people said I was particularly pale for some reason.

Next thing I knew I was on the floor, everyone around me concerned trying to wake me up. I was so light headed from being all sick with a nasty flu, and still trying to move around quickly to do my job, that I actually passed out for a few seconds.

Needless to say, they let me go home after that!

[trailerparkmedic]

The last time I got really sick, I just showed up to work with cold medicine and just stumbled through the day, all drugged up. I was working 12 hour shifts at the time, so I would have been REALLY screwed if I'd missed that many hours (no sick time, no PTO).

Even now on 8 hour shifts, I still refuse to call out, especially for something as minor as sniffles. Half the people are allergic to the office (started getting very bad allergies when we moved to our new building) so I'm not going to get much sympathy for sniffles.

[RavenStarr]

Well I have no insurance, so I can't afford to go to the dr. if I get sick. Where I work at, your expected to have a dr. note. The reason the dr. note thing came up was because strangely enough people were calling in sick on Fridays and Saturdays.

So no sadly I don't have the option of calling in sick. I don't have the option to tell them to go screw themselves. It's not like I have a better job waiting for me.

[mikoyan29]

i've had to work with colds, gastro-stuff and pinkeye.
go navy!

i remember getting yelled at by a co-worker about the pink eye...
Him: If you get me sick....
Me: Well then don't rub your eyes.

i was careful and washed my hands constantly but ... not much i could do about it.

on board ships... i can recall being "siq" (sick in quarters) maybe 2 or 3 times.
and one of those times - on my first ship - i think i was only given the siq chit because i threw up while I was in medical.
(they were pretty stringent on giving those out on that ship)

the last time i got one i was actually surprised they gave me SIQ. came in as a victim of a gastro outbreak.
i guess they figured i wasn't lying (some people tried to)... i put down how many times i'd thrown up etc and what i'd eaten since then.
(normal healthy people don't eat dry rice krispies with a small glass of water).


but most of the time... in the navy it gets to the point where you're feeling sick but you know they won't give you time off anyway .... so you just go down to medical, list the symptoms and ask them to just throw some pills at you so you can get back to work.

Why does all of this remind of the sick bay scene in "Mr. Roberts" for some reason? "Two aspirin...marked for duty"...

"Yeah Doc, I woke up this morning..."
"And you happened to know it was cargo day...."

"Now did these bells go ding ding, dong dong or ding dong?"

[ADoyle90815]

My workplace actually had a memo with our paychecks last month saying that if you have a fever or other flu-like symptoms, don't come to work. They also recommended that we get both flu shots, and so far, I just have the seasonal one since that was available at the time. I'm going to get the H1N1 vaccine in the next couple of weeks, or when it's more available.

I've gone to work in the past when I've had a nasty cold, and even agreed to come in on my day off because the store needed extra people, even though it would have been nice to use that day to rest. This was a seasonal job where sick time and PTO didn't exist, so if you called in sick, you didn't get paid that day.

[jedimaster91]

And calling out because cold meds make you a lil sleepy?? Please.

This one confused me because I thought they made cold meds so I could work, if I wasn't going into work I wouldn't take them.

That depends on which medication you take and how drowsy it makes you. Personally, I don't want to be on the road with you if you're about to conk out any second or having a really bad trip. I know I feel pretty spacy on some meds, and there's no way I'd be driving to work (or anywhere) while taking them. Save the good stuff for when you get home and go to bed.

I'm like most that I really don't want to call out sick. Well, I WOULD rather stay home, but if I don't work I don't get paid. Generally I have to be running a fever, vomitting, or really dizzy before I'll call out. I've never called out for a cold because my allergies are so bad sometimes I can't tell the difference.