To ask if anyone deliberately plans/uses their sick leave as part of their entitlement?

I think employers have cracked right down in sick leave . The return to work is an interrogation , and the threat of a written warning being dished out . Some people took time off as un paid leave to prevent triggering . Employees are just numbers now .

No, and I don’t know anyone who does (although I doubt they would openly). I’ve had one day off work on sick leave, a couple of years ago with covid. It got really bad on one of the days and could barely stay awake.

In my current job 2 year zero sick days and zero late days. Previous job 10 years and no late's or sickness. However yes in my younger days i took my allotted "sick days" lol

Never forget you are a nobody or just an number to your employer.

I don't see what's wrong with using a lunch break to have a nap? even a long lunch break.
As long as I work my hours and hit my targets I can work flexibly. So if I want two hours for lunch to nap /go to the gym/sit on the beach I can.

This! ^ No wonder so many employers want their employees back in the office if they're taking naps during the work day! Fookking hell! 😂

Interesting… in the US so we do things different here. But I will say the amount of sick days my team (I’m a manager) takes in a year can probably be counted on one hand. I have had a few coworkers out on short term disability (which sounds similar to your system of getting signed off work) but that’s generally rare.

Honestly I’ve probably taken the most days off sick on my team. Some days I just can’t work with a migraine. But even those days I generally end up working some even if it’s attending a meeting or two. I think I average maybe 1 day a year.

We have PTO which is a combined sick and annual leave bucket, so most people work sick so they don’t have to ‘waste’ a day of their paid leave.

Our short term disability (paid at 60%) is similar to your longer leave but is not anything that is common to use. It can be supplemented with PTO to receive 100% of pay. Then we have long term disability which pays 40%… the only people I’ve known to take Long term are those who were sadly dying. And in every case I’ve been involved in arrangements were made off the books to prolong ‘regular employment’ as long as possible to extend both short and long term disability benefits. And by ‘regular employment’ I mean their job was to be at home and not worry about work.

I should also say that it’s not uncommon for me to notice I have a quiet Friday and schedule a last minute PTO day so no reason to ‘call in sick’. My team is more than welcome to do the same so that probably cuts down on ‘sick days’.

I know some people who treat sick leave as an entitlement and plan/schedule when to use it, even when they’re not seriously ill.

Many years ago I worked in a small showroom with no more than eight staff, one of whom was even overheard on the phone to head office asking "how many sick days I [she] had left" for the year.

She was well known for taking off as much time as she could, and then whinging every single time about the company rules being that our weekly individual commission minimum threshold was still worked out against the full 39 hours we were supposed to work (when taking holiday, the threshold was lowered to reflect the hours spent in-store and therefore available to make sales; when off sick, no such adjustments were made).

It never ceases to amaze me how people who are playing the system often have to tell the world about it. It's a common phenomenon in my experience. A few years ago, I did an access course at college, and one of my fellow students was exceptionally vocal about how she used a loop-hole in the marking process to allow her more time to rewrite some of her assignments. And of course, when it caught up with her and her grades were delayed because some of her work was still to be marked, meaning she almost lost her university place, I heard all about that too.

I'd have more time for people who take the pi*s if ( A ) they didn't tell anyone all about it, and ( B ) they took responsibility for any consequences.

Why surprised? I think 90% of my sickness is "period pain"
I use the term loosely as it's not standard period pain as in take some paracetamol and carry on but that's what I'm off sick with

I sometimes take a couple of days when I’m mentally and physically exhausted, to prevent myself burning out

if I’ve had too much sickness though I’ll suffer along

People actually do this?? I'm not known anyone who does?.(Or maybe they have but how would.i know?)

I only use it if I'm sick sick. So not able to get out of bed, off the sofa.

Obviously, sick leave is for people who are genuinely sick.

Quite a weird question, when it's obvious you shouldn't lie and take sick leave when you're fine.

The number of anecdotals about NHS staff "using" the 6-months paid sick leave is actually shocking. No wonder the NHS doesn't have enough money. These scroungers need to shape up or ship out.

FWIW I only use sick leave when it's genuine - even then I feel bad about it.

Can’t vote as you haven’t said what yabu/yanbu means here.

Taking sick leave when you’re not ill is totally wrong. It’s not an entitlement to extra days off.

Pre-covid I probably averaged max 1-2 days sick per year - some years I never took a sick day. Ended up having a month off the first time I had covid and a week the second time but then I was genuinely too ill to work! As should be the case for everyone who takes sick leave.

I have kids so nasty viruses and vomitting bugs are sufficiently plentiful in my house so no I don’t ever plan sick days or take them as holiday. I take sick days when I can’t work due to illness which is more often than I’d like!

My last job had bizarre rules that if we had three days off a year we needed a doctor's note, even if the three days were all in different months. I couldn't get a doctor's note so used to work from home when I was ill. By the time I left that job I was was chronically run down that I never really recovered. It was a rubbish arrangement. I wish I'd just taken sick leave and recovered properly.

I know of someone who
works in retail where is really busy over Christmas and they’re always off sick then. Don’t understand how they’re still employed or how they can do this to their colleagues. Pure selfish.

No I don't plan it and only use when needed and I'm glad I don't as I ended up in hospital last year and was off week and then a couple weeks later my mum was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and told she had three months at most to live.

My supervisors encouraged me to take sick leave and be there to care for her and I took three months and cared for her the whole time and went back after the funeral. If I'd used it without needing it I'd not have been able to be off that time on full pay.

When I went back my supervisor put in a request for it to be considered as an exceptional circumstance. So it was discounted and they only considered me as having one period of sick leave when I was in hospital. If you are off more than three times within a year you're put on a tracker, so that releived a bit of stress and I don't think her request would of been accepted had I been prone to being off sick

Same here with the civil service. I worked with 2 ‘disability employment advisors’ who would go sick for the same 2 weeks (together) every year and go on holiday. As it was under the 12 days flag (that was in action at the time), they were never questioned about it. It was an absolute piss take to be honest.

I have only ever known people to do this in the public sector places I have worked - civil service and council, very, very rarely in the private sector (you’d be invited in for a chat very quickly if you were found to be taking the proverbial). My sister, who works for the ambulance service is constantly pulling sickies, as the public sector just lets people get away with it.

I have a toddler and for some reason I average a sick bug every 6-8 weeks roughly so I don't have to plan to take my entitlement, it just happens unfortunately 🤮 I'm sure work think I'm taking the piss but it is what it is!

We have one at work that is always off "sick" when their kids are on half term! Instead of using their annual leave. Takes the piss!

I hate colleagues who do this. It puts so much pressure on the rest of us. I'm working with one of those people now. She's currently off sick and I've had to cover her work and sort all the shit out she didn't do before she went off. She always seems to go off sick when I have annual leave as well so she doesn't have to do any of our shared workload whilst I'm off and I come back to an absolute shit storm 🙄. I'm currently looking for another job because of it. Management aren't dealing with it.

I used to get loads (still get a good amount) but I've never used it wrongly.

My mother used to complain that a fellow nurse was off sick for 6 months in every 12