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

Wow this never even crossed my mind but I'm not surprised some people do it. I genuinely get sick a few times a year due to various conditions and a weakened immune system and I absolutely dread taking sick days.

Do you not look back and care that you were a) a drain on NHS resource and b) caused inconvenience and probably added workload to those around you? Disgusting.

I’ve barely taken any sick days- a lot of jobs that allow wfh often remove the need to do that as it’s much easier to stay working even if you’re not 100%. Longest stretch was a week of Covid and I should have really taken two.

I do however know people who have treated sick days as ‘entitlement’ and there is often very little you can do if you suspect someone is taking the piss a little bit but not enough to trigger anything.

I did as a nurse. NHS sick leave was really generous at the time. The area I worked in had a lot of different staff, and a high turnover so nobody to feel uncomfortable around for not being in for ages! I'd do 3 months off sick on full pay, come back for 3 months and do loads of overtime, and then off again for another 3 months. I'd be careful to calculate if all go when it would reset

I was very young. And the time I went in and did my hours plus overtime enabled me to get on the property ladder. I'd then take the 3 months to chill and mentally just relax because I did so much when I was working

We don’t get paid for the first three days off sick so only a few can afford to be ill! This means there is always some sort of virus going round the team as we all go into work when we are sick.

I’m sick (badly) about twice a year so I reserve it for then. If I hadn’t been sick for a few years then I might consider using it differently

I use them only when I have medical reasons, e.g.medical appointment or am unwell. But, fun fact, during my HR call on benefits before joining my current employer the Head of HR told "you have X days of annual leave, Y days for volunteering and 5 paid sick days so in total it makes X+Y+5 holiday leave entitlement".
My direct reports do pre-book sick leaves as normal holidays. I have no issues with that.

I live in hope that the piss taker's general entitled attitude shines through generally and that they're clocked at work. But unfortunately they seem to ride along in their entitled life.

Hopefully Karma will bite them in the arse if they're genuinely sick...

Indeed it is. I have known people who play the system . I work in an organisation where you get paid sick leave. Regrettably, any system is open to abuse

I worked with someone who kept having 'duvet' days, but action was taken against her. Maybe an occasional day would go unnoticed, but I never did so, because I was always scared that something would happen that would necessitate sick leave later.
eg; A relative was in an accident with compound fracture of the leg, resulting in over 6 months on sick leave with several operations. This kind of accident can happen at any time.
I guess it depends on what sort of job or manager you have.

Before I was a teacher, I worked in an office with woman whose husband was a teacher. You could guarantee that this person would have a debilitating accident on the Thursday lunch time before half term week e.g. fell off the kerb and seriously twisted her ankle. It would take her the whole of half term week to be able to walk on it again. Odd, that.

I have only ever taken sick leave when I have been too unwell to work. I took 6 months off last year when I was undergoing treatment for cancer. I had a very bad time - I am fully aware that other people are able to work when undergoing treatment and I admire them for that.

However, I am still taking medication to stop my cancer coming back which makes me absolutely exhausted, and I am finding it increasingly difficult to get through each working day. I'm planning to retire next summer, when I finally finish this particular course of treatment, and I might just have to take some sick leave before that date simply because I am so very tired! I'm not ill as such, just exhausted!

I had someone I employed ( think she was early 20s) say she should have the following week off as she’d not taken any time off ill that year….. just thought she was entitled to so many weeks sick leave , same as holidays. Very disappointed when I told her this wasn’t so.

I wouldn't do this, but DH has friends that do. They explain it as they don't get enough AL so use sick leave as annual leave. Which is ridiculous - when you accept a job your contract states how many days AL you get, don't like it, don't take the job - these are all highly paid private business employees so can negotiate, but would rather take the p**s

As the years have gone on though, I am less scared to take sick leave. Previously I thought I had to be very, very unwell to take sick leave. When I was moderately sick I dragged myself in, until the time I did this and ended up in hospital with pneumonia. Now I ensure I'm properly better before returning to work for the benefit of myself and my patients.

Absolutely not.

No way, no how. Sick leave is for when you are genuinely sick. Some people really are selfish assholes.

I cannot believe there are places that don't actively monitor and manage this.

We had a guy like this in my last job.

He was at work for 6 months of the year, then would go off for 6 months, then return just before the half pay was due to kick in.

So he was paid for a full year, but only work for 6 months each year. This went on for years and as far as I know he's still there, doing the same.

He majored the condition he had that is officially a disability and threatened to throw the book at them. Weak management too. Funny how he was suddenly well enough to work for the 6 months of the year he wouldn't have been paid in full for.

Still makes my blood boil to this day.

These threads do bring out the pisstakers, but they also bring out the ‘I haven’t had a day off sick in 10 years’ brigade, too. Do they want a medal for being lucky enough not to have been too ill to work?

All of this.

Also I'm too superstitious to do that. I don't want to tempt fate by claiming I'm sick - and then actually getting sick.

This is what puts me off pulling sickies. More so than the moral aspect tbh.

Sick leave is for when you're too sick to work. That's why it's called sick leave.

I would be very unimpressed if anyone in my team tried to use it as 'bonus' annual leave.

The trouble with thinking that you are 'entitled' to sick days is that if you do become genuinely ill for example with cancer - you'll really need those sick days but will have run out.

What the holy fuck am I reading?

It's an entitlement IF YOU ARE SICK.

By your (entitled) argument, are non-pregnant women entitled to 9 months of paid leave, because if you don't use it you lose it?

Hmm, I get 6 months fully paid leave in my 'entitlement'. Maybe I should call in sick tomorrow and for the next six months, despite not being sick, because if I don't use it I'll lose it?

And what happens if your husband were to use up the 3 days and then actually be too unwell to work?

Yes my company use the Bradford system and it is ridiculously tight.
Any parent taking sick leave during school holidays would be flagged. Same for Mondays and Fridays. Or sickness on birthdays or know families birthdays. Or sick the same/similar week each year.
Tne reason this was brought in was due to abuse of the system by previous colleagues who no longer work here.
Thanks for that!

I was always fortunate enough to have not used my sick leave and thank goodness, as an emergency operation has left me unable to work.
As I hadn't used any leave it has enabled me three months recovery on full pay. I am already concerned that this will effect my employability in the future, so can only surmise people who misuse their sick leave must work in a different field to me.
If people are that ambiguous or hate their jobs that they manipulate sick leave (which is a perk, not a right), I wish they would just get another job, their absence impacts on someone and to do it regularly is narcissistic and selfish.

I have heard of people doing this in companies where the paid sick leave is only a few days. I can see it may feel like an entitlement in that way although I would be too worried about using them up and then needing them.

I work in the public sector and get 5 months full sick pay and 5 months half currently. I obviously don’t take that as an entitlement. My workplace is good to me so if I am unwell I usually try to just reschedule things and work from home. I have had 1.5 days off sick in the last 4 years. I will say however that I have been guilty in previous jobs of taking a sick day when I felt unwell on a Friday and had exciting plans at the weekend that I wanted to feel better for…but otherwise was probably well enough to make the effort to go in.