To go off sick in December?

You need to start looking for another job as this one is not working for you (a company that shuts down over christmas), in the meantime, do what you need to do for your kids, but this is assuming you don't actually mean all of December!

If you cant get childcare can you take unpaid carers leave?

I agree!

There are so many bank holidays this year as Christmas is mid week. You get both weekends plus Christmas and Boxing Day off plus your additional day off!

Grow up!!

Have I missed the OP saying she's a nurse? Or works in the NHS at all?

Some right frothing going on on this thread about patient care but as far as I can see, OP hasn't said what she does, she could work anywhere!

OP has already said there's a colleague who they think does this every year, which she resents - but is now thinking of doing it herself, which is massively hypocritical.

I think it’s utterly unreasonable to call in sick because you’d like that time off with your family. Sometimes you can’t have the time you want off. It’s rubbish but it’s part of the job and you did sign up to it. I also often can’t have various school holidays off that I’d like due to work pressure in those periods and it’s a pain but it’s pretty normal and most people have times at various points in their career they can’t take the time they want.

On the other hand I would acknowledge that over the Christmas period childcare is very limited and I think employers should offer some flexibility to parents to get leave if needed to cover that. It’s not their colleagues fault childcare options over the Christmas break are rubbish and it would suck if you ended up bottom of the list for time off but ultimately think it does start to become a kind of discrimination for women if there is nothing in place to acknowledge the reality that they overwhelmingly get left responsible for bulk of childcare and there are very limited options to outsource in that period. It may differ in some areas but where I am any other of the 13 weeks school breaks there are numerous holiday clubs but absolutely nothing runs Christmas week and there is a massively reduced provision vs other school holidays for new years week. Not to mention most of these clubs only cover 9-5 type jobs. If you have extended family or friends who can help that’s great but it’s not the easiest time for that either with lots of people travelling round to visit extended family. With the increasing insistence even older kids shouldn’t be left alone, rise in single parent families and tendency for more people to relocate for work it is probably more of an issue now than it was for the prior generation. What’s their position likely to be on requesting unpaid leave for dependent care? If you genuinely don’t have others than your parents who can help and they are not available then it’s really challenging and while it’s easy to say just get a different job I think you’d run into these kinds of issues in quite a lot of workplaces & also accept your training/qualifications may mean you have limited options to pursue that without taking a significant pay cut that you likely can’t afford.

So you want to take 4 weeks off sick?! Surely in lots of jobs you only get the bank holidays off as a given, and they are the important days. Most people don’t have 2 -4 weeks of magical days off work at Christmas. I think you’re being a bit daft. Your complaint would be justified if you weren’t getting Christmas Day off. What if you need another long period of time off later in the year will you drop to SSP?

Wasn't just xmas was majority of holidays her kids birthdays school plays tje xorks she also would cry to leave early at times so she could do school run etc was a nightmare managing her she always used the im a single mum you cant descriminate card

She mustve lasted long enough for her to do it so regularly to have been noticed, given that xmas only happens once a year 🙄

A place i worked someone used to do this at xmas her child free colleagues and the odd parent picked up the slack which was completely unfair to us genuine workers she didn't last long in the job due to it you are being unreasonable tjis is unfair to your colleagues being a parent does not entitle you to special privileges

Family first. But I do recommend you find a new role. This sounds unsustainable!

what makes you think that your Christmas is more important than your colleagues? You can go sick and will most likely get away with it from a management point of view, but you will have increased your colleagues workloads and possibly caused resentment towards yourself for the future.

there is then also the what if in the near future you actually are sick and need the time. You are balancing a fine line.

It's not fraud to call in sick for 4 weeks because you want a free holiday? Jesus.

Well why do you deserve it over someone else? We all have our own situations and people we love who we want to spend time with. If it’s been drawn out of a hat then it’s fair and I’m assuming you knew there was a chance you could be picked to work over the holidays when you took the job.

I think you might struggle to do this as you seem like a very reliable person who likes to get on with things, despite challenges. If you're going to do it you'd need to come up with something that sits comfortably with you.

Yeah, that 's how local government works- completely unlike the private sector or should we say 'the real world.'

People in LG are so protected it's insane.

What a load of over exaggerated people on this one, like the majority of you have never pulled a sickie in your life. OP is thinking of taking sickie over Christmas , hardly committing a crime is it.

OP you do what you want to do and don’t let anyone dictate how you live your life. You will find most on here who are having a go at you are either stay at home parents or will be having a nice few days off for Christmas.

Hope it turns out for you and you have a great Christmas with your family.

Because her employer will eventually decide to manage her out for her shitty work ethic.

Taking holiday and pretending she was sick perhaps?

Not so sure about that.

Why would she be fired?

How would you feel if a colleague did the same?

But it's fraud? She isn't sick. Just lazy.

I think it's fine, you know more about your sick pay entitlement etc than us. I work in HR in a local authority and it would take months of processes and occ health referrals to get close to sacking someone for poor attendance. And a one off period of sickness wouldn't even raise eyebrows tbh. A job is a job, they'd replace you without second thought when they needed to but kids can't say the same