Why do people come to work when they are ill??!

If you're an agency worker who only gets paid when you actually work and you're skint and have to live hand to mouth every month, budgeted down to the penny, even a day or two off can completely bugger everything up. Not everyone has a stable, well-paid job with great sickness benefits etc.

In a lot of jobs there will be various reasons why. Obviously if you genuinely work in a job where you can take unlimited full pay sick leave without ANY repercussions then yes I cannot think why people would go to work ill.

But for a large amount of people this just isn’t the case. If I don’t work I don’t get paid. I cannot work from home. My work is a small place. If we lose 3 or 4 members of staff we would likely need to close. So then those who aren’t sick would also lose money as we still wouldn’t get paid.
I don’t really like my job that much that I want to be there when ill trust me on that. I promise that if you will pay me my full wages when I have a mild cold I will definitely call in sick for the entire time. Plus pay me my wages should we need to close if everyone else is sick. In those circumstances i absolutely promise to call in sick with every minor illness I get.

Because my company has a rather stringent sickness policy, 3 instances in 12 months is a trigger, if I took time off every-time I’m under the weather I probably wouldn’t have a job to go back too!

I can't imagine making any of the people I've line managed feel guilty for taking time away from work to recover if unwell ‐I definitely couldn't do that, it would make me feel like such a rotten person.

I relate to the notion of it being worse to call in sick than actually slogging it out at work feeling ill. That's not a great indicator of workplace culture.

I've been sick since the week before Christmas and inadvertently given it to my whole family, including a clinically vulnerable and elderly relative, due to my pupils' parents feeling strong-armed into sending very unwell and contagious children into school.

Teacher friend was disciplined as a result of this after her appendix was removed. A few days off then back in again with pain then a few weeks off after the emergency op to remove it. She was very upset

Because UK illness policy gives you very little choice with its draconian system. Because no one else will pay your bills. Because you can be disciplined/ sacked for daring to be ill......

Because I'll be seen as a lazy shirker

Similar situation at my work place. Half the staff are on a contract and get sick pay and the other half aren't and so don't. Those on a contract are happy to take a sick day, with a couple of them having several sick days off a month. Those of us who don't get sick pay very rarely have days off.

We get 6 months full pay but it doesn't mean you aim for that or that you won't be on an absence management plan if you have too many absences. Ours is 4 absences or a total of 28 days over a 12 month rolling period.

I have a cold now. Lots of coughing, sneezing, sniffing but I actually don't feel unwell. I'm not in work as I am on leave but if I wasn't I would be going in. Its everywhere this time of year.

Another factor is some of them might not be on the same contract.

I work in a place where most of the staff have the 6 months and all the stuff already mentioned - but those of us hired through an agency (which keeps the official numbers of how many employees and benefits paid out down) are very much not.

It's a bit frustrating having a colleague who has been there many years going on about what benefits we all have & going over taking sick leave when a third of the department are agency who do not have those benefits. I know they mean well, but for those of us in the 'don't work, don't get paid' boat until the maybe/someday of being full staff which is far less likely to happen if we don't have a great attendance record it ends up a smile and nod exercise.

I also have disabilities that result in struggling to tell when pain is from my conditions or a cold, and am so used to pain that I will generally work until I hit a wall, having not realised how much I was deteriorated until I hit that wall. I keep a range of medicines at work for this scenario.

Our bonus can also be taken away due to sickness. So many Bradford points and half your bonus has gone, then all. I started with a migraine at work one day and manager wanted to put me down for sick to go home with less than half a day left, that half day would have lost me half my bonus within weeks of us being paid it. I mean, I couldn't drive at that point anyway due to my sight but my team leader told me to just sit and he did my work for me

If I dont go to work I don't get paid. Christmas is expensive and I can't afford to lose money in January. I have no choice but to pop some paracetamol and just crack on. I had the most horrendous virus that lasted over 3 weeks and think the only reason I couldn't shift it was because I couldn't afford to have the time off. Shitty situation really.

Pressure to go in? The feeling your lying and no one will believe you? Comments like : so and so must definitely be ill because x u z.

Bosses coming to work ill.

Mine have a scheme where if you don't take a sick day all year you get a £500 Christmas bonus.
So, why do you think? They want you to go in when you are ill.

I worked in one place where the policy for sickness is you still have to come and and the manager decides if you go home. It was always no.

Some people like me, have back to back colds from Autumn to Spring. If I didn't go to work whenever I have a cold, I'd only go in about three days every month! If I have a really nasty illness, I'll stay home but if it's a normal cold I have to go in.

The average person gets three colds a year. Add in a bout of d and v and another incident such as a pulled back and you are up to five. That’s before I take any time off with sick kids. I would be on a disciplinary. That’s working in the NHS in a clinical setting. Doesn’t matter how good the sick pay is if the absence management policies are draconian.

So would we for a major illness. But it didn't stop our boss moaning if we were off for a day.
A total of five days, or three days in a row, required a back to work interview with her and a stain on our record. And she totally favoured those staff members who were never off, so promotion and progress up the pay scale (I was a teacher) was definitely affected if we were off with viruses etc.

@Beezknees if it's a cold or something minor like that it wouldn't bother me, but the woman has passed around a sick bug. You shouldn't come into work if you're vomiting. I'm also a single parent with bills to pay but I know when to go to work and when to stay at home

Well, quite. Those sorts of jobs of course won't attract good sick pay but in the corporate world or large companies it's normal to have 6 months sick pay.

Most places I've worked in do not. The type of places I've worked are often manual type work - I worked for an upholstery company a few years back, upholsterers are paid a fixed salary but by how many pieces they complete. If you're not at work, there's no pay.

That's so not true - I've been working full time for 20+ years and every corporate and smaller company I've worked for offers 6 months full sick pay (sometimes/usually followed by 6 months half pay) but then I've mainly worked in retail banking and finance/wealth management so maybe that's why.

I work in a company where sick pay is good. I have a colleague who comes down with one or other nasty flu/cold/covid virus each autumn, and insists on coming in and not allowing the windows to be opened because she's 'in a draft' - sod everyone else, some of whom have elderly parents to visit, others who have long-awaited holidays coming up and don't want them ruined by being ill throughout.

It makes my blood boil.

Some people cannot afford to take time off. There is a cost of living crisis. I can fortunately work from home but we don't get sick pay so if I couldn't work from home I'd have to go in ill, I am a single parent with bills to pay and that comes first for me.

Agreed! My daughters work mate came into work with a horrible bug, now myself, my daughter and my baby are vomiting and 💩
It's unbelievably selfish