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

1. Because I don't get paid sick pay
2. Because I have 2 small children who I might need to do my fair share of looking after if they are sick

Too much time off is unaffordable and it also starts to look bad. I might phone in sick in October because I'm feeling a bit ropey, I haven't called in sick for a bit and I can afford the hit. However, 2 weeks later I have a sick child and somebody needs to take the day off. My husband can't do it because he had the last day off back in March when the other was sick so it's "my turn" That's near enough 12 hours of pay down, a shift that is short staffed twice and I start to look a bit unreliable.

Especially if I then come down with some sickness bug or break a leg or something!

There are 3 people at my work who are sick but working for whatever reasons they have. They aren't sick enough to need to stay at home so they just have to soldier on. None of us hold it against them because we totally understand their predicament. We just cross our fingers and hope we don't come down with it too.

That's just life sadly.

I work for the NHS and if you’re off sick more than 3 times in one year (even if only 3 single days) you get a verbal warning and if you have one more episode of sickness (making 4 in total) you get something called a Stage 1 sickness warning in writing. We have regular staff surveys that ask ‘do you feel like you have to come to work when sick’? - obviously we do because we get into trouble if we don’t. A few weeks ago I had a horrendous sore throat, I could hardly swallow or talk. I went to work desperately hoping I could cope but the following day I literally couldn’t speak, it was agony so I had to ring in sick. I now have a written warning despite only having 6 days off in one year☹️

because missing a single day could mean the difference between not being able to afford rent for some people.

my old job was so funny with people having time off, I have a disability and they would call me into meetings and give me ‘final warnings’ for having time off and attending hospital appointments. I cannot imagine the grief they gave people for having time off for ‘minor’/temporary things such as sickness bugs/colds etc.

You really can’t win, you have the time off to recover and not spread it and people moan that you’re having the time off, yet if you’re there you’re a nuisance for spreading it around. Plus, most bugs are spread 24/48 hours before symptoms even shown, so someone having time off won’t have meant it hasn’t already been spread

@Walkden has got it in one. I work in eduction and the stress of taking a sick day in terms of trigger meetings etc just isn't worth it unless there's really no alternative.

Point out where my comment was sarcastic, because all I did was point out basic fact? I have no idea what goes on at your specific company. Maybe the work still needs to be done and they can't afford to have it pile up, maybe they know they will be judged if they take lots of time off, maybe there are lots of viruses around and they can't take weeks off for everything going around.

You might...

@NunyaBeeswax

The Bradford Factor

My company uses it and then perform
disciplinaries on people who have overstepped the boundaries.

It's so not fair

I think it's good manners to wear a mask if one has a respiratory virus, just to protect everyone else.

So if you had large numbers of periods of different illnesses, as long as it was under 6m, no sort of absence disciplinary process would be triggered?

I get good sick pay but on the 3rd occasion of sickness you get a warning, 4th occasion possible dismissal. If you were off every time you had a cold/ were ill it could easily add up to 4 times in a year. It’s not worth the risk unless you literally can’t do your job.

Good for you. A lot of people including me don’t.

That’s how my company works, a heavily unionised company with a generous sick pay policy. Starts at 2 weeks full/2 weeks half pay up to 26 weeks full/26 weeks half pay with service, each rolling year and is used for any illness.

OP I hear you about good sick leave in your industry but I'm curious about how colleagues might be thought of or treated in reality if they are off ill frequently. Maybe your managers are all really relaxed and understanding about this but I'd be surprised if this were the case, and even if they seem that way, they might well end up harbouring prejudices when it comes to weighing candidates up for internal promotions or other opportunities. I think being off ill a lot, even with really good reason, leads others to see you as less reliable / dependable / resilient. Do you think there's any possibility that this is at play here or are you sure it won't be relevant in your workplace?

Other factors that might perhaps explain it include:

• internalised attitudes (people end up feeling guilty for being off / worrying about being seen as lazy by themselves as well as by others. Some people place value on being 'stoical' and see it as sort of heroic to turn up to work ill. This might be down to how they were raised and / or to the culture of workplaces they've known in the past. For example I once worked with a manager who boasted that he hadn't had a day off sick in 30 years and he was celebrated for this by the higher-ups; it left me feeling ashamed for taking a day off myself);
• hedging of future bets (people might feel bad now but wonder if they'll get a more serious illness later so would rather make themselves go in when they can. I'm in this position myself with a young DC in nursery who keeps getting illnesses and passing them on to me - I'm so worried that I'll be off with something bigger down the line that it has to be pretty bad for me to stay off);
• worry about looking bad to colleagues (even if managers and policies are supportive, I've known colleagues moan and make insinuations about people being off sick. Depending on the job role, colleagues might have extra work dumped on them that they end up resenting);
• worry about letting others down (I suppose a more alteristic version of the previous point);
• worry about losing out on work / projects / opportunities to colleagues (again depending on the nature of the role);
• stress and strain at home (a lot of people have partners who work from home or who look after kids at home, or have other caring responsibilities or stresses going on at home. In some cases being home ill rather than in work might be more stressful / disruptive for them than turning up to work in these cases, especially if the partner is also unwell and needs looking after);
• the fact that not working for a few days might end up creating so much work stress that it just doesn't seem worth it (I've been there on this one too - the thought of dealing with the consequences of my absence when better was grim enough to make me drag myself in).

I'm not saying any of this makes it good for people to come to work ill and I wish that no one had to. Hopefully though you can empathise a bit with people who choose to do this though - there are so many possible reasons that labelling people as selfish really doesn't seem fair to me, especially when you don't know the detail of what is going on in their lives and of how their existing experiences are influencing the way they see their situation.

That's pretty unusual I'd say and maybe explains why you don't understand why other people who don't work in such generous places might take a different view

You need to ask your questions of your workmates

My employer only gives sick leave to long standing employees. The rest get nothing when ill. Everyone's absence is monitored with the Bradford factor which is some sort of mathematical equation which gets you closer to your P45 with each day off.

I work in the public sector and colleagues do this all the time. I have no idea why. Our jobs might be fairly important (healthcare) but not worth spreading germs to colleagues (and patients!)

The Bradford Factor formula itself is: S² x D = B.

This means that the number of spells of absence (S) is multiplied by itself, with that number then multiplied by the total number of days a person was absent (D) during a 52-week period.

For example:
If Jeff calls in sick six times (S = 6), taking two days off on one occasion and one day on each of the other five (therefore D = 7), then his Bradford Factor score would be 252 (because 6 x 6 x 7 = 252).

Meanwhile, if Amelia has only two spells of absence in the same year, but takes more days off (three days on one occasion and six days on the second), then her Bradford Factor score would be 36 (2 x 2 x 9 = 36).

If people took time off every time they have a cold their score would be terrible and they would face disciplinary action.

I work in a school and it is explicitly stated that we are expected to come in if we are able to work irrespective of if we have covid etc. Of course the expectations are the same for students so it is an absolute germ fest hence I have had 3 separate cold/flu/rsv/covid infections (no test so I don't know which) since September.

I did hope we would learn from covid and start to be more infection aware and stop behaving in ways that spread things so much. Alas it appears not to be so.

A few things here

If they were in work, they didn't have flu. People die with flu it makes you feel utterly horrendous. You wouldn't be going into work with it

If you came into contact with them yesterday they can't possibly have given you anything. In fact you were probably incubating and likely were already contagious so could have made others ill without knowing it

And as others have said, if you get 3-4 colds a year and take sick leave each time you will likely get flagged and end up on attendance management

You don’t just get 6 months worth of everything though, do you? It’s not like you can have a week of colds, some stomach upsets, a few headaches etc up to the value of 6months?

We now do “hybrid working” so we only have to go into the office 50% of the time. (Although many people - me included - go in a lot more than that as they like to.)

But the expectation is that if you have so much as a sniffle then you work from home until completely better.

It is brilliant! I haven’t had a single cold this year so far. (Touch wood! Watch as I now come down with horrific flu tomorrow.)

Of course it does mean that the person who hates working in the office has been suffering from “think I am coming down with something” every other week since mid September so I am starting to worry about his immune system. 😂

I had it the once when I took a day off after a weekend to ensure it was 48 hours after D&V. It was my first day off sick in three years. I was never late or disappearing during the working day in any of those years and often put in hours outside of contractual. However it was a hot weekend and several managers commented that I had been skiving to make the most of the hot weather. It's things like this that make people reluctant to take time off when ill. When you've got bills to pay or chasing promotions/pay rises for some taking the risk of being off isn't appropriate.

The sickness policy is for sick note absence in my workplace. And to be sent home by your manager is more preferable than phoning in sick. As you tried and someone senior sent you home, so they then can't really shout at you

I have deadlines...my work has to be filed at certain times. No one else picks the work up, unless I have a sick note (you don't get a sick note for a cold) If filings are late, I get the blame... no option than to sit there coughing and spluttering. I refuse to work from home because I should be allowed to recuperate, so don't feel like I need to do anyone else any favours

Bradford factor and on retail it's usually a 4 strikes and then they try to get rid of you.