To think your work should leave you alone when you're ill?

It would trigger at my companies too.

Yes and therefore up to you to keep daily contact with your manger if in case of D&V. What does the sickness policy say?
D&V can last anything from 24 -72 hours. How would you know you would be off ‘for a few days in advance?? You could have returned on day 3
it was half term last week for many people. Just saying.

Agree that they should leave you alone while you're ill and that contacting you to discuss your illness while you're on the first day or two of illness is not appropriate. There's no point to this and it doesn't help your recovery.

Disagree with the way you frame your sickness record though. 3 times in less than a year isn't rare. If (and I appreciate this isn't exactly what you said, so please ignore if it's way off base) you are keeping abreast of the your sickness and just making sure you don't trigger warnings, or if this is the sort of sickness record you have most years, you may be coming across as somewhat mediocre. Not that that means they should be contacting you to talk while you're sick, just giving you a heads up that many managers won't see your sickness record the way you seem to see it.

At my work depending on what it is you can text then call manager later. Then really they would expect at least text or phone call every other day. Twice in ten months isn't that rare really. Before last year I hadn't had any sick leave since 2020. Last year I was off sick twice. Once was a planned operation in July and the other was Covid in November.

On a thread about bowel issues which was on here a while ago someone posted that her friend who has bowel problems does not eat anything at work all day because she would be crapping all the time.
How is it that we have come to this unacceptable treatment of employees. Where someone has to starve all day at work for fear of losing their job

This happened last week...

When you rang your manager back what did they say?

You seem to be getting the usual office martyrs responding to you on this thread.

As long as you follow the policy on how to report illness in your workplace first thing in the morning then that is all you need to do.

Your manager should not be calling you again in the middle of the day once you have already reported your illness. Any meeting about your health should be conducted when you are back at work.

You can self-certify for 7 days and then you need a fit note from your GP.

Everyone in my team of 7 people have been off sick at least two or three times this year with things like flu, covid or accidents (two of my colleagues had to deal with broken bones). So I don't think your record is that unusual.

Funnily enough, when people are paid to do a job, they need to be there a certain amount of time to do a job. It's not unreasonable to have a review for above average sickness.

I’m never off sick but I think the idea of a standard amount of sick leave is bonkers and controlling as fuck.

Some people are ill much more frequently than others! Who gets to decide what “rare” or “common” is?

3 times in 12 months is a lot and you would normally trigger.

Have u followed the company policy as per your contract for sickness and absence? Where I work you need to make agreement with manager for regular update. Ie if it’s an illness likely more than 3 days (chicken pox as an example) you need to agree next contact.
If you have not followed policy you are putting yourself at risk for unauthorised absence and non payment.

We have to ring in daily unless long term sickness

Planning to have " a few days" off with d&v isn't normal either. Unless you work in a school or healthcare setting, most people would see how they feel on a day to day basis.

I don't think that 3 times in less than a year is "rare to be off", that sounds really quite frequent to me. It can't be helped if you're ill, of course, but I don't know of anyone in my team that has been off 3 times in 12 months

OP I’ve just triggered absence process. Off sick three times in last rolling 12 months. In my case manager isn’t worried but has procedures. They allow me to raise things. However it is also legal cover for the employer. Multiple absence may indicate a problem at work and management need to check steps have taken. It could impact in the future any dismissal or discrimination claim if it went to Tribunal.

One "when you have some time" call with your manager is perfectly reasonable.

3 episodes of illness that require multiple days off in 9 months is fairly high. And frankly calling to tell them that you would be out 3 days rather than taking it day by day will usually raise an eyebrow or two unless you've had specific medical instructions to isolate/stay home for at least 72 hours.

But regardless, it's fine for a manager to call once, particularly if your job involves any sort of time-sensitive tasks or other things that might need to be passed to a colleague.

@Thatsnotmynameee

It is. And literally every single person on this thread is telling you the same.

They may all be genuine reasons but it absolutely would trigger a review in most places. But a review is just that...if it's obvious that you weren't taking the piss and all the cases weee genuine, they're likely just to monitor.

But the thing that is concerning here is that you don't see it as a lot of absence when it most definitely is

Don't be put off by the many messages here telling you it's frequent.

That really depends on what your job and level of contact with the public is.

WFH and all meetings are on Teams? I'm not surprised if you're in all the time.

Office work with the same people all day? Again, you'd be hard pushed to find a reason for so many serious infections unless your immune system is compromised.

Working as a healthcare practitioner in a GP practice full of people coming in with flu, D&V and other infectious diseases? I'd be surprised if it wasn't more often. Same goes for infant school teachers, nursery assistants and shop workers in close contact with the public at all times.

I think 3 times in a year is pretty frequent.
I've not taken a day since around 2018 - 2019 and my mum never had a day off sick in 30 years of working full time - now that is rare!

You say it's rare but it's actually over the average for sickness and we use the Bradford score, this would put you forward for a meeting about your sickness as it's 3 instances in a year

3 periods of sickness in 10 months is a lot.

They may all be legitimate, but your work are right to be concerned.

You've been ill a lot. They are checking in which managers are expected to do with multiple sickness periods in a 12 month period.
I have been ill over the last 12 months but not ill enough to take a day off. I think I've had four sick days (in a row) over the past 6 years. So only one period of absence.
Compared to most people that have replied, you have had a lot of time off sick.

I’m shocked at most people here. At my job almost everyone is off three times a year, many more! It’s not treated as a big deal at all.

Triggers are usually 10 days or 3 occurrence in a 12 month period.

I had a 4 days in 2024 due to bad back. Prior was bereavement leave in 2019 when a parent died.

I dont have a lot of absence

You have significant amounts.