How many sick days do you take?

[Mushroo]

Inspired by a Reddit thread. How many sick days do you take on average each year?

The consensus on Reddit seemed to be about 4 a year which I thought seemed quite high. Personally, I think I’ve had 2 or 3 in my working life (8 years) which I guess is low.

So just out of interest how many do you take?

None because i'm self employed.

I think you'll find the more generous the sickness package, the more sick day are taken. I'm looking at you, public sector workers!

Covid excepting, I used to take about a day and a half every year or two for a fluey virus.

Usually one or two, but this year seems to have been exceptional for illness. I needed a whole week for Covid and had a couple of other things I just couldn't work through.

Context?

Do you mean Caruso sick days, where you are unwell? Or sickies where you just call off?

If it's the former you are coming across as superior and ignorant. People with illnesses and disabilities may have a higher 'sickness' rate. You are no better then then for having less.

*GENUINE

Loads. Off every 4 months I guess it averages out at

Sorry for the random post above! Hit 'post' by accident. Depends on the job - I have flexi time now and work from home so can normally manage at least a chunk of work no matter what so haven't had a day off sick for several years. When I was working in a job with a long commute, aspects of manual labour and long hours, I took more sick days because it was harder to stagger through. And before anyone comments, I did try and push myself, leading to my collapsing on the tube one day. Some jobs are just harder on the body.

Oh god. Never!

I had two weeks off with COVID because I had it before the vaccines were a thing and was desperately ill but that was the first sick leave I'd taken.

My worst worst pet peeve is people pulling sickies which happens all the time in my place of work because our sickness policy is so lax. Infuriating!

There is no average, as I take the days that are necessary. Many years it has been 0, some years it has been more.

I haven't had a sick day in years. A lot easier now that I can just work from home though.

I am currently a contractor so don't get paid (or have to take it from my holidays) if I am off sick that is an incentive to work 😝

Maybe 2 weeks in 21 years. I had flu for 1 week then maybe 4 or 5 days since then. I'm never ill. Our policy is full sick pay for 6 months from day 1 so I don't think it's true the better the sick pay, the more days off are taken.

🙄 I took more sick days when I didn’t get paid for them than I do now as a healthcare worker for the NHS. Considering I’m surrounded by illness all the time!

Not all public sector workers take the piss. My trust also takes people to panel as part of the sickness policy and does let staff go.

My partner ( local council) worked through his covid illness while WFH. He has took one day off sick for the 11 years I’ve known him.

Probably an average of 2 a year. An average of 4 is reasonably high with no existing medical conditions....our employee average is around 2.5 days a year (I work in HR so look at absence rates a lot.) However one stint of 4 days off due to a bad illness is more understandable than someone having a Friday off sick every couple of months. It's not a hard and fast number as it depends on context, as a PP said people with disabilities may understandably have more sickness days.

Sick days for me? One or two a year, plus a few more WFH getting the bare minimum done.

Days off with sick children? Oh, thousands...

I believe in the two day rule - one day on your file is a total waste when they go by occasions rather than days.

In a normal year probably three occasions over the year.,

Since WFH def less, as there are some occasions where I can still work but just not manage the commute e.g dicky belly.

IT Contractor. Haven't had a sick day in years. It's only the permies that do.

I’ve never taken any sick days but have been lucky to be in generally good health and doing a job where I can clear my calendar and just reply to urgent emails if I feel rough

Only when I am sick, which is rare. I did just have 4 days for covid. Other than that I had 2 weeks after gallbladder removal and that’s about it in the last 4 years.

Sickness rates have also dropped with more people WFH. I think lots of times they may struggle through whereas previously if they'd had to commute into the office/be coughing and spluttering everywhere they would have had a day off. That isn't necessarily a good thing, but it's one of the changes we've seen since more staff have been working from home.

4 days seems a lot but then if you count people with long term illness like cancer or a big operation could easily take them 6 months to a year to be back at work. Then 4 days is nothing.

Also older people seem to take longer to shake off minor illness like colds and flu.

And anyone who works with food or children a sickness bug is 48 hours from last episode of illness so that can easily mean 3/4 days off work.

1 sick day in over 15 years working front line public sector.

0 days before that working in various retail/ private sector roles.

The one day I had off was for noro caught at work (went down with symptoms Thur night off Friday, back Monday).

I'm incredibly lucky to have very good health and I don't resent colleagues who have to take time off more regularly for whatever reasons.

Is it not also people are picking up less illnesses?

I've gone years and years without one sick day and then one year used the whole of my 6 month public sector full sick pay allowance. You can't help getting ill, being injured, having outside stress and being unable to work. I don't martyr myself anymore for a clean sick record. If I'm ill enough I can't do my job well enough then I don't do it. I am not sending myself to an early grave over stressing about work or by not doing my job well because I'm unwell and then stressing about that.

Private sector, moderately decent sick pay allowance.
One day that I can remember in the past 10 years, stomach upset and then it was the weekend anyway. But would have taken more if needed.
One day for one of the kids being ill in that time. DH has always been able to work from home though if needed.
None of us have had covid but if we had, I’d have taken what was needed.
So on average maybe a half day per year, possibly less.
Ironically I am normally ill during paid leave or normal days off work.

Colleagues seem to be off a lot more than me, but a number of them have chronic conditions that go through flares etc. They are always genuine. I don’t think I’ve worked with a ‘shirker’ since my early 20s tbh.