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?

I was recommended by a pharmacist years ago to take vitamin C with zinc. When you're ill you need extra vitamin C but the zinc kills infection.

Twinings Superblends Tea has extra vit C and echinacea in it too and is quite nice.

Do you get any extra recognition for only ever having one day off sick over the last 15 years (or however long)?

I probably have about 4 days a year - used to suffer from regular chest infections, but being a bit healthier and wfh seems to have knocked that on the head. I never saw the pout. If dragging myself into work and potentially infecting others just so I had a perfect attendance. I get it, if your self employed or something is literally life-threatening, but otherwise if I'm unwell I won't be heading into work l.

Excuse my dreadful spelling and typos

Actually proper sick days where I log off for the whole day and don't work at all. I reckon it's like 2-3days in my whole 15 year career.

Days were I work from home but don't quite work full hours. Around 2 days a year.

When I had morning sickness I couldn't even get out of bed for 3 months. But I still logged on for a few hours every day to keep on top of things.

Some people have a lower immune system than others. Years ago when I had bronchitis (didn't smoke) it was discovered I also had asthma (is now mild but then was not mild but not severe, I certainly needed inhalers and monitoring). Doctor and nurse told me than asthma makes you more prone to getting colds and flu. I now have a flu jab every year.

Asthma runs in my family (my brother had chronic asthma and almost died twice as a child) but women tend to develop it when older whereas boys tend to grow out of it. We also have bad chests and tendency to pneumonia etc.

3 days in the first 15 years of my career for a bout of the ‘flu.

About 2 weeks in the last 18 months with a toddler in nursery and passing across a couple of bouts of norovirus plus two rounds of covid which made me too nauseous to sit up for about 3 days. What can you do 🤷🏻‍♀️

None in recent years. Last time was 2011, when I had to have a week in hospital, inc surgery, as a result of an emergency admission. Was self-employed for many years, so not an option, but even as an employee I will drag myself in with minor ailments.

Normally no more than 1-2 each year, but not taken any off since we've been able to WFH. Days I've had a bad cold for example and couldn't face my lengthy commute, historically, I would call in sick, now I can WFH I will still log on and do what I can, taking a quick nap at lunchtime if needed. I had my appendix out in March 2020 and was signed off sick for 2 weeks, but had a big project on at the time so was back working within a couple of days from home - albeit only doing maybe 3-4 hrs a day to cover what I needed on the project.

Well it depends how often I'm sick. Some years maybe none, other years maybe 2-3 occasions. This year I've had covid twice and a vomiting bug, nothing I could do about it but has ended up with a lot of days.

4 days could easily be one sickness bug taking onto account the 48hr rule.

There's no prizes for going into work when you feel like shit. If I'm sick I'll take a sick day.

Only if I'm really ill. Some years none, some years 3 or 4 (awful stomach bug).

DH will retire in about 8 years and he has only had 1 day off sick - and that was a couple of years ago.

Also I can't work from home and have a fairly demanding job in a hospital. If I can manage a day at work I will obviously do it, but I feel no guilt in calling in sick if Im properly ill and would struggle. I'm not going to sit on my death bed and be proud of the time I vomited at work

I'm disabled and have had 1 day in the last 10 yrs. I'd crawl over broken glass to get to work, I can't give anyone the opportunity to suggest I'm not well enough to work. I've been forced out of my job before because of my disability and I feel like I must have a perfect record at all times.

Depends really doesn't it. I've went years with no sick time, then maybe 1-3 days for things like Norovirus. I had two weeks off for a chest infection one time when I was on steroids and antibiotics.

Then in January I caught COVID and had four months off work, haven't been off since and hoping to keep it that way for a long time!

@DenholmElliot1

public sector organisations do have generous sick leave policies - we also have attendance management policies.
Where I work my trigger point is 8 days to start formal processes in a rolling year. I still had to go through formal meetings when I was away for 3 weeks after surgery and clearly a genuine sickness absence
Its very easy to spot patterns =eg Monday morningitis and I have had words with my own staff after suspicious absences, even when they hadn't reached a trigger point.

None since 2016

Reading some of the other messages about kids, I agree I've had to take days off work when they've been ill. Some managers have put it through as parental leave/annual leave and some as sick leave.

Agree with the above poster about attendance management policies. I'm NHS and our trigger point is more than 4 or more separate absences in a rolling year or more than 8 days in a rolling year.

The only sick days I've had in the last 2 years were for Covid. 10 days for me and 10 days isolating with my ds when close contacts still had to.
Previous to that maybe 5 in the last 10 years! I generally don't get ill, and I'm a teacher so it's just so much hassle setting cover work and picking up the pieces when I get back that if it's just a cold or whatever then I just dose up and go in.

One in the past 20 years. I was so sick I couldn't stand up. But that's it. I'm the boss and I don't like taking sick days. But also, I WFH so unless I'm at death's door, I will work. I'm guessing most people who run their own business are probably the same.

Usually none.

When I was employed I had two days off in ten years. Then got pregnant with HG and had 8 weeks off, came back for three hours and had to have another month off!

Luckily I was running my own business by the time I was pregnant with DS2.

Well I'm currently on week 3 🙄 I wanted to go back at the end of week 1 but my GP actually laughed at me and told me not to be ridiculous. I don't want to be off and I'm not skiving. I've never taken a day when I didn't need to, and I'd be off regardless of whether I get paid or not, for the simple fact that I never take time off when I'm actually well enough to work.

None since 2015 and that was only because I broke a couple of ribs. I only get SSP so can't afford to be off ill.

On average, about 2-4 days a year. But I have a lot of underlying health issues, including joint dysfunction in my knees, stomach problems and mental illness. Last year was particularly bad and ended up in hospital over night because of my stomach. I only get SSP, so if I'm ill, then it's not ideal. But it can't be helped

My DP on the other hand has been off for a grand total of 5 days in the past 15 years when he caught covid. So we're literally like chalk and cheese. Plus we have a 6yo, so I catch everything going with him. Always have some form of cold or another every other month, but thankfully most of the time not unwell enough to work, just a bit miserable. I think I'm just unlucky!

I've had 5 days off with covid in 5 years.

I was a civil servant for 35 years so had a generous sick leave entitlement (6 months on full pay). Fortunately, I am blessed with good health and during that time I only had 9.5 days off sick.

That included a week off when I started bleeding in early pregnancy, which these days wouldn't go on my sick record, and 3 days off for a planned operation. I also had a day off when I banged my arm at work, fainted from the pain and then cut my head open on the corner of a desk on my way down!