"Up all night" reason for calling in sick

[cherrypied]

If you call in sick with "been up all night", do you mean you are tired from being ill or still ill?

Had a few recently of staff calling in sick because they "have been up all night" anything from headache /cold / cough/ bad stomach etc minor illnesses.

They call in sick the next day as they are stating they have "been up all night". Am I I taking this too literally? Because to me it seems like calling in sick for being tired rather than unwell?

Even if haven't slept well and have been ill, by the time 6am comes around I will get up and go to work. I'd only call in sick if I was still ill. And have dragged my bones in shattered having been up with a cold or cough etc

If someone says they have been up all night being sick, coughing etc then I would assume they are still sick the next day. Do you really want people coming into work if they have been up all night ill? Noone can perform well in that state and they are likely to pass something on.
I hate the culture in some organisations that people should drag themselves to work whatever state they are in. Ur benefits no one

I do think you're being too literal OP - when someone says they were up all night with an ailment, they're trying to convey the severity.

As for "And have dragged my bones in shattered having been up with a cold or cough etc"

If you're sufficiently ill with a respiratory virus that it's keeping you awake at say 4am, I really can't see how you're going to have recovered enough 4 hours later to into the workplace without infecting anyone. That's not heroics, that's being selfish.

They're knackered and need a day off

Not that complicated really

I had norovirus about 2 years ago. It started in the evening with nausea for a few hours, then vomiting for a few hours, then V&D for a few hours. By 5 am the worst of it was worst of it was over but oh my fucking god, no way would I be going anywhere.

One of my work policies is to phone in sick.

I remember at 5 am writing an email to say that I became very unwell over night and listing my symptoms. I explained that now at 5am I can keep down a drink of electrolytes. I wrote that I was exhausted because I had no sleep. I told them that I can't make a phone call and I need to sleep. Told that that they won't hear from me and I'm going to bed to hopefully sleep now.

My god, I would never turn around and go anywhere after such a night not to mention likely still being infectious.

More recently I had a dreadful bug that refused to go away. 6 weeks of headcold symptoms where I had sleep on the couch propped up. Many sleepless nights. It was a dreadful 6 weeks and I was expected just to keep on going. I was only allowed one sick day but it was hard. I was living of about 3 or 4 hours sleep and it was inhumane.

Honestly, some managers think they own their employee's souls.

If you want to drag yourself into work ill, exhausted, miserable, and possibly contagious, that's your choice, but don't expect other people to put their work before their physical or mental health.

Well said

I've always taken it to mean 'been up all night sitting on the toilet with raging diarrhoea' or 'been up all night clutching the washing-up bowl and heaving uncontrollably'.

I think its just a turn of phrase meaning they are exhausted from illness symptoms. In general I would say being tired from no sleep or broken sleep is not good enough reason, but the type of exhaustion that accompanies a bug can be different from just lack of sleep in itself. I had a child who never slept, I could have taken about 3 years consecutive days if lack of sleep counted as good enough reason to call in sick.

If I'd had 2 hours sleep say, the very last thing I should be doing is getting behind the wheel of a car. I would call in sick because I'm unwell. Sleep deprivation is a form of torture for a reason.

ETA: There's some jobs that absolutely can't be done on little to no sleep.

Yes I think this is my interpretation being to literal and it's just a turn of phrase @mrsdineen2

I'm not a manager.

I own no one's souls

I'd just ring in and say I'm too ill to work and not mention how I'd been up all night.

I do think it's a weird yardstick to judge the severity of an illness by though.

I always thought it was a euphemism for vomiting. Nothing to do with being tired.

I have insomnia and have often worked on 2 hours sleep and sometimes worked on no sleep

But if I am up all night throwing up Im not going to work the next day. I might still be contagious, I might still be sick and might suddenly start throwing up again, my food has got rid of any nutrients so I am tireder than just a night without sleep and I need time to recover.

But I have no truck with competitive presenteeism though and if any of my team looked crap because they had been sick all night I would be telling them to log off.

I agree with this.

I agree with PPs. Perfectly acceptable if you are a driver of some kind or operate heavy machinery, but probably less justifiable for e.g. desk jobs.

Do you think someone who has been up all night being sick is going to be well enough to work, then?

You don't need to give a reason though.

This. It's this martyrdom that has led to companies treating employees increasingly poorly. A bad stomach might seem like a minor illness to you but for someone with IBS a bad stomach means something else entirely.

And have you considered the fact that maybe your colleagues/employees do not want to give you a blow by blow account of their illnesses, and so they say "cough/cold/bad stomach" etc just to give you an idea of the issue without going into the details of their private medical history?

I would interpret this as a measure of how ill they've been, and possibly a euphemism for vomiting/diarrhoea.

Anyone who's too ill to sleep is also too ill to work so I wouldn't have a problem with it.

And another point, it's actually quite frustrating working with someone who clearly should not be at work. Someone who is coughing and spluttering or is clearly so tired that they aren't focused and are just looking through you in meetings etc. It's really obvious and does not do you any favours.

It very much depends on what your job is. When I worked in a care home administering medication I was told to come in anyway and someone else could do the meds.

I've done this this week. I was up vomitting in the night. I felt improved by morning, but wasn't fit for work.

Totally agree.

I'd assume the illness has kept them up and they are still suffering from the same symptoms- which are bad enough to prevent sleep so also prevent work

To get to work you likely need some mode.of transport. Wheather that's driving or public transport or walking. I presume a lot of people drive to work. If you have limited sleep let's say 2/3 hours. Driving tired is on the same level as driving drunk and it should be outlawed.

Up all night being sick - wouldn’t go in
Up all night because I couldn’t sleep - yes I would.