"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

I've sometimes called in sick after successive nights of bad sleep because often the only thing that can get me on track is to be able to have a long afternoon nap so I don't go to bed so tired that I panic about sleeping and don't sleep. These days I might just WFH and nap on my lunch hour but generally if someone is ill and it's meant they've slept badly those are both sound reasons for a day off to recharge.

You are overthinking this. People say this as they are unwell and have been up all night. Still unwell and not slept so not in a fit state to work. If a mistake is then made they would be in serious trouble.
Also if your managers aren't supportive about sickness you will give extra information such as up all night to explain things.
Some managers expect you to say more. If you say for example 'I've been vomiting and that's it they usually pause and make you feel uncomfortable. I have gone into work when unwell because felt pressured and then was moaned at that I was spreading germs. You can't win.
I feel this is very reasonable.
They are not really fit to do their job properly if not slept either due to feeling unwell.
Try to be more empathetic and supportive. Frequent sickness is usually a symptom of a unsupportive stressful environment. That's what annoys me!

Also why do managers notice this but not all the other times you stay late unpaid.
Strange that!

It's not weird at all. You have strange thinking.

If you've been up all night with an illness I can't see how you would be miraculously well enough to go to work in the morning. I think they're emphasising the severity of the illness, legitimising their need to stay off work, as opposed to taking a day off for tiredness.

If they are phoning in sick just because they haven’t been able to sleep then that is different and they are being cfs

Nonsense. I've called in sick when I've been up all night for more than 3 days straight. Insomnia is awful.

Really? 😂
People in this country dragging themselves to work while unwell?
Haven't seen a single one yet.

If I'm too unwell or too exhausted to attend work due to sickness in the night then I don't attend work, simple, because actually going to work isn't more important than my health and recovery.

I don't understand people who drag themselves in when they're clearly unwell, to be honest. Why would you, unless you don't get any paid sick leave and really can't afford to miss work? It's selfish to others and in some jobs I'd imagine downright dangerous to be at work/driving to work when unwell.

No ones job really is that important. Just stay at home if you're ill. It's none of your business what people's reasoning is, as long as they're not blatantly taking the piss.

I'd hate for my staff to feel they need to 'drag themselves in' when obviously unwell.

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.

So in the case of ‘cough’ for example. If you are up all night coughing then you are by definition quite ill 🤷 Do you want them to come in and cough all over the office? My team wfh if they can, but if they are unwell enough to be ‘up all night’ I would not be surprised if they took sick leave. If I as a line manager moaned about this, I’d expect HR to remind me how to behave.

I called off work and said I had been up all night when MIL died last year. We had the call shortly before midnight and were up all night from there. The managers knew but the staff didn't need to know.

Then you must have your eyes shut

At the very least there are women with endometriosis dragging themselves to work every month in agony from their illness

This kind of flippant comment is ableist at its core as well as ignorant

Don't they expand on the reason?
I've been up all night with a terrible cough/ norovirus - fair enough
I've been up all night with terrible anxiety - still fair enough, may affect capacity to work even though not contagious
I've been up all night partying - disciplinary

This.

I am a knowledge worker. I have to think really hard about an awful lot of the work I'm doing. There is literally no benefit to anyone, including my employer, of me being at work if I have been awake all night ill.

It doesn't happen very often but when it does it's a shrug and suck it up situation.

Sometimes I can work from home and spend a few hours sorting built up admin tasks if I have stuff to keep me busy, but otherwise I might as well rest up and be back up and running the next day.

Many jobs it is not wise to go in after being sick all night long. It’s not even safe to drive to work as that level of tiredness is more dangerous than drink driving. For alot of jobs, it could cause an industrial accident or if a healthcare job it could cause medical negligence or malpractice.

I think it is not a poor reason to call off work.

I always assumed that something along the lines of "I can't come in today, I'm ill and have been up all night" was a euphemistic/more delicate way of saying "I've been vomiting and have had diarrhoea for hours".

When I worked in hospitality many people had the same mentality as OP. Yes managers would try and force you to come in because they dragged their broken bodies in on no sleep and cracked out a 48 hour shift because of 'loyalty'. Yeah I'm sure people really do want me breathing my germs all over their food and drinks and my germy hands touching their cutlery and plates. Yum.

Now, if I haven't slept enough to drive in safely (yes driving is the only way to access my workplace) then like hell am I taking that risk for a company who'd have my arse replaced in a month if I died (let's face it, that's 99% of companies)

It depends on the reason for being up all night. If that is illness then it's fair, even if they are not ill in the morning.

If you're not fit for work then just say you're ill. No need to give a reason. At my last school we were asked not to give details as it was embarrassing for the Daily Organiser to have to listen to personal stuff.

I’ve been up all night. I had a sore shoulder/back, sore enough I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t pinpoint what was sore so took myself off to a&e as it’s a classic heart attack symptom. I got home about 6am, and told work what had happened and that i needed half the day off to sleep. They said of course, take the whole day if you need it.

People don't want to run themselves into the ground for a job anymore.

That's not a bad thing.

If someone says they can't come in because xyz, who are you to question that?

I have insomnia so I regularly go to work with hardly any sleep. However, last time I called in sick my cough had kept me up all night. The coughing made me exhausted and I couldn't settle. I'm used to tossing and turning but it wasn't the same. When I call in sick though, I've never said I've been up all night.

@GingerPirate nobody with an invisible illness then?

I'm often sat at work with a period pain patch on mainlining painkillers, or having taken morphine for bone pain
Several health conditions, don't qualify for PIP and work 40hrs a week
I try and keep the worst of it (weekly medication side effects) to the weekend
But you can't look at me and say oh she's not unwell

Up all night with whatever reason and therefore not fit to drive or work within one's capacity is a viable reason to be not fit for work

the guy who caused the selby derailment went to prison for falling asleep at the wheel. people died. i won’t do my 80 mile commute on 4 motorways on little or no sleep.(i’m in singapore on holiday at the moment for anyone who asks why i’m posting in the middle of the night)

In my experience it means they’ve been unwell overnight and still unwell.

However, I have called in sick on at least two occasions due to not being able to sleep at all.
If you have a very stressful job where mistakes can be dangerous then it’s a valid reason to not be fit to work. So it can be a safety issue.
It very much depends on job role.

People are able to self cert for 7 days and managers should just accept that.