How often do you take a sick day?

[Rapunzel91]

For those employed, how often do you take a sick day from work? And do you still sometimes work when ill?

Im ill all the time so tend to just work at home when I have a cold which is often. I’ve got a stomach bug today but feel like I still need to work as I took a sick day about a month ago 🤢

I think I’m ill more than the average person to be fair. Don’t know why, just seem to pick up everything 🤷‍♀️

There are lots of terrific company martyrs in this thread.

They won’t write your sick day count on your gravestone

Very rarely. I am hardly ever sick and will usually just work through it. I have had Covid twice and only took one day off each time. Obviously working from home.

But last year I had a bad fall and then took the next day off as I was very badly bruised, as well as shaken. Then later in the year I had another day off after I was the victim of a road rage incident.

These threads bring out 2 types of people:

1. I once took a sick day in 1992. A few more months and I get a letter from the king and a medal, don't I?

1. I think I heard someone 2 desks down SNEEZE earlier. Yes, they covered their mouth, blew their nose and used some hand gel but that's not enough, why aren't they wearing a face mask, or better yet at home? Why are they being such a martyr? I bet they don't even take daily covid tests either. Oh god, they've sneezed again! Why can't everyone with the slightest cold symptoms stay at home, don't they care about meeee?

3 sick days in the past 5 years. Once when DD gave me norovirus, luckily that passed in a day, and then a couple of days off when I caught covid because the recent variants make me feel like I have the worlds worst hangover, with terrible nausea & dizziness, so I couldn’t be upright for 2 days.

Edited to add, otherwise I’m pretty healthy. I’m happy to take a day off sick if I’m unable to function fully enough to do my job, I’ve just not had the cause to do so that much.

@OttersAreMySpiritAnimal thanks for that statistic, it’s interesting but it doesn’t surprise me that average sick days in the U.K. have crept up since the pandemic. A lot of it is down to COVID itself, I think it’s definitely added to the annual acute illness count for many people, if you experience COVID as just a cold (and many do) it’s no big deal but it’s not that unusual to have a flu like illness with high temps etc.

I would also say that I think a lot of people are struggling with their mental health since the pandemic due to it’s effects (and not helped by Truss crashing the economy right after etc), so I’m sure some of that is a mental health issue). And when wages are pretty stagnant and many employers are trying to squeeze every bit of productivity out of their employees and trying to make them do what 6 people used to do ten years ago, there is less goodwill in the system and so it’s not a surprise that on a day where people feel 50:50 about whether they could manage work and have paid sick leave think no, I’m not going to push myself for an employer that doesn’t put themselves out for me.

I’d go to work with a normal run of the mill cold.

If had a stomach bug, I’d definitely stay off. Nobody would be impressed if you came into work with one!

Edit: In my last job, I had one sick day in 2 years.

Excluding being signed off for 6 weeks last year, I probably average 4 days a year. It can really vary depends how sick the kids get and what gets passed to me. What is going around the office etc.
I can WFH and tend to if I have a cold. More so I don't spread it further. It's also grim sneezing and blowing your nose in the office every 5 seconds.
Sickness bugs I'll take the time off I'm actually sick then WFH for the 48 hour window if I am well enough.
I suffer from migraines but they are mostly managed now so 1 probably a year is related to that.

Edit to add - pre children I rarely had a sick days. Probs 1 every 3 years.

2015 zero
2016 one
2017 one (the day after I started a new job! I had D&V)
2018 one
2019 zero
2020 one
2021 zero
2022 zero
2023 one (norovirus. WFH rest of week)
2024 zero
2025 zero

I’m considering changing my job because of the constant illness. Children coming to school with temps of 39 and horrific coughs. No wonder we are always ill.

SE so almost never. I remember having to lead a conference with the worst flu virus I had had in years. Never counted the seconds until the end of the week more.

Never. I work from home if I'm unwell and clear my diary of non essential calls and meetings. I can do that because I'm fortunate and can manage my own diary.

I am currently off long term sick due to an accident and surgery. I am getting a lot of support from my employer. I think some of this is due to the fact that I've not been absent in the 22 years that I've worked here!

Appreciate not everyone's circumstances are the same!

I have the odd day off for ibs .. but do take buscopan if I am having a bad morning .. it often helps ..

I work with vulnerable adults so am aware of that … however they don’t consider me . I had to be about a ruler length away from someone the other week , who afterwards informed me he had whooping cough.

I have had a week off for Covid and 3 weeks off for serotonin syndrome ..

work will continue without me and if I am too ill to go I don’t .. I do have inbuilt guilt though

Same, my last sick day (well 2 days) was in 2010 after my last miscarriage.

Rarely, but I WFH with a low workload. I'll let work know I'm under the weather so usually get the urgent stuff out of the way and take it easy for most of the day.

I have retired, in 35 years I had 2 long sick leaves when I had operations so had two 3 week periods off.

When it comes to odd days for illness practically none. I have never had a sickness bug. I have had proper flu twice but both times at Christmas so was off work anyway.

DH had a virus and was off for a week and that was the only sick leave he had in 28 years.

Since Covid I have had far more illness, I’m pretty sure it messed with what was my very robust immune system.

Rarely. I've taken once since 2021.

I have had a few days when I've felt like I've needed a "mental health day" but my company doesn't offer those so I haven't.

I a teacher and this really resonates with me. I get nasty colds all the time and they often turn into chest infections. I'm obsessive about keeping windows open in the classroom and using hand gel but still!
I have the Covid and flu boosters every year as I'm asthmatic.
I've been taking Selenium for years, trying to help my immune system, so maybe I'd pick up even more bugs without it 🤨

Last sick day was about three years ago.

I've had 21 days sick leave in 22 years which includes 2 weeks in hospital in 2017. I don't ever work from home, I think I've got a fairly strong constitution!

Because, unless it's something serious, I don't get paid and those bills won't pay themselves.

On average probably two or three a year. If I have a bad cold, I would work from home as I absolutely hate it when other people are coughing and spluttering in the office. So it's only if I get a sickness bug (thanks kids!) or an illness that means I'm wiped out and couldn't work from home.

Working from home definitely means I take fewer sick days. I did my back in last year and if I'd have had to go into the office, I couldn't have so would have been off work. As it was, I could work from home propped up with lots of cushions and taking regular breaks as I didn't have the commute to contend with.

If I can get up, get dressed and drink a cup of tea I work.

I had a day off in December due to a chest infection that required anti-biotics. I'd have had a few more days off but was due at something very business critical that week.

Feb 2024: two days due to gastro-enteritis.

May 2021: two days due to broken wrist (it was pinned).

2015: 4 days due to a chest infection

That's the 10 year pattern over a 40 year career.

One thing I have learnt is that people aren't better or more tenacious if they never take a sick day. They are just luckier/built differently.

For people with disabilities and underlying conditions it can take a lot of grit just to work on "good days".

some of the most brilliant people in my team take quite a lot of sick days due to underlying conditions, but they are brilliant and hard working and hugely valued members of my team. The odd sick day here or there is nothing compared to the quality and efficiency of their work.

How do you even know this 😅

I don’t understand why it’s something to be so proud of?

I've gone from one extreme to the other, hadn't had a sick day in 18 years but am now currently signed off for one month for extreme pregnancy related symptoms 😔 even though I've been at my company for 10 years and they know I hadn't had a sick day, I still feel awful about this time off