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 🤷‍♀️

Actually full off work ? Probably 2022.

Otherwise if I have a cold or something contagious (covid) I work from home.

When I had covid I didn’t do a great deal of work I have to say - but I did then vital bits from bed.

Probably more than most. I've had several months at a time off for depression over the years.

In the past year I had time off for a chest infection and then another good tonsillitis. I worked through the preceding viruses and then got felled by infections.

I've got young kids who share every germ. I actually work quite often when unwell (from home), last week I worked a whole day with an upset stomach. But when I'm too unwell to sit up, I'll take the time off!

When I'm unable to do my job.

Hardly ever. I’m a teacher so let down 50-100 people a day if I don’t go in. So if I have a minor cold or something then I tend to go in and just plough on. We have meetings on Wednesday afternoons that start at 2.20pm so I’m far more likely to bail on those than on the students. I’ve also been teaching for 16 years and have 2 small children so have a hardened immune system by now! It really takes something for me to be off sick.

Apart from maternity leave and the odd time I've had to go and pick up the children when they were sick, I've been off 3 days sick in my entire working life (20 years)

rarely, once last year when I was throwing up out of my eyeballs (possibly impossible and just felt like it!) but otherwise I just go in (with agreement from bosses) but not for about 3.5y before that.

My dad always drummed in that you don’t miss school or work unless your leg is hanging off (and even then, try a plaster first) and its stuck with me, its not sensible and its not healthy, I am aware of this but can’t get out of the mindset but its not a positive thing, we should look after ourselves better.

Towards the end I was taking one a week and leaving early due to severe anxiety. I was hardly working at all...I wasn't getting paid either as I was on zero hrs contract and paid hourly.

Last one was in 2006 but I work in France where we are not paid for the first three days of sick leave and will now, from March 1st, only be reimbursed 90%, even after the three days are over.
So eager to retire ( last year) and finally be able to prioritize myself.

Yes indeed, and it's often the employees in 'caring' roles or those that mix with the public that face the most issues.
I know I did when in social care, which is actually appalling when you're dealing with vulnerable people, for whom your bug could quite easily cause real problems or even death, yet all the framework that exists around sickness for employees is designed to very much discourage protecting those people you're employed to care for.
I had an employer put a blanket ban on sickness over the Christmas period, as in told all staff that even a sick note wouldn't be accepted if someone didn't work their shift, then they would be sacked. I mean how can that even be workable? You're not supposed to even be allowed to work when a Dr has signed you off sick, yet this employer fully expected that they'd be well within their rights to do this. Luckily for them it wasn't tested, because I can't imagine it ending well for anyone had it been.

This is the 'culture' that needs addressing far more than people being martyrs. There'll always be some who are of course, but far more that are pushed into it because of the very real concequences of actually taking time off when you are sick.

And I'm always reading on here how we've got too many people on long term sick, maybe there's a correlation between people continuing to work when they shouldn't, the toll that takes, and then the following long term effects of that, on the individual and other people who then catch it and end up ill - and working through it. We can't have it all ways, either people take time off when sick to recover and aren't punished for that, or they don't and we deal with the concequences.

Difficult to say. Pre COVID you'd have to be almost at death's door to be able to call in sick (working in a school), but still left feeling guilty .

Since then I've had 5 months off with a huge health problem, a few days off each time with COVID (had it 3 times now) and the odd day with what I consider 'genuinely unfit to work' symptoms.

If I have a cold I'd request to wfh as there's no need to spread germs unnecessarily. I have an understanding boss and a sensible team that doesn't take the piss though, I think that helps.

Loads. Loads and loads. I've had a bout of bad luck health wise in the last few years and have had more sick days than normal.
I also have a poor immune system and seem to get ill more than most do.
Not everyone who has lots of time off is taking the piss - some people are just more unlucky than others.

I WFH and try to power through, but I do find that makes the illness drag on. I had 1.5 days off sick last year when I had a nasty bug and rested up to see if I could shake it off quicker rather than being logged on all week but feeling awful and not actually getting much done.

DH doesn’t work from home and is client facing and a bit of a sickly lamb anyway and he seems to take loads more sick days than me, he is always actually properly sick though. I keep thinking it will trigger something at work, but he seems to think that he isn’t off anymore than anyone else in his team.

I do feel I get iller more often post Covid, which is really annoying. But touch wood, nothing proper this winter so far.

@Maverickess You’re right that social care is probably even worse than the NHS for this almost abusive employer-employee relationship. I have definitely picked that up over the years having had a few social worker patients. And they were definitely lucky nobody pushed them on that ridiculous (and illegal I’m sure) policy.

I also agree with you that ultimately this presenteeism culture which often results from undue pressure from management not to take sick leave, can lead to more time taken off sick in the long term. The last time I was off sick with depression for example (secondary to stress from the pandemic - work stress and general stress of the whole situation with family etc), I ended up taking 3 weeks, but I absolutely felt pushed by my employer (and my parents who are great in so many ways but are very much “you go to work if you’re not dead” people) into going back to work earlier than I should. Ideally if
I’d probably have taken 6 weeks off to recover enough to be able to function well without the return to work flooring me. I’ve been kind of struggling on with some level of depression and burnout ever since and I regret not standing up for myself more at the time and taking the time I really needed to recover fully. And I do worry that at some point it will all crash completely and I’ll then need months not weeks off work.

But it’s really hard with mental illness in particular, partly due to stigma and lack of understanding on the employer’s part, and partly because it’s hard to make good rational decisions when you are mentally unwell. And also I think because it generally does take a reasonably long time to recover from mental illness unfortunately.

A few a year. Work from home with a cold. Before we were able to work from home, I probably took more sick days, as we were very much encouraged to not come in and pass things on. I had minor surgery at the end of last year resulting in a week off, but that's probably the longest stretch I've had in a long time.

3.5 days in the past year, all for migraine

@CassandraWebb thank you for saying this. As someone with several chronic illnesses I so appreciate an employer taking this attitude.

I think I took two days off when I was just fed up. In fact one day I headed off to work, got off the tube early and spent the morning shopping. I worked in publishing though so this was definitely time off in lieu, but I didn't tell them in advance! I was at that firm for five years. Oh I also didn't make it one day after a bad break up. Crying in the bus on the way in and I just couldn't face it.
I once had a filler job working retail and called in sick when I wasn't. Only the once though.
I actually don't recall ever taking a day off for actually being sick, and certainly worked with a bad cold.

Hardly ever. I can often do a decent days work at home if I have a chest infection (I tend to get a bad one most winters at least once). Or maybe take 1 day in bed and a few quieter days at home but still working.

I rarely have stomach bugs or other issues needing time off. I had a couple of bouts of Covid but was so bored I mostly worked through those (2 days ugh in bed then slower pace but needed to do stuff as isolating in 1 room to avoid the rest of the family).

I also always wonder about the quality of work someone will do it unwell. I would far rather they properly rested and came back fully focused.
I tried to be a hero and work between hospital stays when I had hyperemesis. I picked up some files a year or so later and was horrified by the quality of the work I had done. Far better to rest and get back to work fully focused.

0 days since 2014 when i had a terrible case of tonsillitis that had me not able to move from my bed for 5 days.

Im generally never unwell apart from an odd sniffle here and there but very mild.

Since WFH (which is 5 years now) I have taken 2 days. One for Noro, half a day to take DC2 to A&E and half a day to go to urgent care myself with suspected DVT.

I also took a week's leave when my mum died very suddenly and unexpectedly.

WFH makes a huge difference!

Apart from enforced days of during covid I think my last one was about 2018

I WFH so would have to be pretty bad not to do any work on a particular day. I don’t think I’ve had a single day off in the last 10 years in my current role but will have had a handful of days when I wasn’t at 100%.

I’ve never had anything approaching a full week off sick in the 25 years or so that I’ve been working. I suspect I’ve been very fortunate health wise.

Whenever I'm too ill to work. If I'm too ill to focus or dripping with snot then I can't do my job (can't imagine it's helpful if snot drips into glue that I'm mixing!). I probably get that sick once every few months and would need one or two days off.
Last time I took sick leave was because I hurt my back, so doctor put me on sick leave for 6 days. Felt better on the 6th day so went back to work a day early and got told off for coming in while on sick leave!