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 🤷‍♀️

I’m not a martyr I just don’t take to my bed much.

Funnily enough, I looked at my sick record earlier. 8 days in the last 6 years. Although I work compressed hours so 2 days sick might equate to a week off work depending on rotas.
Plus, one of my shifts is a Sunday night which would be very difficult to cover so there are often times when perhaps I shouldn't go into work but I do because of guilt.

I have to take days off when I get bad migraines, the last couple of years (post menopause) this has really gone down to just 3-4 days a year which is a huge relief. I work through mild to moderate migraines and don’t tell anyone unless I absolutely have to, an example being last week when a migraine came on an hour before a meeting I was supposed to lead with a number of overseas guests. I did manage the meeting in the end but felt I had to tell my manager so there was back up arranged in case the migraine got worse. Generally if a migraine comes on at work I drink lots and relocate to one of the quiet desks away from my team where I can ride it through in peace and stick to straight forward tasks until I’ve got over it. I find employers and people in general are hopeless about chronic illness and always expect you to be able to do something about it to make it better. Duh, if it was that easy I’d have sorted it out over 40 years ago. Other than migraines I take probably a couple of days a year on average with bad colds, etc, I can work from home if I get a cold and so do that rather than take a sick day. Sick days are for when you really can’t read because your eyes are streaming, etc.

One or two days a year. My primary job is very physical (fitness) and I have a second job working with the elderly so don't feel I can do either of those if I'm properly unwell. I do work if it's just a cold though. I was lucky for years with my health and rarely got even a cold, but have had more viruses in last couple of years; maybe a post- Covid thing, and have also had several tooth infections recently and had to take a day off after an extraction. Hoping I can get back to my prior good health but might just be getting the menopause out of the way first!

Once in the last few months for an upset stomach. Not risking a 45 minute drive each way when that's going on.

Last time before that I was off, it was for a week with Covid, which was over a year ago.

Only if I really can't work. I wfh which helps in that regard.

10y as a Dr, 5 as med student. 5dx3 for mandatory isolation (swine flu and covid). 1 day out if choice when had swab confirmed flu (trust I was at doesn't isolate for it which is v odd). Tbh I spend the whole of every winter with some form of virus thanks to the patients, I'd never work if was off sick with that lol

I haven't been off sick since last March (scheduled operation so not actually 'don't feel well today so I'm not coming in' situation). I needed 5 days to recover but I did still work at home (teacher so I got lots of planning done in that time).

it depends what is happening at work and whether i can cope with work and feeling under the weather.

I had two days off with a stomach bug last year. I don't think I'd taken any sick days before then. I'm lucky, I don't tend to get things that puts me out of action.

I am lucky that i have always enjoyed very good health. I am now retired, but I took 9.5 days off sick in over 30 years in my last job.

5 of those days were while I was bleeding early in pregnancy and I took them off more as a precaution than anything else. These days they wouldn't count as sick days.

3 were for a minor (planned) operation.

1 was for an accident at work. I had an accident before 9am, fainted from the pain, cracked my head open on a desk as I fell, and was sent off to hospital in an ambulance!

The half day followed a very unpleasant dental appointment during my lunch break. I was in such a state that a colleague drove me home.

So none of them were actually for being ill.

It varies, I’ve had about a week / 10 days each time I’ve had Covid (twice) since 2021 and I’m currently on day 10 of a sick period with flu / chest infection.

I’ve gone two years without sick and I’ve also had some years where I’ve had an operation or an accident where I’ve had a couple of months off. I’ve worked for 35 years so it will add up over my working lifetime I guess.

3 days in about 30 years. I am very rarely ill and if I am it's usually when I have time off.

I had 5 sick days in 8 years and then had to have 6 weeks off last autumn for a broken foot and now I’m facing into at least another 3 to 4 as I’ve broken my foot again. While I feel bad leaving my colleague in the lurch (there’s only two of us in the dept) unfortunately I can’t hobble around a hospital in a boot and with a crutch.

That seems very unlucky. Same foot or the other one?

So people who don't take time off, do you just keep working regardless or are you lucky not to get ill in the first place?

I don't think I'm a slacker but I do get migraines, injuries, had a few minor operations, and haven't completely dodged flu and COVID. If I had gone to work I'd have literally been sitting at my desk doing nothing useful and charging a client for it.

I must say I’m surprised with the amount of people who don’t take time off work! Or are you not including disability-related absences?

It would depend on your drugs and alcohol policy at work, there is a procedure to review prescription drugs and how they affect your role. I can imagine you might not be able to do a safety critical role unless you could show you weren't affected. But sometimes people on those meds long term are less affected than if you just have a few days.

Barely ever at all. I’d usually work from home if it was something I didn’t want to spread.

Then I got Covid when it first arrived and was off for six weeks in a row. Nothing since though.

I’ve been with the same company for 10yrs now, the first 5 I never had a sick day, had the odd cold but was always well enough to work. Then I had children, and have had a few a year since. I think between being exposed to more bugs etc from school and nursery and just being more tired I succumb to them a lot easier. Also that time post COVID where we were exposed to nothing probably didn’t help the immune system either.

I very rarely get poorly. Never had an operation, never caught covid, had flu once about 25 years ago. Got norovirus over Christmas once but I was off work for Christmas anyway! Never injured myself whilst I have been of a working age! I occasionally get headaches but they've never been a reason to have time off. I've occasionally had cold or a sore throat but no reason to be off work as a common cold doesn't impede on my ability to do my job.

I take a sick day when I'm sick.

There aren't any prizes for going in when you're unwell.

2 weeks in 2011?? For a hip replacement. Nothing since then.

Not since working from home. Last time I was really ill, with what the NHS said could be pneumonia, it was over Easter so I wasn't working anyway and just sat on the sofa watching Happy Valley for about 5 days.

The time I got food poisoning/noroviris (not sure which but I've never been so ill) I was so ill I couldn't keep a thing down not even water for 3 days (it was not pretty) and it took me a full 10 days to recover fully, I had the whole 7 days of self certifying off.

I'm fairly fit and healthy and very rarely get sick so when I do I'm really unwell.

Rarely, I worked in healthcare for years and think through that I picked up immunity to a lot of things.

Other than COVID (caught from my boss most likely) I had five days and they told me that I was not to work from home and when I had a really bad dental infection and took a days leave my boss found out and changed it to sick leave.

In my current job I am able to work from home so when I did have a heavy cold I worked from home rather than sick leave as there is a member of staff waiting on a transplant and I would not want to pass anything on to them.