Can I get some advice please. Should I take a sick day now or will I wait and take sick days in the middle of the summer?

[ToothpickLady]

I know people would like read that heading and become angered perhaps and judge me for being lazy.

That's not it.

I work in care. It's in a private capacity. However the family I work for - I always enjoyed helping them but I think it's getting very bad now.

I am due to go to work soon but I am exhausted after not feeling well over the weekend. Not with a contagious illness.

Now I don't know if I should pull a sock day for today or will I push myself even though I feel like I have a hangover but I wasn't drinking. I am just so tired with so much to do.

The summer is going to be very hard and intense. I am booked for a whole entire week to be live in. This is lie going into work on a Monday and do all week until Friday. Finish Friday likely lately because they like their dinners out. Then move into work on a Saturday for a week until the following weekend. Then do another Monday to Friday week. I am looking at doing three weeks solid before I even sniff a day off.

I got a call over the weekend request me for next weekend and the following weekend too.

I am just flabbergasted.

It seems as if they want me to work all throughout July without any proper break in the schedule. I declined the extra work but I was asked to be available.

It gets worse.

I am required to study to become certified and I am studying too on top of this. I have course work and assignments to do which they know about.

It's actually all too much. How am I supposed to get any course work done if I am expected to work 3-4 weeks solid.

I think I will likely need to take some sick days in July and August just to get this stuff done.

It's all so stressful.

So will I take a sick day for today or spare it over for July and August.

I think my plan is to finished the course and after this - just leave.

You don't sound very well, so take a sick day now.

Can anyone help me and advise me for working on assignments under time pressure. Is there any cheat way?

I think I will take what is in the assignment brief and ask AI for the 3 best research sources on the topic. See if that helps me. Instead of trawling websites and libraries and books.

Do you think would I be able to get an assignment done in a day? Like take a sick day, do some research - hammer it out into words. I don't know.

In modern life I do think we have lost the art of convalescence. If you were poorly over the weekend and still feel poorly now then it's obvious to me that you need time off work to get better. And only return when you are well.

Loads of people rush back to work when they are nearly better and it's possible to do that but there are no badges for being a hero.

My head is sore and I am very tired and now I am filled with anxiety about what's to come.

My illness is not contagious.

It's mental health. I am facing other challagnes and my mental health is sinking and it is translating into headaches and migraines.

Taking sick leave to study (when you are not sick) on the other hand is dishonest. (Or are you in a country where there's only one kind of leave and it's expected to use sick leave for everything. Are you in the UK?)

Does your qualification relate to your role? If it's a qualification your employer wants you to have you could talk to them about study leave.

Are you in the UK? By law you have to have two consecutive days off once you have worked for 14 days. They need to adjust the rota to accommodate this.

It sounds like you need to be signed off work with stress and I don't say that lightly. Look after yourself OP

Does your schedule breach Working Time Directives?

do you have a union at all?

I’d be inclined to get some proper advice and put them straight on what they can legally ask you to do.

They need to employ another carer to share the workload. It's simply not possible to work these hours.

Use AI to get the coursework done. Most of the time it's just bureaucratic
bollocks to satisfy CQC.

Don’t take a sick day

legally you should have days off - as it’s a care role it may be that you get a full 24 hrs after 7 days work

abs also have you opted out of the 48maxkmum hours per week?

Your problem is that you don't seem to be able to say no to your employers. I assume you are on some kind of set number of hours (PAYE) + overtime OR a pay-per-hour arrangement and that therefore it's common for your hours to be a bit erratic? NOnetheless, it is completely fine to tell them that you cannot do that level of care. It's not okay for you, and it's not actually save for them. I would take a sick day today just so you can pull yourself together.

Then look at the schedule and be very clear when you are/are not willing to work and if necessary, tell them that in advance.

Is there a reason you feel you can't say no?

You sound unwell and you need to look after yourself. It doesn't sound like a day will be enough to recover. You can self -crrtify for the first week of illness, so I would do that and see how you feel towards the end of this week.
If you still feel unwell, go to your GP.

With your assessment, you can do a quick literature review. Type key search terms into Google scholar and it will show you the most quoted papers on the topic.

I did decline the next two weekends but I was also asked to be on call

Can you decline being on call? You have study to complete, you can't risk losing all your study time.

And did you say no?

Becuase based on what you're saying, I thin they WILL call you.

I also think that you will find it very difficult to to relax knowing they will call.

And what does being on call entail? Because if it means you have to be completely sober, rested etc, that's not exactly letting you do whatever you like with your weekend?

You are currently being asked to do 3 weeks in a row with no break beyond what sounds like going home late one night and being back the next day. That's not reasonable. So why can't you say no?

I'm not having a go at you, I'm trying to figure out eout how to help you. Is it that you can't say no becuase you feel bad - my response ismore likely ot be about toughening up AND making it clear to them that it's not in their best interests to have you exhausted and unable eto care for their loved one. Is it because you are desperate for the money or because they underpay you?

Because I can tell you this - as a carer with flexibility, you could get a new job tomorrow if you wanted one. So they really should be making MORE effort to keep you sweet.

It seems as if they want me to work all throughout July without any proper break in the schedule. I declined the extra work but I was asked to be available.

They are not thinking about you at all - which is common for employers and even more so for very small employers like this, I think. YOU have to think of you. They are unlikely to let you go because it sounds like a tough gig to fill.

And honestly, you sound ill to me as of right now, even if you aren't as ill as you were on Sat and Sun.

If you aren’t sick then don’t take a sick day. Just because you can’t get your assignments done, or set boundaries with regard to your working hours, doesn’t mean you can fake a sickie and leave people in the lurch.

if you can’t hack it now, then I suggest you quit and find something easier

Being 'left in the lurch' is an entirely predictable result of working someone into the ground, and expecting them to study on top for a qualification you expect them to attain. OP is human and paying them doesn't remove that they are, that they get tired, that they need to eat, have down time or have families that they'd like to see now and again.
OP sounds exhausted with more pressure piled on. This is how so many industries work, on the good will of the people working in it to be exploited, but you know sometimes people have got nothing left to give, it's a finite resource.

OP works for them, they're not owned by the employer. She's declined work but is being pressured into accepting anyway.

It's attitudes like this that drive people out of social care, and it's not like the industry is over run with good applicants to start with, or generally renumerated to a level that warrants the kind of dedication that's being demanded.

“I’m sorty I can’t be on call those weekends - I guess you haven’t checked my working schedule for the next month as I know you wouldn’t want to break the law

But that isn’t what we are talking about here. The op is specifically asking if they should wait until the middle of the summer to take sickies. Why not be less cowardly and say no to their unreasonable demands.

Are you in the UK OP? If you are the hours they are requiring you to work sound illegal to me. Even if you have opted out of the time directive (not even sure if this is a thing now), under uk employment law you are entitled to scheduled rest days (not ‘on call’ rest days) . If your current employer won’t abide by employment law and If you’re working in social care you need to look for another job, there is a huge shortage of carers throughout the whole of the UK and I’m
sure you could secure a position with a better work/life balance. You will end up ill if you continue working these rediculous hours. The demands they are putting you under are grossly unfair and unrealistic.

If you have a migraine, that is a reason to be off sick. You don't have to justify it, or explain why you think you've got it, just "I won't be in today, I've got a really bad migraine".
Stand your ground, say "No" when you need to, and stick to it. If they think they can talk you into working more, they will try it, it's up to you to be very clear about what you can do.