Sick days

[Belladog1]

Just wondering how many days sick you generally have per year. I'm not talking serious ailments but coughs/colds/stomach issues etc ....

I am very lucky and I'm rarely ill. I can't remember the last time I got a cold and i don't think I've taken a sick day in years. I'd have to feel really rubbish before I'd consider not going to work.

But my colleagues are very different. One lady is off a lot, at least fortnightly with headaches or a cold. She apparently takes to her bed and gets looked after by her husband. I've noticed her son takes lots of time off too for ailments and she often gets calls from the school for him to be collected as he has tummy ache. I can't help but wonder if her sickness days and staying home look great to her son who gets a day home with one mention of a poorly stomach.?

My boss often phones me to say he's woken up feeling grotty and is taking a day to stay under the duvet.

I remember as a kid trying to convince my mum i was sick. She would sit on the bed, pull a silly face and if I giggled she'd say 'I think you're well enough to go to school', and off I'd go. But, even today, as a middle aged woman, I still feel guilty, almost like I'm lying, if I need a day off sick.

So can only speak for myself. No alcohol 8 hours sleep at night, no UPF plant based diet, exercise daily bang smack middle of healthy BMI, multiviits, seasonal flu vaccination and meticulous hypgiene if house hold contacts are unwell.

In 26 years of teaching, I've only had about 10 sick days. I only take a day off if I have my head in a bucket.

I don’t understand this ? If you’re ill you’re ill. I suppose it’s to prevent people lying. I’m NHS and some people absolutely abuse the system, we have a return to work meeting, and sickness stage meetings .

I run my own business so if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. I think I’ve had two days off for sickness in six years.

I began work in the 1960s as a library assistant. I myself was rarely off ill but was routinely sent to other branches where someone had called in sick. In fact I often volunteered to go. My boss would spend ten minutes getting out the big city map and bus timetables to show me where I had to go. He wrote it down on a piece of paper "in case I got lost".

The journey was a nice little bus trip on company time so I soon got to know the city. Once I left the building there was no one to keep track of me - no mobiles then. I travelled on public transport and often on two bus routes. I used the opportunity to call at the bank (no ATMs then) or shops, or have a sneaky coffee on the way. Libraries were nearly always situated near shopping centers and banks. Only once did someone complain about my being late. I just replied "Sorry I dont know this part of the city and the bus conductor put me off at X so Ive has to walk 2 stops". I was always let off early so I could get home at the same time because I told the person in charge my mother would worry if I was late. We were not on the phone.

In fact it was an opportunity for a bit of a skive on company time. No one ever seemed to suss that a young girl could be so smart or calculating. The boss had me down as a real team player who willingly stepped up for an unpopular duty. When a rare opportunity to be fast tracked onto a new training course came up he sang my praises to a bigger boss and got me a place.

Not one day since 2016! My job prior to that I was off with norovirus. Never had flu, never had covid. Sure I’ve had a bit of a sniffly cold but we don’t phone in sick with the sniffles where I work!

I normally have a day or 2 a year, last year was unusual as I had a 3 day migraine (changed my glasses, fixed it!)

4 episodes over 12 months and you are in trouble.
i had to force myself in recently.

I catch everything. Colds, flu, Covid, sickness bugs, sore throats, random fevers, hand foot and mouth, shingles… that’s just the last two years.

My work is very flexible and I can largely work at home, so I don’t let it affect my productivity too much. But it’s a huge struggle compared to my colleagues with good health.

A day or two every couple of years. Last time was for D&V and I needed 2 days off.

Last illness was luckily over xmas so I was off work anyway.

I work in the public sector and manage a team and have tonnes of meetings with other depts. So feel guilty if I'm off as it impacts others. I WFH though so its easier. Typically I get poorly if I've had to travel for work, trains are grotty. But I've been working on my immune system, eating well, taking supplements and exercising which has helped. I probably actually feel poorly 3 or 4 times a year, but manageable with paracetamol and early nights.

Been with DH 20 years, he gets a train to work in London daily and he's been off work sick twice and only as he got DVT. He's never had covid despite still working on the front line throughout.

Then again, my 3 kids never get sick either. DS15 has a bit of a cold, sounds rough but says he sounds worse than he is and is still taking himself to school.

I try to swap to wfh if it's not too bad, I have a commute by train of over 1 hour so that is draining and wfh means 1 hour more in bed before work.

But unfortunately most colds end up in my sinuses and that is just awful to stare on a screen so if it's bad I do call in.

My company prefers that we don't drag ourselves in and infect everyone else, we are 50 people on one floor with 3/4 of it open plan, germs travel fast.

where i work you are encouraged not to wfh if sick
understandable

Blimey where do you work that you can be off this much? Seriously where I work you’d be on a disciplinary for that. Even time off with a doctors sick note is recorded as your first absence etc. 3 periods of absence in any 12 month period and you could face disciplinary meetings g with serious consequences. So people come in sick.

Current job 2 years, two weeks total off sick and one for bereavement. No sick time since June 2025. Won't take it for anything I can work through with medication, as my job is case based and means a huge pile to return to which causes me more anxiety than its worth. Have access to unpaid carers leave as well due to spousal caring but not had to use it as yet. I have wfh option if really necessary (standard I already wfh one day a week) but I try not to increase it if feeling a bit off colour as I do need to be in office for certain tasks.

I wouldn't dream of calling in sick for a cold or cough although I would probably work from home (I only go in the office about once a week anyway so it's not an issue to WFH) so I didn't infect people.
What I do consider reasonable to call in sick is if I have a temperature or V&D

I don't understand why people think they deserve a medal for going in to work when sick. I've caught so many bugs over the years from people doing this - just stay home for a couple of days and get better and don't inflict it on the rest of us.

I feel sorry for those of you working for Victorian employers who penalise you for genuine sickness.

I was rarely off work but since menopause and miserable changes to my health, I've been off a few times in the last year. I wish I didn't need to be but that's life and having a kind and understanding employer means I work hard for them and go above and beyond. It works both ways.

Had a few days off with COVID in 2022, the country I am in gave up on restrictions and testing around about Christmas and it literally ripped through my department/company/town. All three of us had it (DH, DS) Christmas day through to New Year, FIL kept coming round and leaving soup in the porch, ringing the doorbell and running off.
Nothing since then, not even many sniffles etc

When I lived in UK I'd probably have one genuine sick day per year and maybe another one or two for job interviews.

It's very strange. I started this thread, and yesterday I had a stomach upset 🙈 I still went into work but left at lunchtime. I needed the loo desperately and didn't want to use my office facilities as they are grotty !!!

I really have been very lucky with my health. I did catch covid but had no symptoms. Been on HRT for a year, but managed to still work with the symptoms I had. I get the flu jab annually and I think that helps a little with swerving some colds. Plus, I dont have kids .... and they are walking talking germs.

3 days in the last 18 months, for a migraine. I’m 43 and am starting to get them occasionally, probably linked to my hormones. Before that probably about the same, maybe 3 or 4 days a year for coughs/colds or D&V.

I work in a school but not classroom based, those who are in the classroom get sick all the time from the kids bringing bugs in. Once bugs are in school they do spread. We’re not allowed to WFH so if I’m not well enough to come in I don’t. That’s a management decision; if office based staff were allowed occasional home working it would probably help with the level of sickness absence! I’ve realised over the years though that you don’t get a medal for dragging yourself in when you should be home in bed.

I had covid in 2020 but I was working from home at the time anyway. I wasn't ill and only know due to a test for travel.

I don't force myself to go in if I'm unwell. If I have a cold where I'm dripping snot then I can't go in, can't go dripping snot into composites! I've had 4 days off so far this year, but those were sick leaves ordered by my occupational health doctor (was offered more time off but declined as I felt much better and was getting bored at home). There's some fever bugs running through my workplace at the moment so lots of people have been off and I'm hoping I won't catch it but if I do I will definitely stay home, I couldn't do this job with a fever.

Last year I was pretty unlucky and had a week off with a back injury, several days off with sinusitis, several with tonsillitis, a week with pneumonia, and the occasional day here and there just feeling too under the weather to work.

I’m actually in work today with a cold now. Just started yesterday. I have to wear a mask at work anyway but I was trying to stop coughing
at one point and that made my nose and eyes run. So I had to work for 15 minutes with snot running into my mouth behind my mask and my eyes watering. Thankfully my patient had their eyes shut and didn’t notice!

We are a small team, working on a farm. We all try to push through, regardless of what we have. If you're full of germs, but capable of being in work, you're sent off to self-isolate in a tractor... and even then, some have had to hop out with vomiting and diarrhoea in a field. We only take time off if we're bedridden, because there's so much work to do, and so few of us.

The only reasons that I've had time off over the last four years on this farm have been a terrible case of the flu (a fortnight), occasional migraines (a week at most) and some recent germs that had me bedridden for three days.

I don't get sick pay but I wfh in a super flexible job, so if I need a day in bed or an early finish or whatever, I can just make up the time elsewhere in the week. It doesn't impact anyone else. For that reason, I've had very few proper sick days. If I'm just "mildly" ill then it's not a big effort to work anyway.

It was much harder when I had a long commute because it wasn't just a case of could I make it through the day. It was also whether I could manage the long tube (+walk +bus) journey, potentially having to stand the whole way, etc. That's the part I think people often don't understand. It's one thing to push through sitting at a desk. But my commute was 2.5hrs each day and that was the hard part. Doing it while ill was just horrible.