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.

I feel like in the UK a lot of people have a weird thing about not taking a sick day unless on their death bed.

I've have 13 days in my current job (1 illness period) during and following a miscarriage as I wasn't mentally in a place to work. Public sector and have been there for 2 years.

No other absences but if I'm too ill to be productive then I would take the time off to rest and recover quickly so I'm back at full productivity quickly. I have my own workload throughout and 12 month period so it makes much more sense.

I’ve had about 8 days off sick in 35 years.

I also had a miscarriage but had to come back to work the next day as I’m a GP and we were short staffed. Someone had to see the patients!

Both my and hubby are of a similar mindset, we tend to go in unless very ill, kids are also the same. He can wfh if well enough to work but snotty etc. however, sil has regularly taken weeks off “sick” as she needed some “me time” but then don’t get believed when she had a sickness bug

The last time I had any time off sick was 7 years ago when I had 5 days off after a knee operation. Previous to that I think I had about 10 days off in 2000. I can’t remember any other time off in the 35 years I’ve been in this job.

occassionally if I’m under the weather I may go home an hour early.

I have a few (under 5) most years. I'm prone to migraines so that knocks one or two days, and if I get COVID I get it badly. I took two weeks off each time during the worst, and 3 days at the beginning of this winter with it (also have two sen kids so really need to be properly better to cope with work as well as them).

If someone was off at least fortnightly (is that accurate or exaggeration because that is a LOT) and had regular calls to collect their child and was keeping their job, I'd be pretty sure there was something going on at home or there was a disability that management are aware of. I work for the council who are probably one of the fairer employers when it comes to sick leave, but no one would get away with being off sick every fortnight. 3 sickness episodes in a year triggers involvement of occupational health and HR.

New job, 4 months and been off twice already, flu both times…awful, can’t remember feeling so ill in years !
In my defence lots of other people at work caught it too and were very ill, including my own family
Never had this before though.

The last time I had a day off sick (gum infection) was 6 years ago. I don’t remember the time before that. I’m fortunate to be in good health and generally not to suffer too much when I do get a bit of a cold. In that time I haven’t “struggled on” going in to work- I genuinely haven’t been unwell enough for a day off.

Having worked in HR, and in my personal experience, the amount of sick leave seems to be associated with generous sick pay - or not generous sick pay.

Government departments have relatively generous provision so high absence rates, usually due to increasing levels of Anxiety, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, 'Burnout' and increasingly, Neurodivergent related issues, that GP's seem to give endless certificates for.

Been at my job for 17 years and only 5 days off sick, 2 of them I was pregnant. I also had a day off when my nan died suddenly in the night.
we also have people who constantly call sick and then complain they don’t have enough hours. I would never call off for a cold, not a chance. Only time I’ve called in ill is when I’ve been throwing up. I even went to work with tonsillitis and a 40oC fever.

Public sector (although have been private sector for the same amount of time). Usually a few days a year with tonsillitis / chest infection or similar (I have a condition which means I get a lot of chest infections). If I’m ill enough for antibiotics I’m usually not competent to work. Although since I go into the office less and don’t go on trains so much I am much less ill and have had no days off sick for 18 months.

Longest periods I have had off ill over the last 25 years - 3 weeks for surgery and 3 weeks for pneumonia.

I did work through a chest infection two years ago and would have been much better having a few days to recover properly than weeks being not 100% but if you can wfh it’s tempting to work through.

Current job since start of
of 2024 I've had one week off when I had the flu. Caught it at work and it floored me. Took me 2 weeks to recover. Luckily I had a/l just after my sick leave. I've had to leave early once to pick up a sick child.
I go to work regularly with colds ect as I'm very prone to them and would be constantly off if I called sick with every cold.

pre child I had three days off in 10 yrs when my gran died.

I also think if someone has young children they get all the bugs - I’ve managed people who have colds / sickness bugs circulating in their households when the kids first go to nursery and that’s just miserable. They are either ill themselves or need time off for looking after a poorly child.

Some years none at all, some years up to 10 days. I haven’t had more than that apart from
one injury in my career where I was off for a month. We have generous sick pay but there are thresholds for warnings.

A couple of years ago I had 10 days off with bacterial infection after a virus. It would’ve been longer but overlapped with Xmas where we get 2 weeks off, I was ill for 5 weeks in total but WFH when I could.

It’s currently just about 2 years since my last absence but I do WFH with colds etc.

The last time I was off sick was in 2002. I'm in the public sector but can work from home and also use my flexi time to have a short day if I'm not feeling 100%. I did once struggle through a week at work when I was office based with horrendous infected blisters on my feet. Initially I was told they weren't infected so kept dragging myself in because I didn't think 'sore feet' would cut it as a reason for being off sick!

In every job I’ve worked at there has been an air of superiority from those who have good health. I teach children with PMLD and I’m immunocompromised. In my current school I’ve had 2 or 3 days most terms (so 3 months) with either a sickness bug or flu that has left me hospitalised. I know people frown upon it and I used to feel so guilty but the reality is, some of us get ill more and need more time off sick. I refuse to feel bad for my bad health which makes me feel shit enough.

It’s not fair when people are off for no reason. Over the years my OH has had to cover so much due to it. He’s worked same place for 20years until last year he had never had a day off sick but had to be signed off by the doctor for a fortnight due to stress.

1 day in 8 years. I was half way through a shift and I got sent home due to a uti. It's impossible to do my job and go to the toilet!

Hardly any until the past year when I have had flu (returned to work too quickly afterwards and was on annual leave when i had flu) then had post viral fatigue that was debilitating all combined with perimenopause symptoms. Probably not helped by a stressful few years at work. I had to self cert for 7 days then was signed off work for 2 weeks and felt so guilty for being off but could hardly put one foot in front of another so needed the time off. Still recovering now but back at work full time.
I will now be more mindful of prioritising my health, I don't want to feel like that again.

Yes I absolutely believe sick pay should be paid! Tbh, I've been lucky and never worked anywhere it wasn't. I do think there's a bravado thing about never taking a day off which I absolutely hate. Not the flex people think it is

I mean I have had a 40 year career so far, so in the majority of years I've had no sick leave at all but I've had various issues over the years that have led to time off in some years

The year I developed labyrinthitis , I had a week off then a few periods of sick leave over that year usually for a day or two when it.got bad and I was unable to stand but it improved over the year and I haven't had any time off for that since

Then there was the year I developed RSI, I had 3-4 weeks off with that and struggled to work because of the pain. I did physio, acupuncture, paid for my own ergonomic mouse and improved over about 4-5 months during which I worked when I could but i did take some sick days here and there. After that i was back to work as normal

Another year my back went so has some time off for that until I paid for a chiropractor and things improved. I still have to visit a chiropractor occasionally to keep my back sorted ,almost 30 years later

One year I got Swine flu and was off for 3 weeks

I recently had a few days off to have my cataracts removed.

So it sounds like a lot and in any of those 4 years you'd have might have thought I was sick a lot but problems in 4-5 individual years of a 40 year career is not bad in my opinion. I'd say I have a good record for not taking much sick leave for the vast majority of a long career. Most years it has been zero sick leave or maybe very occasionally a couple of days with a vomiting bug or something. Then occasionally a car crash of a year, usually for a particular issue

You say you wouldn’t call in sick for a cold but I depends on the cold! I’m currently full of a cold, my sinuses are so blocked my head is on fire but my nose is also running constantly, I have a temperature and ache all over. My ears are making funny noises. I cannot work like that I can’t even think straight!

One sick day in 13 years. I very rarely get ill though. I have’t seen a doctor in 17 years, my husband hasn’t seen one in the 23 years I’ve known him and my kids haven’t seen one since they were about 3 or 4 years old (they are 18 and 20 now). I think we must all just have strong immune systems.

I am sorry but I would be practically delirious with a temp of 40deg, no way could I work. I know this, as the only time I have ever had a temp that high as an adult is when I had swine flu and I was completely out of it, unable to stand upright without feeling faint and severely nauseous. I barely knew where I was and was talking gibberish according to DH

To be honest i cant remember, i dont really count.
I had a day off last week for minor procedure at hospital.
Then maybe a day or two off with a bug in the past year.
Some years i dont have any sick days other years i need to take time off.
Personally i dont like it when people are martyrs with a bad cold or virus struggle in infect everyone else and then people feel guilty about taking time off as collegue didnt.
There is an element of luck to illness but if course some people push through more than others but i think it depends on how much control you have during your working day so you can adjust workload tasks or take a break if needed