If you’re employed what happens when your child is sick?

[cadburyegg]

My 7yo off school til Wednesday due to sickness bug. I work hybrid, supposed to be in office Monday and Tuesdays but fortunately my boss is understanding and I can wfh. My ex not willing to help so very lucky I can do this.

Just got me wondering how flexible / understanding other employers are? Would your boss allow you to wfh or if you work in a job where it’s not possible do you have to take parental/annual leave? Do you share with child’s other parent?

One of:

annual leave
parental leave

if I’m sick as well (often the case) I take sick leave

Unless it's my WFH day they stay at home alone and my mum will pop in and check on them a few times during the day. Been doing that since the youngest was 10.

When I WFH I pop up (or over to the sofa) once or twice to check on them but otherwise leave them alone. If they're sick enough to be off school - unless it's something contagious like Tonsillitis where even though they could be at school, I have to keep them off - but not in hospital, then they don't need much attention because they should be sleeping it off! And if it's something contagious but they're not actually 'sick' then I just leave them to it. Last time DD had tonsillitis she was in the garage making coasters and tealight holders🙄

Thankfully my employer has always been supportive.

i once called my boss after 2.5 weeks off in USA as I dropped dc at school and dd3 had vomitted as we arrived (over herself and the car). I was supposed toto drop them and go straight to work. I called my boss, unsure where to start on the clean up mission, and he just said to take another day and he’d see me the next day. Didn’t even log it. But dh always shared 50/50 converting dc being ill.

I am very fortunate to have a job where I am in charge of my work diary in terms of whether I am WFH or in the office. My manager is also very understanding and has a mindset of - as long as the work is done you can do it whenever and wherever you like.

That said if I had an important meeting in the office or something difficult to rearrange my DH would WFH with poorly DC.

I WFH and my manager is fine with the occasional "child off sick" day. I always declare it though (could easily not, no-one would be any the wiser!)

Unpaid leave.

With my current manager, I’d either:

Try and do some work around when they’re asleep and then catch up any missed time within the same week.
Put annual leave in.
Take it as unpaid parental leave.

my managers fine with any option and understands we have a life and responsibilities outside of work which will always come first.

I choose which option depending on what I have on work wise, if we’re busy and it’ll affect the team to have to try and pick up my workload I’d go for option one if I could.

if I can’t I go for either of the other two depending on my leave allowance.

My SIL with her 7 year old would wfh. With her 2 year old she’d have to stay home. Luckily her husband (my DB) has more scope to take time off.

I was very lucky that my DM usually looked after him when I worked. If not DH could wfh.

I WFH and DH has the option to WFH most days so it depends how unwell the child is and their age. An older one who isn’t well enough for school (perhaps getting over a sickness bug) but is ok to quietly watch tv with an adult working in anther room is fine.

Otherwise either DH or I can take last minute annual leave, TOIL or emergency leave but it really depends what we both have on in work regarding who looks after the ill child. Sometimes we have shared it so the child will stay home with DH for the drop off and pick up times so I can take the other children to and from school and then we have different lunch breaks to be around the unwell child.

Work from home, it's not really a big deal, I just drop my manager a message on Teams. He has young children too so understands. We've very much focused on output rather than hours at our work.

It was a combination. When the children were young we took the salary hit so that one of us was always in a job where we had a little flexibility. Sometimes that was me, sometimes it was dh. Grandparents also helped out. Wherever possible we took it in turns.

I can’t work from home due to the nature of my work. However, I’m self employed and can choose my clients and my working hours. If I can’t work for some reason, including sick dc, I reschedule my work. My clients are understanding and flexible.

That said, I’m pretty lucky that I can count on the fingers of one hand the occasions my dc have been off sick. They’re teenagers now, but even when they were little they had strong constitutions.

The only time the wheels came off was when I was very poorly myself and ended up in hospital. DH has a very demanding role with long hours. He parachuted his mum in from overseas and she did all the school runs and childcare. I was a bit 🙄 that the only time he ever needed to take some time off and roll up his sleeves, he panicked and rang his mother.

I take annual or flexi leave. Never work with my kids home.

I am very lucky to be able to wfh whenever I need to so have always been able to manage. On the odd occasion where I’ve had an off site meeting or something scheduled then either DH has taken emergency leave or my mum has looked after them. I have no idea how people without help manage or if their job cannot be done from home. It must be a combination of ringing in sick themselves, last minute parental leave etc.

As he was working in a demanding job with long hours, I am not sure what he could have done. His mum coming sounds like it was the perfect solution.

In that scenario it's:
WFH
annual leave
unpaid dependents leave

You are not sick so booking sickness isn't correct but lots of people seem to do it

I should add, I work hybrid so set up for wfh anyways. My kids are under 5 so it depends what the work is and how manageable they were. I can’t work whilst they’re awake. I’d get nothing done.

As someone who now works in payroll I would say never book sick leave unless it is you who are sick. Too many instances of sick leave can be a trigger point (most companies will have a policy) and can result in the disciplinary process starting. Emergency dependents leave is a protected right and you can't be disciplined for taking it unless you are taking an unreasonable amount. Recent tribunals indicate the trigger point for this is much higher depending on your circumstances.

Mine are primary school age and my boss is happy for me to take a day or two WFH, as is DH's. Between us that's generally enough to see them back in to school. Obviously it's not a full day of work so I end up doing extra in the evening.

When they were nursery age it was harder as not really possible to wfh. I get 6 days paid special leave a year and did use those most years. I only used sick leave when I genuinely caught the illness myself (which to be fair happened quite a few times with DC1).

Alison kayla mandi🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

I get 5 days parental leave a year and then after that it would be annual leave/unpaid leave. My work are very understanding thankfully . We've just done a 4 day stint on the children's ward with pneumonia, so I've had to use 2 parental days as part of that

Thankfully my DH has always been able to work from home so he dealt with most sick days. We were lucky that they didn’t have many.

I used annual leave for one D.C. to have scheduled surgery but my very very kind boss gave me “special” time off for my other DC’s emergency surgery without any question.

These are the kinds of things that build staff loyalty.

I'm a teacher. We're meant to find alternatives (we don't have family to help though) after day 1 so husband and I alternate. They are understanding to an extent.

My work is quite flexible, so I will WFH. I usually do hybrid 2 days in the office but they wouldn’t be bothered about me doing a whole week at home occasionally