That actually being good a your job comes second to your absence record.

[Dollymixtureyumyum]

Just come to the end of my six month probation period at work, 3 other staff do the same job and we work as a team.
Due to having to go into hospital for a chest infection I was off for 3 days, another of my colleagues was off for four days with bad sickness.
Me and this collegeue have met and greatly exceeded our targets dispite being off and have had great evaluations from our clients, not had one bad one.
Two other colleagues have has no time off but have not met two of their targets and one even had two clients complain about his attitude. Their evaluation scores are not as high as me and colleague who has been off.
Guess which two have passed their probation period and which two have had theirs extended!!!

It's just so frustrating it was the same in my last job if you managed to get your arse in all year you got a bonus no matter how crap you where at the job. No bonus for actually meeting targets and being good.
Now I see schools are going the same way. I was off for most of my first two years of high school in and out of hospital for operation and I still came out with 10 GCSEs at grade C and over. Yet if a kid has two weeks off all hell breaks lose with nasty letters and warnings about attendance targets.
People get ill, it is a fact of life. Of course some people take the piss with absence and they should of course be delt with but I really think firms and schools need to realise that the majority of people only take time off when they absolutely need to and to not put (reasonable) absence levels above performance.

Funnily enough I just had to have this discussion with a colleague. His argument was that when he's in he works exceeds his target; not everyone in the team does this. What he doesn't appreciate is that we can't achieve our forecasts and objectives if we can't rely on people turning up on their day of working. If he works very hard when he's there, that's fantastic, but we need, as a business, to rely on people coming in to work when they're due.

I think your company has a point. Extending the probation for any colleague who has had sick leave is a bit of a blunt instrument, but presumably they do it that way to be fair, so someone like yourself who has had a completely unavoidable absence will sail through the extended period and someone who has a genuine absence problem won't.

I've worked with brilliant but unreliable colleagues and I really wished I didn't have to.

Currently I have a dotted line into a guy who - when he's around - is great at his job, very supportive, hooked into what I'm doing without micromanaging etc.etc. trouble is he's flakier than a Gregg's sausage roll and now that he's missed a number of important meetings I was expecting him to be at - no explanations, just didn't dial in/turn up - I don't trust him and would rather just do it all myself rather than getting any nasty surprises.

Funnily enough I wasn't well last week. I'm very rarely ill and normally I'd just soldier on, but this time I thought sod it, I'm getting paid about 1/3 of what he is so why should I drag my sorry carcass in. One individual with prolonged and multiple absences can have a creeping effect on the rest of the team.

I had to fill in an nhs reference today for a colleague who I manage. I was bracing myself for the usual list of questions and all I was asked was to list all episodes of sickness over the last 6 months and whether she had been in any trouble at work. That was it! Obviously sickness is a massive issue these days. I had averaged about 2 days off a year over 20 plus years and then broke my leg really badly last year. I was off for 5 months and felt so guilty but it only actually counts as one episode of sickness as it was all together. It is the odd day or 2 here and there they are more worried about because it either suggests ongoing poor health or people who will just be off at the slightest thing!

Could you found your own company? I did. It works well. I did that after about 11 years without more than about 1 day off sick in the whole period and being best of the bunch. If you can manage both then life tends to go well.

Also if you don't pay people when off sick that works really well in getting people to take less sick leave. Lots of companies have that policy and it does work.

I've been off for 5 weeks and have a sick note for 2 more. I've just had a hysterectomy though.

Extending probation doesn't seem an unreasonable approach actually. It just gives them the chance to see whether it's a pattern that will be repeated or a real one off.

I agree that in your case it was unfortunate but I'd rather have someone average but reliable than above average but a bit flaky

Btw I work for the NHS as a mental health nurse- I appreciate having paid sick leave unlike those firms like DeoGratias talks of-otherwise I wouldn't be able to have the operation. It's been stressful enough without worrying about the bills as well.

Yabu.
Employers would much rather have an employee who is good at their job, reliable, consistent and also turns up to work as much as possible,
instead of an employee who is 'brilliant' but is hardly ever there.

Rightly so.

3 days off sick in the first six months is a lot.

Most bosses would rather have average people that work hard and are always in rather than someone who is brilliant but often off.

This is completely ridiculous. I don't think anyone would chose to be in hospital on a drip if they could avoid it. Surely there should be a measure to qualify sickness. Being half dead with a ruptured appendix is a little different to having frequent duvet days on Mondays fgs.

How is one 3 day absence for an illness that required hospital treatment extrapolated to "hardly ever there"?

violetsarentblue ridiculous post. She had THREE DAYS off in HOSPITAL. ffs.

Dolly I agree
But think of someone mediocre, which many of us are.... If we take time off then we are really screwed

The excellent employees well fine but for everyone else it becomes a real pain to employers. Especially as many knock off for random reasons.

I really don't think 3 days off sick over 6 months is a lot at all.

I think some companies need to use a bit of common sense and discretion over this sort of thing. You were in hospital hooked up to a drip, it's not exactly something you could have avoided. If you had had 3 separate Monday's off over the six months for something minor like a cold hangover then that's a different matter but given the circumstances, what would they expect you to do? Be wheeled into work in your hospital bed complete with drip and bedpan?

It's ridiculous, people get sick sometimes. No it's not convenient but that's life.

Let's work this out.

3 days in six months.

3 days at 8 hrs a day = 1440 minutes

Spread that over 6 months. 5 days a week, 26 weeks.

I make it approx 11 minutes a day.

Oh wait. I forgot annual leave. Let's assume a generous 6 weeks a year.

Okay, that makes it 12.52 minutes a day.

Hmm.

Anyone ever had a colleague spend more than that on fag breaks?

Goodness. This is a depressing thread. I think I understand why it's so incredibly difficult to hold down a job with a disability now.

I had a colleague once. She was bloody brilliant, very clever, very hard working, nice person.

She hadn't been with us too long but she kept on getting sick. Once she was off for weeks with the flu and subsequent infections.

However, she not only passed her probation period but was also promoted.

Yes, her absences were difficult. But she wasn't skiving, just unlucky. She was an excellent worker. She was promoted before me with an excellent attendance record and I'm glad she was because it was well deserved.

It's very short sighted to focus just on attendance. People who work hard and deliver don't usually skive off. Yanbu

I also hate the gold fish memory syndrome. You can do 5 years' hard with never a day off but if you have 3 days in six months your employers' hackles will rise. A bit of attention if you are suddenly sick a lot when you weren't before is good management, but it absolutely shouldn't wipe out long periods of good attendance.

The brutal truth is, with an awful lot of jobs it makes minimal difference whether people are there or not for a while. Managers don't like this becoming patently obvious, because how do they empire build if the department operates perfectly well on 60% of the staff?

You are going to go in to work with a smug face because a colleague had a sick note for depression? You sound sick to me.

I don't think there's anything ridiculous about saying that reliability and attendance should also be valued in employees, especially if that employee is also doing the job to a good standard (even if they aren't 'excellent' by some employee's standards)

I wasn't referring to the OP and her three days off. I am talking about the type of employee who is brilliant but is hardly ever there.

What use is a brilliant employee to the boss, if she or he is never there?

Personally I think it depends on the role.

I once employed a nanny who was frequently absent for various reasons but very good with the children when she was there.

Eventually I made her redundant. There were two reasons. Firstly her attendence levels were very important to me because if she wasn't at work myself or DH had to miss a day.

Secondly I didn't believe some of the rather unusual reasons she gave me for not coming in. This lead to a breakdown in trust.

I would have been far more likely to keep some one who was fine but not brilliant with the children but reliable.

However I think in your case OP 3 days over 6 months is not so bad. There are also office based project based jobs where the odd day off isn't so critical.

This is not a good thread for me to be reading right now. I've just had to phone in sick for the second day in my first week of a new job, for the lamest of reasons: a really bad cold. Got up this morning full of resolve to just get on with it, got in the shower, had to lie down for ten minutes afterwards with the sweat lashing off me and was basically ordered back to bed by my husband.

It looks terrible, but there's nothing I can do - I doubt I'd win any medals dragging my sorry arse in there and infecting everyone else either. It's just shit, shit timing and I hope it doesn't count against me at the end of my own probationary period (though I am in non-profit sector, which in my experience tends to take a more sympathetic view of sickness absence so long as no malingering suspected)

FindoGask, Hope you feel better soon!

You've done the right thing by not going in. They won't thank you if everybody gets your cold!

I think this thread is mainly about whether it's better to have an employee who is 'brilliant but never there, as opposed to an employee who is 'good' and nearly always there.

I think that all attributes should be valued in the workplace.