Work ethic?

[Uglycurtains]

I own a business and the level of staff sickness it insane! I’m not sure if I am being unreasonable- but I have staff of for their child having suspected chicken pox, tingling fingers and my favourite conjunctivitis.
Is this usual? Not sure how to motivate people to actually turn up to work?!

suspected chicken pox- granted. But children and adults can attend work with conjunctivitis. Increased hygiene (no food prep, extra hand washing, no intimate care is put in place, but no need to exclude...

www.nhs.uk/conditions/conjunctivitis/

Nhs must be wrong then!

Wow I'm surprised with that attitude you have staff.

Contagious illnesses are no laughing matter to a lot of people and while they may seem trivial to you maybe your staff actually are concerned at spreading infections.

(Maybe they are all interviewing for different jobs and to be honest I wouldn't blame them)

Let your staff take unlimited unpaid leave but in return tighten up your sickness and holiday policies.

Clearly I am being unreasonable then! Or maybe I just have a different work ethic...

No i’d rather they found someone to look after their child, as quite frankly it’s not my problem!

You're coming across on this thread as having quite a shit attitude. I wonder if that attitude extends to the workplace?

Maybe people are throwing sickies because they can't face going in. I'm being serious.

I had to take time off with conjuctivitis as I could barely open my eyes and I certainly couldn't have looked at a computer screen all day which is what my job was never mind actually get there safely.

No attitude at all. Obviously I have a different work ethic!

Honestly I am surprised that people take time of for minor ailments. I honestly didn’t think that was normal. I stand corrected!

They probably take tome off because their boss has a horrific attitude problem

Time**

I had conjunctivitis. I couldn't open my right eye for a day. Should I have gone and sat in work and collected my days pay for being there or taken it unpaid?

My DC had Chicken pox. 2 pregnant colleagues. Should I have gone in and infected them? Never mind leaving DC unattended as childminder cant take them with chickenpox.

Good on you for being so healthy OP but unfortunately not everyone is so lucky.

Oh piss off with your work ethic.

In 5 years I have never taken time off ill. I have however had to take time off because DD was ill and no, nobody else to look after her.

The thought of an employer slagging somebody off for that makes me so annoyed.

Our nursery will take our LO with conjunctivitis.
I agree with you OP, and I have a 1.5 year old LO and not had a sick day, I've had to take 1 day off holiday when he vomited (and my other half took 1 day the day after too)
I didn't take a day off all of my pregnancy ect.
I have no one else to look after my LO either so I really do agree it's annoying when people have the day off 'because they got shampoo in their eye!'

How could you infect pregnant women if you don’t have CP yourself jolly?

Or tingly fingers? Or been in A and E over a bank holiday weekend and now they are tired ( nothing actually wrong!)

Follow your absence procedures. If both parents are in the child’s life they should be sharing the responsibility when children are off sick. You can still monitor and have those conversations and manage on absence related to children. I get your frustration as I used to run a business but some absences cannot be helped. Manage them properly to cover your back and your staffs

I hear you. Unless you've run a small business I think it's very hard to understand how stressful or relentless it is. Or frankly how many people take the piss. You can tell the genuine ones a mile off.

My goodness- of children were excluded for every communicable diease- regardless of NHS advice- lots of parents wouldn’t be able to go to work. If the NHS deem that a small child can cope with the rigours of the day, then I really think a fully grown adult can!

Both parents are in the child’s life. Yet it’s always the same parent who has to take time out. Third week (16 hour contract) since starting.

Look up some stats, there are direct correlations between working conditions (including attitude of the boss) and rates of sickness. If everything else about the job is fabulous then it's probably you in the case of minor ailments not children's sickness.

I think it's you, OP.........

scribbles I've never had the chicken pox and neither had one of my colleagues so I couldn't run the risk of potentially carrying it and her contracting it.

(I was able to work from home though so do I pass Uglys work ethic test? My boss is lovely!)

I think OP is saying staff members had time off sick due to conjunctivitis and with tingling fingers.

When I had conjunctivitis one of my eyes was glued shut. I could not drive and really could not have worked safely.

Tingling fingers can be a symptom of kidney failure or diabetes. perfectly reasonable to have time off to get that checked out.

If you are signing people off sick when they have time off for childcare you are doing it wrong OP. That should come out of holiday allowance, or be unpaid emergency childcare.

You sound like you have had a total empathy bypass. Do you regularly struggle to put yourself in other peoples shoes or feel empathy?

I would be having the conversation that the responsibility of looking after child when sick needs to be split between both parents. What are your absence policies at the moment? If you don’t have any implement some. Without them people will take the piss. They are horrid conversations but you need to be firm