Calling in sick on first day of new job

[Thepinkstuffing]

I have my first day tomorrow, it’s in a school, working in the early years classroom as a general TA.
I started having signs of a UTI a few days ago, and today I rang the GP and managed to get a course of antibiotics.
I feel really crap though, I’ve only started them today, I’ve still got tummy pains, pelvic discomfort and the constant need to wee, although just a few drops come out.
If I’m still feeling this bad tomorrow, I may need to call in. I can’t keep running off to the toilet either, as I’ll be with the little ones.

I’m worried I’ll get fired on my first week the way things are going!
It’s so typical of me

Hopefully you’ve felt well enough to go in today OP. My mum was a teacher all her working life, and always saw it that she was responsible for 30 kids, and made it in whenever she could. She was off sick maybe about 5 or 6 times, as I remember - once for 6 months, mind you!!
I would, especially on a first day, go in if you possibly could, explain you might need to go to the toilet more than usual, and why. Then it’s your Manager’s decision whether to send you home or not. I know it’s wrong, but showing commitment, especially on your first day, would go a long way....

@ginnybag so what if they have their ‘card marked’? It’s not exactly a sackable offence to be ill. I can understand some people take the piss and aren’t genuinely ill, but if you are there is nothing to reproach yourself about even if HR disagrees.

@Mummy7777

Sorry but I had a uti once whilst pregnant- a uti is discomforting but that's about it. I would definitely go in on my first day.

Just because your experience wasn't bad doesn't mean that nobody's is.

@Mummy7777

Sorry but I had a uti once whilst pregnant- a uti is discomforting but that's about it. I would definitely go in on my first day.

Sorry but I get UTIs and I can barely speak from the pain, it's literally makes me cry and I just sob on the toilet. I do get blood in urine so maybe my cases are more extreme, but still OP it depends on how bad it is so please don't listen to others saying it's not that bad- maybe their infection is not that bad. I can't sleep either (someone advised to 'get a good night's sleep), how can you sleep during a bad attack of cystitis...? A few times I ended up in a&e because of the significant amount of blood in urine.

Ural (or cystitis powder from pharmacy) can help to take the edge off before antibiotics kick in. Baking soda mixed with water if you can't get to pharmacy. Hope you feel better, you have my sympathy

@AveryGoodlay

I'd go in. I had a job when I was a student so not a career type job. However my first day I woke up and could hardly speak. I later learned I had bacterial tonsilitus. But I still went to work. I'll never forget the stupid woman who commented on the way I was talking (it had altered my voice) and that I didn't seem well. I replied that I didn't feel 100% but that whilst I was at work I'd give 100% at all times. She replied "well being ill on your first day doesn't give a good impression does it?" Like wtf was I supposed to do?!

Tonsillitis is highly contagious, so here's a star for you for potentially infecting others with such a painful illness ⭐️

@Peoniesandpeaches

Definitely go in if at all possible. Also if your peeing all the time with only a few drops then you are definitely not drinking enough. I know it feels like the last thing you want to do but down as much as you can physically stomach. The cystitis relief sachets don’t fix the problem but can help provide relief alongside some paracetamol.

This is rubbish. With UTI there is no relief once you’ve pee’d . Almost immediately you have the urge and pain to pee again urgently, within minutes. Of course there will be no wee by that point irrespective of how much you drink. There is a constant contractions of the urethra through inflammation. You don’t actually need to wee to relieve the baldder, it just feels like it and the spasms cause maybe a drop or two to come out. But sitting on the loo and allowing the spasms to happen and drops come out is actually less painful than trying not to pee. Even though you know you really shouldn’t keep going to loo as it can cause incontinance issues in long term. But it is sheer bloody agony to do otherwise. Yes, you do need to drink a lot to help flush the kidney, urethra and quicken the healing and inflammation receding. But saying the OP “definitely” needs to drink more because she only passes a few drops is plain wrong - and ignorant. she may well need to drink more, we don’t know, but passing a few drops when she has an infection is more a sign of a very painful and inflamed urethra. I imagine she knows full well, and perhaps better than you, the need to drink plenty to help prevent infections. I am another with interstitial cystitis and know full well what this feels like when passing a few drops and I know that I drink plenty of fluid , and track it daily, to prevent infections in the first place.

@Orangelady32

Your OP made it sound like you'd already decided you wouldn't be going in today.

You knew today was your first day of work and have felt unwell for a few days. You were irresponsible to not contact the GP earlier, no matter how difficult it was to get through. Even going to a walk in centre if you had to.

And in the real world? It sounds like the OP has recurring episodes of this, and she knows full well that it takes 2-3 days for antibiotics to start working. No GP is going to prescribe a patient antibiotics after a few hours of starting to feel bad, and some GPs will not prescribe antibiotics at all until 7 plus days. And if you can get a Gp appointment within 3 weeks you’re doing pretty well. If she had rung on first day within a few hours she wouldn’t have even got past the receptionist. And we don’t all live in areas with walk in centres.

@Mummy7777

Everyone's pain threshold is different and coping mechanisms are different.

I was 7cms dilated with my 3rd child before I went to hospital. Contractions are awful but that's my threshold.

I would not say uti's are not dehabilitating as every case differs and ones own pain threshold.

I managed to cope with my uti well due to the medication which kicked in quite quick and my pain threshold being quite high. Not everyone is the same.

Anyway let's hope you managed to get to work and if not your employers were sympathetic.

Why do people always trot out this”I have a high pain threshold” I have a high pain threshold to certain things-I’ve twice walked around with fractures for weeks before they were diagnosed. I didn’t feel labour pains particularly badly. I’ve also passed gallstones, and whilst bad it wasn’t as bad as some people experience But I think pain of UTI for me is about worst sort of pain I have felt- I literally cannot think, I get only mild relief even with codeine. It is agony The point is everyone’s physiology is different. Out bodies respond in different ways. The pain we feel is dependant on our own body. How the nerves, muscles and connective tissues work, and how the particular pain receptors in that organ work. There is no such thing as a high pain tolerance. Some particular pains don’t impact some people as much as other pains. Some people are more stoical about accepting some pain, but it doesn’t make you a hero and quite frankly pain is there for a purpose to signal something is wrong and should never be ignored. I don’t think I’d want my kids being looked after by someone in so much pain they can nearly think or make valid judgements.

Missing day one with a 'self-certified minor illness', is a huge red-flag for management and HR, and it does and will get remembered. Yes, if she's still there with an impeccable record years later, it'll become an in-joke, but it'll mark her card with a cloud for a long time before then.

Oh give over with your "huge red flag" What nonsense. Have we slipped back to the 1900s where people are expected to work til they drop? It will raise eyebrows but will quickly be forgotten. HR are not sitting there with baited breath to see how long it is before Glenda takes time off for a second time and her manager has better things to do than to sit hand wringing about it.

Do people saying 'UTIs aren't that painful' not realise how ridiculous they sound? Maybe no UTI you have had has been that painful, but they can be so bad it's literally impossible to talk or walk properly due to pain.

I didn't realise that before I had a really bad one but even before that I wouldn't have been so stupid to think that people were just lying when they said how awful they are.

It depends on the workplace surely. I've only known one person call in sick on their fist day, and people had been called from other branches to start their specialised IT training and inductions. They were not happy and it did get her off on the wrong footing unfortunately. Hope you feel better soon OP whatever you decided .

@BoredZelda completely agree. Some people have strange ideas about their own self importance.

Missing day one with a 'self-certified minor illness', is a huge red-flag for management and HR, and it does and will get remembered. Yes, if she's still there with an impeccable record years later, it'll become an in-joke, but it'll mark her card with a cloud for a long time before then

Oh that’s interesting, do you work somewhere where people have ‘in-jokes’ about staff sickness records?

I am not sure people have such great memories - especially at work.

First day = red flag.

Within a week of otherwise good attendance and performance = just an amber.

Within a month of otherwise uninterrupted attendance and performance = everyone's forgotten it ever happened or it who it happened to.

Ohsoquietchange

Surely early years won’t be in for the full day? Locally it’s 2 weeks of half days before they even do a full day…. This year early years are in for an hour!
UTIs are horrendous but soldier through it…. Parecetomal and Ibro… and the antibiotics will kick in

My dd just started last week 2 half days and full time from then on!

I suppose whether you call in depends on how you feel its tricky but I had a uti and went in to work thinking its only a uti they only really bad for older people and within an hour had to go home as I was just too ill. Maybe asking for a delayed start is better than sick? I often go to work when I feel bad as I'm terrified of the ridiculous absence policy and it's scoring🙄

Only in toxic work environments is this a "huge red flag". Normal places with supportive managers wouldn't bat an eye.

My husband went into work on his first day of a new job…. With flu! Genuine influenza. I had it as well, I have never felt so ill but he was worse than me and so I went it’s too. Seems ridiculous now but reading all the replies maybe he had a point.
Yes, he did pass it on to colleagues btw

@trunumber

Only in toxic work environments is this a "huge red flag". Normal places with supportive managers wouldn't bat an eye.

Totally this

Some of these replies are ridiculous. Actual grown ups don’t operate like some on here, not in my working environment anyway.

This thread is shocking. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if people go in to work knowing they have covid, all because of attitudes like these.

@Ontheroadtorecovery

Ohsoquietchange

Surely early years won’t be in for the full day? Locally it’s 2 weeks of half days before they even do a full day…. This year early years are in for an hour!
UTIs are horrendous but soldier through it…. Parecetomal and Ibro… and the antibiotics will kick in

My dd just started last week 2 half days and full time from then on!

I suppose whether you call in depends on how you feel its tricky but I had a uti and went in to work thinking its only a uti they only really bad for older people and within an hour had to go home as I was just too ill. Maybe asking for a delayed start is better than sick? I often go to work when I feel bad as I'm terrified of the ridiculous absence policy and it's scoring🙄

I'm an early years teacher.. we do full days from the start.. many of the children coming to me have been in full day nursery from 9 months old!

If children need to have a staggered start that's fine we will ensure that's the case.I've been teaching over a decade and very rarely have I had to do a staggered start/settling in sessions..even in preschool and nursery!

My sons school was ridiculous last year.. he did 30 hours from preschool..his nursery year (the same bloody school as his reception class).. then had a whole WEEK of one hour, two hours, three hours... per day before a week of half days and then finally full days!

Was an absolute nightmare for childcare (we are both teachers so couldn't take time off, parents were worried about Covid so understandably didn't want to help). Was so stressful!!

Sorry @Ontheroadtorecovery I got a bit distracted there!

I agree asking for a delayed start is best but hopefully op has had antibiotics and woke up feeling well enough to go in!

My experience is that anyone with absences in the first week will be unreliable. This has never ever not been the case. I'd terminate your contract immediately providing it was legal to do so.

A) go in and say nothing and grin and bare it (if it's even possible)

B) go in early and tell someone straight away your situation but you wanted to show your face but you can't stay ( is it is even possible)

C) call up - they can't sack you over it

D) call in the morning and fib and blame Covid - say you have to go for a test and will let them know when you have the results and you can send an email over the weekend advising the results ( which will be negative) wrong I know but it's a last resort and your not going to burn in hell for it

I've only been off work ill once in my 12 years of my career and it was because of a UTI. I had symptoms just like the OP has described and it was absolutely horrendous. I would have to be practically dead to be off work but I did take the day off that time. I think the OP is being treated quite harshly here... UTIs can be nasty and we must put our health above work.

And yes, as a previous poster has suggested, I probably would say it's covid related.