How do you call in sick?

[Ihatework2]

Nc for this. Just want to find out what happens to other people as in my workplace (school teacher) we literally have to phone the headteacher on his mobile and speak about our illness in depth and he then tells us to email cover in. Are other workplaces like this too? Would you classify this as an intimidating tactic? Other places I’ve worked in don’t require you to do this. If you’re naturally anxious it will stop you calling in sick.

We have to call in on the first day. I always tell my team (I'm a manager) that it's so I can hear how authentic their sick voice is (obviously joking).
Subsequent days can be via text for updates until a DRs note is required.
We don't have to go into loads of detail but a general overview of why they are off.

My previous work I had to phone my area manager and he once told me "he didn't feel that was a level requiring a day off" ( I had a migraine and had been sick throughout the night - they HATED absence) so I told him that wasn't up to him.

@Splashinginpuddles15

I am a teacher . We leave a message . Then we get at least one welfare call during the day . They are a bit intrusive - asking us what medication we have tried and at what time etc . Once when I was sleeping and my phone was on silent the person called my husband - even though I had left a message and e-mailed . Not sure whether that is right though . I am 35 years old !

OMG I would be so pissed off if I had a call from work. I hate filling out the absence form, and do not answer any personal questions about medication etc.

@Geamhradh - do you think it reasonable for a secondary teacher to spend time preparing every lesson plan in a format that a complete stranger could follow at a moment’s notice? Or, on consideration, can you see that it might be necessary to put in a bit of extra effort while simultaneously ill to ensure that your lesson can be covered by someone likely to be a non-teacher who is only there to supervise and is not a specialist in your subject?

Officially we're supposed to phone, but I don't demand it of my team. If they phone fine, if they text me because it's the early hours and they're throwing up so know full well they won't be in at 9, or because it's a MH thing they don't feel up to talking about then that's also fine.

We don't have cover to arrange so there's no time urgency, but obviously before I start to worry they haven't turned up is ideal (a number of the team live alone so no-call no-shows spark concern that somethings wrong and they can't get to the phone).

Or alternatively, the teacher can just opt to get the class to read from a class text book….

Today 08:36 DanglingMod

PrivateHall
That is ridiculously early. You might not even be awake at that time to know you are sick lol!
We have to phone Head by 7.15am. Of course you would be up at that time as a teacher. Most secondary school dats start by 8.45, most teachers would be in by 7.45. No way you wouldn't be up by 6-6.30am.
@DanglingMod
I’m a primary teacher. Sometimes I don’t get up till 7.45am! Sometimes I get out of bed at 8.10am, quick shower then go.
My day starts at 9am and not a minute before.
What a ridiculous statement to make!!!
I leave everything organised the day before, btw!

Finding it amusing that people are surprised teachers usually have to plan cover for their classes when they're off. Yes, you would usually have everything planned but, if you're not sure who will e covering you, you often need to change it for something more accessible for a non-specialist or cover supervisor (e.g. not a teacher) to do. In DH's school, cover work has to be something that the students can just get on with, without much input from the person covering the class so if he has planned a lesson with lots of classs discussion and input from him on that particular day, he would need to change it at the last minute.

To answer the question...we are told to text the head and deputy head if we are off. We would also message colleagues in our own year group too as the message doesn't always trickle down quickly.

Ex teacher and now nhs but every job I've had in addition to this whether admin or waitressing I've always had to ring and speak to someone if I'm ill. As a teacher I think you do have a responsibility to provide some cover work- yes it's a nightmare but it's very tricky for a supply or cover teacher to walk into a class of kids 'blind' - I would always just provide something fairly straightforward and relatively easy to ensure the cover teacher could quickly provide this to the class. In an ideal world I guess there would be standard set lessons for situations like this but it's not very easy - eg I used to teach food tech so on the odd occasion I was ill i knew they'd be 20 very disappointed kids who had probably had to send parents out to buy specific ingredients for the double lesson and knew it was going to be a very tough lesson to cover . I think you have to accept the cover teacher may not always get the info or may find it hard to deliver so at times they may just do their own thing
In nhs we are told the reason you ring in is so they can check you're ok and don't need anything - also to get an idea how long you're likely to be off so they can plan ahead . it's more awkward ringing when your kids are ill in my opinion. When they know you are basically at home fine in yourself
I dread having to take any time off to be honest so very rarely do

Most of the teachers in my primary are there by 8, some 7.30.

If I'm due in court being sick isn't an option, unless I'm really really lucky and a colleague can cover. The court will refuse an adjournment for illness unless there's medical documentation. Which means that unless I'm in hospital, no adjournment granted. So I have to show up or my clients case is screwed forever. Similarly if there's evidence due at court I have to get it submitted. I can't submit it late and be like, "Yeah sorry, I had flu".

Otherwise, in a normal day, I text my boss and just say I'm not well enough to work and maybe give a one-word explanation like "migraine" or "flu". Then I put a note on the work WhatsApp. It would actually come across as suspicious if I went into big explanations about how sick I was.

I worked in one school where you had to ring the head between 7-7.30am every day you were off and they would grill you. I mean GRILL you about why you were off, why you weren’t going to the doctors, why couldn’t you come in later.
She was often furious as people would ring whilst she was on the phone to someone else (because she spoke for soooo long).
Kitchen staff would ring at 6am as they had to also ring the chef then to get cover as some started at 6.30am. She was furious and thought they should wait an hour and ring her.
But if you were a teacher you also had to tell your HOD and cover.

The whole scheme was meant to reduce sickness but in fact after a year it went up. Not teachers though, support. They hated ringing her and if you got a sick note you didn’t have to ring. A few said they did it as they whole system stopped them getting well.

I’ve known lots of teachers have a few easy emergency lessons prepared for sickness etc. Esp as year 10/11 tend to be sorted/covered internally by HOD.

I’ve worked in schools for many years and I think it’s ridiculous that teachers have to send in cover work. If you’re ill, you’re ill. What would school do if you were in a coma, or undergoing an operation? There should be systems in place to deal with what happens in staff absence. (Perhaps a ready made independent revision lesson?) It’s ridiculous to expect a cover lesson to be as good as one with the regular teacher, so there should be enough slack in the curriculum to allow for the odd sick day.

I have to phone in an hour before my shift. I start at 7am so early doors!
I'm not ill very often but I did have to call in after my second Covid vaccine as I'd been up vomiting during the night. I set an alarm to get up and phone my boss and then went back to bed 😂 I did WhatsApp her at 2.30am (I knew her phone would be on do not disturb so she wouldn't read until morning anyway) telling her to expect my call.

Teacher here. Phone deputy head and email cover work to a million different People on an overly complex form by 7:15am. I’m not allowed to set anything that needs printing, or requires a video. And any practical work obviously won’t happen. Trying to set work a non-specialist can deliver and kids will understand is hard.

We have to phone a manager.. cannot text.

In theory we're meant to call but I tend to just send a text if I'm ill. But with working from home there's very much an expectation that you're reachable by email etc. anyway.

[quote Walkaround]@Geamhradh - do you think it reasonable for a secondary teacher to spend time preparing every lesson plan in a format that a complete stranger could follow at a moment’s notice? Or, on consideration, can you see that it might be necessary to put in a bit of extra effort while simultaneously ill to ensure that your lesson can be covered by someone likely to be a non-teacher who is only there to supervise and is not a specialist in your subject?[/quote]
Well, I've been trying my best to do it for the last 28 years.
As others have said, the cover teacher doesn't have to do it, but obviously I understand why we have to provide it.
I'm also academic manager for a summer language course, and I am the cover if a teacher calls in sick. And a very dim view is taken if there's no plan already. (On that course teachers plan with their pair teacher and all the plans are kept on the drive)

My last workplace we had to call the boss directly on his mobile. I think as a deterrent as everyone absolutely hated doing this. He wasn't a great boss. And at my current place we just text in the manager beforehand. Much easier.

Apologies, @Geamhradh - I now see you had made other comments! It was your comment in response to another poster, “ Surely if a teacher is planning lessons in the car on their way in, they're in the wrong job,” that came across as implying that a teacher should either have all their lesson plans in a format a non-teacher could follow at a moment’s notice, or they must be preparing their lessons in the car on the way to school in the morning, with nothing in between. I know primary schools will try to get supply teachers in for unplanned staff absences, but my experience of secondary schools is that anyone of any background can end up being employed as a cover supervisor and they are not going to be in a position to teach any specialist lesson in accordance with a full lesson plan, as they are supervisors of work, not teachers, so might need something other than the lesson plan to guide them on what to tell the class to get on with. You wouldn’t expect, for example, someone with no knowledge of French, to teach a full French lesson just because they had been given an excellent lesson plan, after all, but they will need to know what they can ask the class to be getting on with.

Primary teacher. Have only ever known system of ring Head in person and email lessons and resources. But sometimes that's not as easy as just sending what you had planned to do. If you want to model something in a particular way, or are in the middle of a tricky sequence of lessons, then you don't want to rely on someone else picking it up and doing it differently. So you end up having to plan separate/more easily accessible plans when you're feeling rubbish.

@TheNumberfaker

I’ve worked in schools for many years and I think it’s ridiculous that teachers have to send in cover work. If you’re ill, you’re ill. What would school do if you were in a coma, or undergoing an operation? There should be systems in place to deal with what happens in staff absence. (Perhaps a ready made independent revision lesson?) It’s ridiculous to expect a cover lesson to be as good as one with the regular teacher, so there should be enough slack in the curriculum to allow for the odd sick day.

In my experience if it's something really bad school will sort the cover but for everyday illness they expect you to set it. To be fair I would usually send an email with very simple quick details of something that was very uneducational -eg do a leaflet about .....- but meant a cover teacher had something to occupy the class with. When it's something major the school would step in but as you know everyone in schools is so stretched it does add extra stress if they're having to organise cover work so I think only in exceptional circumstances should they have to.

Btw - supply teachers should be able to teach an age appropriate one off lesson if planning is not provided. Certainly that was expected when I was a supply.

I’m a secondary teacher and we have a staff absence line that we have to ring and leave a message on before 7:30 am. We then have to save all of the work and resources on the school network by 8:30am at the latest. This is the worst bit because you have to start sorting out work in the morning while you’re genuinely poorly and just want to go back to bed. It’s often difficult to just give the work you’d planned to do because it wouldn’t work without a specialist teacher to deliver it so you end up trying to come up with something else. I’m a joint head of department so in the past I’ve set work for members of my team that were too ill to set their own. I did this for 6 weeks last year when someone had Covid. But this isn’t really possible if your head of department. Just have to hope you’re never that ill.

Legally you do not have to tell your employer why you're calling in sick. However aside from the in-depth explanation on why you're off, the whole process is a reasonable request.

At our place you must phone either your manager or the dedicated absence line before 10 am on the first day of your illness. Texting or even emailing are not considered appropriate ways of notifying for sickness absence.