To be stressing about the fact I’ve had 13 days off since september

[Blueblossompinksky]

Honestly, is it pretty bad as far as time off is concerned? I’ve never had such a lot of time off and feel so bad.

My work allows three periods of sickness in a 6 month period before anything is said (not including covid).

I know someone who is off 'sick' with stress repeatedly. She's just struggling to muster emotional resilience. About 6 weeks a year on average in last 5 years. She still has a job but is surprised when her managers turn shirty with her. I would have thought you're nowhere near that bad, OP.

There's a pandemic going on and this isn't your usual pattern of attendance. If nobody has actually said anything and your workplace is generally fairly understanding about these things, then it's probably fine. It's a lot of days, but given that Covid accounted for most of them, it's also understandable.

Given that you've already taken these days, you can't actually change anything about this now, so I would just focus on arrangements for the future or splitting the sickness care for your son with your partner a bit more, and then crack on with doing a good job.

@Blueblossompinksky

No, I didn’t take sick leave. We have 5 days paid leave for unwell children/relatives etc so I didn’t actually insist I had to have it unpaid!

OP I don't understand, if you didn't take it as sick leave then what are you worrying about? Sorry if I'm missing something

@Blueblossompinksky

I’m not sure why not equal *@Annette32123*, sometimes you can have an unwell child being in a car for over two hours, you know? We really do our best but also stuff happens.

I mean if when you are in sick child duty, you cannot work but when he is on sick child duty he takes them to his parents and he works there, he isn’t missing work time and you are. So his ‘time’ will have no impact on his working hours or colleagues perception of him. Yours will. Or at least might. If I understand correctly.

But I really wouldn’t worry about your own sick time. Covid plus two days isn’t an issue.

I've had countless days off in the 7 months I've been with my new employer. I've had Covid twice and countless times of child illness (throw in Covid precautions over every sniffle) and they've been extremely understanding. It cannot be helped. I've been very lucky that they're okay with it, but don't feel guilty.