To be shocked at how much time off sick some people have?

[Enfys1982]

I work in a school and since I started in the sector it’s been a bit of eye opener to me how much sick time some people seem to take, and it always seems to be the same people. Days here and there, sometimes weeks on end then they come back for a bit go off again. As I said always the same people.

The last time I was off was last year when I had Covid, and I was only off because then you still legally had to isolate if positive. I actually felt well enough to go in. Before that I genuinely can’t remember when I was off sick. If I feel bad I just dose myself up and get on with it.

AIBU to think it displays a lack of resilience?

I think you're being unfair. Maybe some individuals have time off at the drop of a hat but most people don't in my experience.

If you look at my sick record for the last year you'd probably be horrified - 3 days off with a migraine a couple of weeks ago (couldn't have focussed on the screen for love nor money), a couple of days off with a sick bug in March (yay toddlers!), 4 days off with a chest infection in January (yay toddlers again), a week off with covid in November (that would be the toddler again...), and I've had at least another couple of ad hoc days off with migraines. However, I've also worked from home through other migraines and "bad colds"/mild chest infections. I only have time off when I can't hold my head up/focus on a screen. I work evenings if needed to meet deadlines etc so I'm not "dodging work" and fortunately I have a sympathetic employer who understands we're human!

But it's been a bad year. I've had multiple years on the bounce without a single day off but since having a small toddler I seem to catch everything and my migraines come in cycles so I'll have a bad few months or so, then nothing for ages. You don't know people's personal circumstances and you're coming off as quite judgemental.

I think that some people use sick days as additional days leave. I think far more are genuinely poorly more often than others.

People’s general health varies massively. Something that you can push through could leave someone else unable to work. Then there is stress/burnout/mental illnesses that can mimic physical illnesses (and be a genuine reason to be off in their own right).

Not to mention that many people choose not to go into work and spread their germs around everyone else when they are sick… battling through isn’t necessarily the good thing that you think it is.

I work in the nhs and there are both types. Stoic people who come in no matter what. And people who skive. I once heard a couple of nurses discussing how much annual leave and sick leave they had left to take.

During covid, it was easy to predict who would rise to the occasion and who would do all they could to stay off.

Of course people should take time off for genuine sickness. But there are piss-takers and it’s silly to pretend they don’t exist. We know who they are.

That was a lighthearted thread which people misread and the ‘outrage’ was ludicrous.

In have met nurses and doctors who take the piss. I believe you. I guess the system relies on the rest of us to balance it out.

Sorry my comment above was in reference to this.

Nope OP, just shocked at you making such a naïve and ill judged statement.

Oh and it's none of your business either.

Agree, everyone knows who the skivers are and they aren’t the ones with actual chronic health problems. The ones who are off all the time tend to be spectacularly shit at their job as well.

If you don’t understand how we all know who the skivers are, then I regret to tell you it is in fact you

YANBU, but you won’t get agreement on MN. This is the place where people take a week off because they break a finger nail, and everyone supports them.

But I often wonder if the fragile people who take time off for every minor reason ever wonder about the impact on their colleagues, and whether their health suffers as a result of overwork…

OP I fear I am one of the people you are talking about. First 7 years of teaching I took only a handful of sick days but in the last 3 years in a new school no less I have been off loads. To most the school -people like you- I imagine they think I'm just taking the piss. What most don't know is I have 2 conditions, one of which is chronic, have had 3 surgeries and have a compromised immune system as a result. I don't "look" traditionally sick. To people like you I imagine I lack resilience. However, that is because I don't want to broadcast my conditions and symptoms to all staff. HR and SLT know. They need to know, people like you don't.

Maybe you should avoid assumptions. Yes some people will fake it but there will also be those like me who have a lot going on unknown to you. People like my friend who lost 3 family members across a year and had a child diagnosed with significant additonal need. Or another who lost 2 family unexpectedly and then had a terminal diagnosis for another.

You shouldn't assume because you don't know it is fake.

It's my resilience that keeps me in a job with the disabilities I have. What an ableist thread.

The year before I knew I’d be leaving my job I went sick, six months full pay then six months half pay. I handed my notice in 3 months before my half pay ran out. I have no regrets and feel absolutely no guilt.

I think it is great if people can take sick leave when they are not well enough to work. I work in the private sector with SSP and people cannot really afford being off sick and come in when they are clearly not well enough to work. It's especially awful during the cold season and bugs get passed around a lot. I think the alternative is much better.

I used to work in a team of 6. 2 people had more time off sick than everyone else put together.
, one of them always on Mondays and Fridays. However they were also the same 2 people who turned up late regularly and couldn't get in if was windy/snowy etc....

If you’re in good health then feel grateful, if they’re being signed off as sick by their GP they obviously have some sort of problem. Things can change and then perhaps you’ll be glad of the sick leave policy. Sometimes people would be better off having a day or two off than struggling in being unproductive and giving their germs to everyone, some of those people are likely to have a lower immune system

I disagree OP. I HATE WHEN PEOPLE GO TO WORK SICK and infect everyone. I even contracted covid-19 from my place of work.

I hate the culture my workplace has of coming in unless you’re dying - people coughing and spluttering uncontrollably with substantial chest infections or contagious illnesses.

personally I am young/healthy and never get properly ill that I need time off work, but not everyone has the same immune system. ill people going into work will just create more ill colleagues surely. Better to take time off sick and recover and break the cycle

There have been a lot of changes to the NICE guidelines recently and some people had medicines taken away and therefore cannot work or work easily anymore.

I had 12 weeks off sick in a rolling 12-month period a couple of years ago. Eight weeks was after my DP's sudden death, when I was deranged by grief, and 4 weeks was 11 months later when I had a long-awaited knee replacement.

Although that much sick leave in a year should have had me on a performance management plan, it was never even hinted at. I'm lucky enough to work for an organisation that recognises that shit happens, and that often loads of it happens all at once.

If I feel bad I just dose myself up and get on with it.

@Enfys1982 perhaps you are the one that is spreading all the germs making everyone else unwell! And maybe they have a weaker immune system than you so they are unable to dose up and carry on.

Yes! Far from "I have to go in with a limb hanging off so why shouldn't everyone else?" we should be campaigning for fair and decent sickness absence policies, including sick pay, for all.

NO, we dont.

Some people have weak immune systems and catch everything going and they dont just have a "mild cold". Theyre bed ridden for weeks.

You, however, lack common empathy for people who might have serious health issues.

My dad was off sick for long periods during his professional life (retired now). Because he had a genetic illness that caused him to be unable to work at times. Sometimes for months, and even, at one point, years on end!

I have a friend who has a very weak immune system and is always ill. Ever since she caught covid, and developed long covid, shes had to take even more time off. And currently is suffering with gallstones, and waiting for surgery. She cant work, as what she does it very physical, and she cant really eat anything without excrutiating pain.

Also, a heavy cold can be just as bad as a flu!
I know that if I have a bad cold, it will give me a fever, and I cant function if I have a fever. It is not lack of resilience. It is just what it is.

And to finish, going to work ill doesnt prove youre resilient, it proves youre an idiot who doesnt mind getting other people ill.

Are you a teacher OP? Do you know how many ex-teachers have serious illness and disability caused by the profession?

And you come up with a smug, judgemental thread about how much better than them you are.

This kind of mean, wrong, petty thinking is so prevalent on Mumsnet recently. Sickening! Literally!

Unfortunately the people who really can't afford to take sick days tend to be those who should the most! (Minimum wage workers often working with the public, some of those in food service! People who are barely scraping by as it is, don't get sick pay and really can't afford to take a day off but still have bills to pay and still have dependants. I'm not saying its right to go in but I don't think we can call people living on the breadline, idiots, just because they go in to work when ill - it's drummed into us from primary school onwards that you go in when ill unless it's D&V!

There will always be some who take the piss, but you don't know what others have going on in their lives/heath.

The best advise someone gave me is if someone being off sick regularly doesn't affect you personally then just let us wash over you. If them being off regularly causes issues with workload etc, address your workload with your manager, not the sickness.

I had Covid and was only sick for two days but had the week off as that was the policy at the time.

Other than that, 3 days off in the last five years. Only took the piss on one of those days as I wanted the day off to clean my new car 😂 work was waiting for me on my return anyway so meh