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?

@CalistoNoSolo

Loving the instant defensiveness of posters on this thread. Yes, people do lack resilience, it's apparent everywhere and not just in days off sick. People who have (self-diagnosed) anxiety, people who have (self-diagnosed) adhd, people who can't possibly do anything to help themselves (eat more healthily, give up smoking, exercise) because it can't be their responsibility to take care of their health. I have every sympathy for the genuinely ill with chronic conditions, but that's not the majority of people.

URGH, what a putrid post! 😒

Another example I have... A friend of mine works for an employer who is open 365 days a year. (She works nights. 30-ish hours a week...) The rule was they can have Christmas off or new year, not both. She chose Christmas, and was due to be off 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th December. Not exactly a massive amount of time off. She was due in 29th, 30th, and 31st December, and 1st and 2nd January! All good.

The manager who signed the time off (in July) left in October, and the new manager revoked the Christmas time off, saying 'no-one gets Christmas off!' My friend said 'but we always work Christmas or New Year here, and I chose to work new Year.' He said 'NO. No Christmas time off!' but still expected her to do new year. She had her Christmas all planned and arranged and family were coming to stay, and he was telling her she must work all through it.

I remember a day when the fucking workplace would have downed tools for this kind of shit, yet 'managers' in many places seem to get away with it.

My friend went to see the GP around 13th December saying she was very low and 'down' and wondered if she could help her. Told the GP what was wrong, and she gave her 3 weeks off with depression. Turns out this 'manager' had revoked someone's new year time off too, and THEY called in sick all over Christmas and New Year too.

SO.. the stupid twat of a manager had to cover ALL the Christmas night shifts (AND New Year ones,) himself as no-one else would do it. Couldn't do a THING about my friend being off, (or the other employee,) as they had a valid GP sicknote.

If he had allowed her - and her colleague - the Christmas/New Year they were promised (and that had been agreed by the previous manager,) he would not have had to cover it all himself, including nightshift on New Year's Eve.

I re-iterate. THIS is the kind of shit that makes people go 'off sick.' SHIT EMPLOYERS AND SHIT MANAGERS!

Oh come on!!
Good look paying your bills if you stay at home at the first sign of a sniffle!!

How's the view from up there on your high horse? 😄

YANBU as such. I sometimes wonder about people's approaches to this. My sisters won't evne think twice about taking a day of work/ school just because they don't really feel up for it, similarly I have a friend (a teacher as per your example) who will take sick days instead of leave she can't have - to accomodate weekends away or whatever she wants/ needs to do. Then I know people like my DH won't take a day off work unless he physically can't get there. Both approaches are probably a bit extreme and probably not great.

@Ankerdam what sort of chronic illness is still infectious after several months?? How could you possibly infect someone now if you've already been off for months??

AIBU to think it displays a lack of resilience?

That won't go down well on MN, however true it might be!

People's defination of 'sick' is very variable and their colleagues know these skivers well. When I was teaching Friday and/or Monday were notorious for the caravan owners to be 'sick' in Summer, another teacher had been waiting for a hospital appointment for some non-urgent treatment, she was eventually offered a date in August and she declined because she wasn't giving up her holiday!

I think this is a wind up. My DC attend 3 different schools and it is incredibly rare staff are off sick. Only one I can think of was a teacher with cancer or the odd bout of covid. It really is minimal.

I am a midwife and am always telling teachers they are allowed out of work for appointments, but they always insist on late afternoon so as not to disrupt their class. We have actually just started an evening clinic to better accommodate them as we are finding it impossible to fit them all in!

Obviously there are people who suffer from disabilities and long term illness, which is something else entirely and yes they should not be judged for being off sick.

However I used to have view of the illness reports in an old job a few years ago, and the number of people (always the same few) who were frequently off with ‘cold’ ‘sore throat’ ‘didn’t sleep well’ as the reasons was so much higher and more often than I realised. I don’t think it’s lack of resilience for these people, they simply do it because they can get away with it.

Weird boast about being healthier than your peers.

Congratulations, I guess. 🎉

Why do some people insist on judging others when they have no idea what they might be going through in life??

Yes there are idlers and shirkers out there, but that's no reason to tar everyone who needs more time off sick with the same brush. Not all illness/disability is visible.

YABU OP, and I think you and some others on this thread could do with opening your minds up a bit and learning some compassion.

Exactly! There is a group of people that see their sick leave as an extension of the annual leave

And you're a nasty very naive idiot!

If you seriously think that there are no people who take the piss then I have a bridge to sell!

There will always be some people that take the piss, but many people struggle with bad health, just be glad you’re not one of them OP. One day it might be you that someone is making a thread about. Just get on with your work and leave it to the correct people to deal with if there’s an issue.

We had a woman who took it upon herself to monitor others attendance. She was awful about one woman who was having lots of time off with coughs/colds but was undergoing tests. It turned out there was something very serious underlying and she sadly died within a few years. Of course the self appointed attendance monitor then changed her tune. Silly cow.

The term resilience is often used by people who want to feel superior to others now.

I currently have cancer and my treatment requires single days off rather than a big run of time for a long course of chemo etc. I don't want most people I work with to know about it so my employers are respecting my right to privacy and so I may look to someone who doesn't know like someone you are complaining about.

I also struggled with recurrent illness when returning from mat leave and the DCs brought back everything from nursery and made us all in turn - that was a Hellish 6 months.

Finally I get migraines which are controlled as well as can be but do mean I have at least 2 days sick a year.

None of this indicates a lack of resilience, in fact due to needing time off for the above I've worked through 6 miscarriages etc for fear of being seen a malingerer. But just cos you don't know why people aren't off doesn't mean there's not a valid reason, just none of your concern

When i get a cold I get two months of extremely heavy coughing, little sleep, usually 1 or 2 doses of antibiotics due to secondary bacterial infections, courses of steroids and occasionally pleurisy or pneumonia. More than once Ive nearly died from asthma attacks.

But yes Im sure some of my colleagues think my being ill due to a cold is a lack of resilience because apart from the coughing they dont see the rest and they don't realise just how tough it is

I am incredibly resilient to work as much as I do when I am that ill. Incredibly resilient. Probably more so that you are with a "heavy cold".

I’ve worked with some people who take the absolute piss. As soon as they accrue sick leave they take it. God forbid anything bad actually happens.

You can easily pick those who have genuine illnesses and those who bow out at the first sign of difficulty, leaving their team in the lurch.

Yabu and ableist

Hope that helps.

I also hope you don't have much contact with young people as it's a horrible attitude which really doesn't need to be passed onto them.

The kind of people who stay at home to recover instead of spreading their germs, you mean?
If only there were more of them, and kids were kept at home instead of being forced to attend when they're ill, we'd probably not have so many people catching these illnesses.

This. The amount of selfish people I had the misfortune to work with, who came into work sneezing, coughing, the whole works, used to really annoy me. They had no consideration whatsoever for other people who they could have infected with what ever they had. And no they would not have lost wages by not coming in.

Nice to see all the skivers are on their keyboards insulting everyone who is mature enough to see the sense in the original post!

I work in HR and agree there are many people who take several sick days each year. We have a pretty generous sick pay allowance (10 days). We have to make a point of telling people that it is not there in addition to their holiday allowance!

There are individuals who have a genuine illness that means they are absent fairly frequently. However, we support them as best as possible. On the other hand we also have policies in place for those who frequently have random days off for stomach bugs, flu type illness etc.

Unfortunately, it tends to be the younger members of staff who seem to think they are entitled to time off!

Mind your own business and stop "monitoring" other people's business.

We all know the kind of person you are. You have no idea about the health of the people you work with, because it is none of your business, but you just love to judge other people. They don't have to account to you.

You'd probably think of me as being "one of those people" because I've had 3 months off work in the last year (in one month chunks).

1st month, my father died. 8 weeks later my younger sister died - that was another month off. Managed to keep working just about until Christmas then fell apart beginning of January so was signed off work for 6 weeks.

Outside of my immediate colleagues (manager and two people on my team) no one knows why I've been off. So that's a wider department of 50 people who have knowledge that I've been absent, but not why.

Yes, there will always be people who take the piss. That's down to people management to weed out. In the meantime get the fuck off your high horse and accept that some people need to use their sick leave and they absolutely don't have to tell you why they are.

Congratulations on your good health?

I used to not be affected by colds either and could just get on with it with some paracetamol, but since having COVID I get the worst colds and far more frequently than before. Probably taken 5 or 6 days off in the last year due to illness.

You should be very grateful you're hardly ever ill, OP. It really sucks.