How many sick days are you allowed to take?

[Abigail47]

In my last job, they didn't really care that much about sick leave. They would let people take up to about two weeks uncertified sick leave, and if you were certified for sick leave, you could take months of sick leave. They also didn't do return to work meetings for sick periods of less that five days.

I only took about four days sick leave in a year in that last job.

I started a new job seven months ago and I'm in shock.

I've taken four days sick leave in the whole seven month period. Two different periods of two days. I was sick. They were uncertified (as I had moved to a new area and hadn't registered with a local doctor in time) and I didn't get paid.

After each period I was called into an office with a manager and made to do a return to work meeting.
I was told in each meeting that too much sick leave can leave to contract termination.

My colleague just took five days certified sick leave, and on her return they said the same to her, that too much sick leave can lead to contract termination.

Aibu to think that four days sick leave in a whole year is not a lot.

Like we are going to get sick . Everyone does.
In one of my sick periods I totally lost my voice with a chest infection. I couldn't speak at all and I have a customer facing role.

What is sick leave like in your organisation?

Interesting to read the variety of responses! I actually am not 100% on how it works for my organisation. I started last year and have called in sick one day with a bad headache, but other than that I luckily haven’t been ill.

We have good work life balance, flexi time and 30 days annual leave so I don’t feel overworked or run down, maybe that contributes to me not getting ill.

I will take a look at the policy next week!

Wow. I'm shocked at peoples views. 2 x 2 days in 7 months seems nothing to me. (And I've had 2 days in 13 years!)

Everyone gets sick for a couple of days in a year.

Yes and we're expected to go into work with a cold. Lost voice or not. It sucks but it's the way it is

I’ve had no sick leave for 8 years. (Not had Covid - yet.)

Exactly. People are by default expected to be at work unless they're genuinely too sick to work. It's not an "allowance" like a holiday allowance (which a lot of public sector staff seem to treat it as!)

Wow, so they are encouraging people to come in when they are sick and spread their germs? Do they really hate productivity then?

The people who say they'd never take a sick day for a cold must be those lucky ones who feel mildly yucky and crack on with a lemsip.

I get those, and I crack on.
Then there are the OTHER COLDS I get. The ones which come with fever and aches, and you are so congested you can't sleep. So fuzzy headed you can't think straight.

For those of us with those colds, there's no cracking on. The couple of times I've tried (which involved getting taxis as driving/walking to public transport just wasn't viable), I've been promptly sent home.

In the same way one person can be hospitalised by Covid, and another person by have symptoms, not all colds are equal.

How could someone who is employed for seven months, possibly be called a new starter.

If we said that someone had been in Canada for seven months, would we say that they

have "newly arrived in canada" ?

In my job, people who are in their training period, which is the first two weeks of the job, are called new starters.

No one else is called a new starter. I was asked to show the new starters some things in my job last week.

One of them was shadowing me for half a day.

We're allowed to use AL if we're too ill to work though.

In my place uncertified (you just call in) sick days are three per annum but they stay on record for five years and can be questioned. Anything over three days in one go (this includes weekends, ie if you were to need a Friday and a Monday) needs a doctor's note.
A good manager like we have at the moment will just allow wfh if you've got a cold rather than infecting the office or taking a sick day. Long term illness and pregnancy related absences have different rules.

For a cold, it's lemsip and crack on surely? If everyone at my work took sick days for a cold there'd be nobody to teach classes!

"Allowed"? That's awful.

We are summoned to a meeting if we have more than 3 self cert absences in a rolling year. The length is irrelevant so if someone has been absent for a week each time and someone has had 3 single days it would be the same criteria. It's never happened to me but colleagues have been to these meetings after 3 absences and it's just a verbal warning that you have met the threshold.
I think this is quite standard?

Of course getting sick happens to everyone, but it doesn't happen to everyone as often as you seem to think. You might get unlucky one year and have a couple of bouts bad enough to be off in quick succession - but that's not a normal year.

If someone were off sick twice in their first 7 months it would absolutely be noted at my work. Our policy is every instance of absence has a RTW conversation, and 3 occurrences or 10 days total in a 12 month period trigger an attendance management review. These are of course about reducing absences but also understanding any support the company can offer towards this.

In my experience, managers have a good idea of when people are genuinely having a bad period, and the formality of RTW meetings / managing attendance plans reflects this - common sense and discretion are applied to the outcomes (e.g. no one with a long-term/serious illness would face disciplinary action). However, it's important everyone is subject to the same policy for consistency, and it keeps people who would take a week off for feeling a bit under the weather in-line.

Most places I have worked allow 3 periods of self certificated sick within a 365 day rolling time. To be self certificated, it has to be less than 3 days. If you are sick on a Monday, the preceding Saturday and Sunday count, and if you are sick on a Friday, the following Saturday and Sunday count. This is the policy I set now.

After that it is warning / dismissal.

As an aside, I have only ever had 2 days sick in 35 years, other than for an operation.

@Abigail47

Your Canada analogy is bonkers.

Ok, if it makes you feel better you're not a 'new starter' then. But you're definitely early on in the job.

We get 6 months full pay then 6 months half pay in a rolling 12 month period. I think you still go on the sickness procedure stages if you have more than 3 occasions in a rolling 12 month period but that hasn’t happened to me since 2005 which was a particular bad year health wise! We use the Bradford Factor but to be honest, I don’t know much about it. I have to admit that we hybrid work so can work from home if I felt ok but not well enough for the office.

I’m not sure what my contract says but I always get paid sick days because I’d be hard to replace and they don’t want to piss me off!

havibg said that, it’s just the odd day here and there for a bug. I know it would ultimately come to an end.

That's all fairly standard practice if annual leave isn't available. Hospital appts can be changed.

I would, however allow someone to go to the appt and return to work for the rest of the working day, if they could show that they could arrange to rearrange the appt or it was for an already known long term illness. I would also expect that member of staff to make up the time they missed.

I do rtw meetings after every sick period, no matter the length, expect daily communication if they are going to be off more than one day under the cert period. If signed off, I don't expect communication unless needed, and a fit note/amended duties note is needed or given.

After 3 periods of sick leave in 12 rolling months, it automatically triggers an investigation. This rarely leads to formal action being taken, another 2 periods off in that time, and it triggers the process again where formal action may then be taken depending on circumstances. If I see a pattern developing, I would then also be able to trigger an investigation.

These procedures keep things fair for everyone and are easy enough to monitor. Unfortunately, management does sometimes need to say no to annual leave, even for medical reasons. Weirdly enough it's always the same few that get told no. The business needs to keep ticking over.

Taking annual leave for sick is also a no. Notice needs to be given, which is the same for every employee, myself included. Also, if it goes down as annual leave, it's much harder to monitor sickness absence.

Personally, I feel more secure in my workplace knowing everything is laid out and everyone is treated the same regardless.

It doesn't mean to say, we don't sometimes let ppl leave early and not make up the hours. Occasionally, depending on circumstances- we do understand that you need to leave early. Or your kids have a sports day, but then you are expected back in after.

It's better than not being allowed to take annual leave for sickness.

I wasn't allowed to take annual leave for sickness.

I've been at my employer 2 years. I had two bouts of sickness (Covid and then severe tonsillitis) on quick succession this year and although my line manager was 100% understanding and didn't bat at eyelid, I was still conscious about two sick periods within a few months.

Very glad you don't work for me OP!

I don't think it's a lot. I hate this weird workplace culture it's frowned upon to have sick days when you're, you know, genuinely sick! It's so bizzare. Okay, well done you for having 1 single sick day in 10 years but some people are more susceptible to getting sick due to our differing immune systems, environments or whatever! In my last place (I've resigned from that toxic hell hole now) people were scared to go off sick as you'd have a black mark against you and when you got returned you'd feel people being awkward with you so everyone would continue to work, passing their bugs around so the team was constantly ill with people coughing and sneezing all the damn time. This was a clinical role as well dealing with the public. Just take a day to recover and don't give it to the rest of us.

I'll be honest, the years where I've not been off sick make me feel a bit miffed for not having the extra days off work.

No real limit. But after being off for 6 times (6 weeks in total or more, paid) in a year you get asked if there is anything you need help with or if everything is ok. During covid there was no limit, I was off for three weeks with coughing (it was so bad!!) and no questions asked. I’m not in the UK.

You talked a lot about following the rules and discipline.

What about being humane and kind to people.?

Workplaces are not concentration camps