To ask if anyone deliberately plans/uses their sick leave as part of their entitlement?

[OneOpenRedShaker]

I know some people who treat sick leave as an entitlement and plan/schedule when to use it, even when they’re not seriously ill. I’m curious to know if anyone else does this, or if most people reserve it for when they’re genuinely sick. Do you view sick leave as a right to use as needed, or is it something that should be used sparingly?

i only use it when I’m sick, but I’m sure the more unscrupulous do abuse sick day leave.

No, but I’ve slightly peeved to find myself managing a team in another country where this ‘use it or lose it’ approach to sick leave seems to be the norm. They basically ensure they take their 2 days sick leave a month, usually tagged on to a weekend or holiday.

I have a job where if you take sick leave, the work doesn’t really go away. Nobody else covers it. It just still needs doing when you come back, which is often really unhelpful - if you have been off sick the last thing you need is an absolute mountain of work to come back to.

But because of this, weirdly, it means I don’t feel bad about taking a day off sick here or there when really I probably could push through if I really needed to. It’s basically an excuse to cancel your meetings for the day and make your own agenda. In this situation it actually often just means working from home, doing some emails, maybe catching up on a bigger piece of work that I haven’t managed to get around to. And having a bit of a rest in between. It basically just means being able to get out of the endless bloody meetings that seem to fill my entire diary and leave me with no time to do the actual work that arises out of them.

However I would only ever do the above when I actually had some sort of ailment like a bit of a rotten cold. I would never completely make up being unwell just to take a days sick leave. Mainly because I’d be too worried about getting found out.

Also NHS. 6 month entitlement but I don’t think I’ve had a sick day since 2017. And could count on one hand the number of sick days I’ve had ever. But my child has a potentially life limiting condition and I know will go downhill and need a big operation in the next year or two and I am absolutely “planning” to use my sick leave when that happens. I won’t in a good position to work safely.

I used to work at a county council. Policy was first 2 days sick unpaid so basically you either got people like me who never took sick even if probably should to avoid the loss of pay or the other half who used to just take the whole week off instead. It was supposed to be to stop people taking a Friday or Monday as sick.

This is absolute rubbish. Sickness is very closely, even aggressively, monitored in the NHS. To the extent it can exacerbate any long term or relapsing/remitting conditions in some workplaces. It's absolutely crackers, tbh, and contributed to my early departure from a profession I loved.

How does someone who is never there get promoted? Baffling management.

They shouldn’t be using sick leave like this. I work somewhere where I only get SSP - no paid sick leave and my wage is pretty good so I’m too worried to be off. Even when I was really rough with Covid I worked from home every day - I didn’t dare not log on or do the actual work. Mind you I’ve not used much of my annual leave this year either so am likely to use it. Maybe I’m a rarity - I love my job and the people I work with, so it’s never a chore going in to work.

Nope, only ever when I needed it. The only thing I’ve ever done is report mental health as a stomach bug as I had a bullying line manager who would tell everyone what we were off with.

In my most stretched years ( 2 primary years, working full time and doing a work related masters cos I was fecking insane) I used sick leave sometimes to cover dc illness. I would have a day off unpaid with them, then would catch it to cover any other days. Frankly with only 22 days a year holiday it was the best I could do.
I also took the odd sick day to cover writing college assignments. If I ever felt guilty I would remind self that the blokes were doing the same but playing golf.

Does your sick pay reset every year?

in Australia we get 10 days per year and they accumulate every year if you don’t use them. I have been at my work for 5 years and I have about 18 days accrued.

No, never. I've never taken a sick day in my life. If I did it'd be because I was sick 🤷‍♀️

I feel v lucky to have my job, so I'm not gonna take the piss. Plus I'm not as charming or peopley as some, but what I can be is efficient and reliable, so that's what I am.

Not for general holiday, but I've used it when my child has been sick. Officially, I'm meant to take unpaid leave to look after dd when she's unwell. My manager is very supportive and let's people use annual leave if they wish. There was one time when dd was unwell for 3 days, but I didn't have any annual leave left, as it was 2 weeks before the end of the holiday year. I lied, and said that I was ill, because I couldn't afford to take unpaid leave (single parent).

We had a department administrator who took their sick leave as part of their annual leave entitlement. They carefully worked out being back at work for the required 12mo to then take off their entire full pay sick leave as 'stress'. Stress is very real but interesting how he was only affected on a 12mo cycle and only for his complete full pay sick leave weeks.

Annoyingly he would then come in when he was genuinely ill (because he didn't want to use up his sick leave then) thus making the rest of us ill.

HR would do fuck all but everyone resented him. It made a mockery of those genuinely ill, especially those with more invisible illnesses like stress.

There was one person in my last workplace who took six months sick leave three years in a row. She even had the brass neck to phone payroll each time to ask when her SSP entitlement ran out so she could plan her return! Why they didn’t get rid of her I shall never know.

No, I only take sick leave when needed.

I went to lead an inadequate school and one of the first jobs was to sort out staff illness. A definite pattern of one staff member ill, then the next…then the next. Almost as if they felt ‘he has been absent, now it is my turn’.

Evaluating the absences, it was easy to spot patterns and with the absence data and benchmarking against other schools, easy to show how expectations had slipped, through a failing headteacher.

Quickly resolved with a new vision and commitment to the children, combined with a focus on the strict attendance management policies. Those who didn't commit, left.

I worked with someone like this. Without fail, she would be ill a few days / week before every holiday and the same afterwards.
It amazed me that no one noticed (I did ask a colleague who was also a friend and she agreed that it happened, but what could we do?).
It meant that we had to pick up her work for double the amount of time.

Yes. Our company holiday policy leaves me with just 15 “choosable” days off per year, the rest are bank holidays or company shutdown (which I’m forced to take off as holiday even though I wouldn’t even be working them all anyway)

We are allowed just 5 paid days off sick a year before questions get asked and pay gets docked.

Of course I bloody well use the full 5 days. When would I see my kids otherwise!?

It’s an unnecessarily punitive company policy that invites employees to mess with the system.

I’ve worked with a very few people who treated sick leave as just extra holiday - as in “well it’s not my fault I haven’t actually been ill, I’m still entitled to the days off”.

I’d never do it because a) it’s just wrong, and b) I’d never shift the feeling I’d be storing up some seriously bad Karma in life, pretending to be ill when I’m lucky enough not to be.

Our sick leave stays on record so I didn't take any as I thankfully didn't need it for the first eight years in my current office. However I took a 'sick' week in January as I really needed the mental break without cutting into my annual leave. I regret nothing, as that was the year they stole Christmas holidays.

No. I have needed it, when I had major surgery, and was off for 5 months. Other than that, I’m 1 or 2 days off a year, largely because I suffer from debilitating migraines.

For those taking extra sick days when not sick (or looking after sick kids ) what do you do? Do you all stay home or brazen it out by going out and about and doing normal things ? I feel like I'd have to go to ground if off sick

No! There us no such thing as a sick leave allowance!
I can't help thinking it is basically dishonest to "throw a sickie" .
But if you are ill, for heavens sake stay at home. I remember early Covid when people dragged themselves in, thinking they were being diligent, then sat there coughing all over the shop in the open plan office.

Wow!!!

I have had sick leave for the last 24 years and have NEVER used it except for one week when I had the proper flu and literally couldn’t get out of bed for three days… I have always been fortunate to be able to work from home if I have been ill but I’ve never stopped working

if you are ill use it- if you’re not do not be that person… its wrong and it’s unprofessional

Exactly this for me, and I know what you mean about not right but not 100% wrong either

I definitely don't see sick leave as extra holiday