To find work absence procedures frustrating?

[Whoareyouanyway]

In my place, even if you are sick you have to speak to them on the phone. You can email text etc. But you still have to physically speak to your line manager even if you're unwell.
I just don't understand why. Or if it's an emergency, I suppose if you are in hospital and physically unable to speak in extreme circumstances that's different.

Just don't understand this level of distrust that employers have, does anybody else have this in their contract?

I wouldn't offer any without a doctor's note if I could help it. Or with one unless it was a real issue. Had a handful of skiving wage-thieves under me for years. They bloody loved COVID with their "I saw my auntie walk past the end of the lane and somebody coughed outside her house the day before so I will see you in two weeks" .

I think most organisations I've worked for have a phone policy, but regardless if I've been up all night I might email in the early hours of the morning, explain, say "I'm going to try and get some sleep now, will call you when I wake up" - I've never had anyone pull me up on that.

I don't take a lot of time off - when I do, it's most likely to be bronchitis, so my line manager will usually have heard me in the office in the lead up to sickness absence. and the hacking cough will be very evident when I do call for a very short conversation, there's not much cause for doubt.

When I had double pneumonia and pleurisy I was having weekly sick notes from the gp issued on the Friday for the following week and my employer phoned like clockwork on Monday to ask if I'd be back the following week. Sometimes multiple calls a week. "Yes. I still have pneumonia and yes the doctors note still stands" was really all I could say!

I'm a manager. This is our workplace policy. I don't enforce it and treat my staff like adults and human beings.

There are always individuals who take the piss. Their poor attitude normally shows itself in a multitude of ways and results in them moving on quite quickly IME (worked in 3 different sectors). However, those aside, I find that workplace culture and quality of line managers has far more influence than the requirement to phone in personality when it comes down to whether staff take a sick day when they feel a bit meh but not really poorly.

I had to phone in recently with laryngitis and I sounded so bad it was like I was faking it and I ended up feeling very embarrassed although I was genuinely ill. That said, there was a staff member who texted in once or twice a week often saying the bus didn't show or she was sick or her Mum was in hospital etc. It was so bullshit they had to deal with her individually but also brought back the phone in system. It was collective punishment which I don't like but I do understand they had to address it.

When I was a nursing student back in the 80s, I had had day surgery for a (benign) breast lump and went back to work after a couple of days. It was an orthopaedic ward so there was a lot of heavy lifting involved. I had my stitches out in my tea break and went back to complete my late shift (9pm finish).

Towards the end of the evening I started feeling very unwell and told the powers that be that I wouldn't be in the next day. Nope - not acceptable. The procedure was to call in the morning before my next shift which started at 730.

I didn't live on site and I didn't have a landline in my flat where I lived alone. The nearest public phone box was a 10 minute walk away so I had to set the alarm, get up early and walk to the phone box to tell them exactly what I had told them the night before. Madness.

We have this policy because a text might not always get seen and then our clients might not get their support visits.
We always ask sick people to call the office number

Makes sense to me

I worked in a school where you had to ring the head every single day you were off sick without a sicknote.
She would then quiz you if you were going to the doctors etc and whether you could come in late etc. it was awful. No im not going to the doctors for a one day migraine.
She also wanted everyone to ring at a certain time - 7-7.30am but sometimes you couldn’t get through so had to keep trying.
The kitchen staff started from 6am and they would have to ring their manager then so he could do cover. So they would ring the head then too as they said, I’m not ringing at 6 (or even earlier) and then sitting for an hour to ring again when I’m sick. She was furious about it.

sick levels actually went up at this time! I think a lot of good will about coming in later just went out the window because she was so horrible to everyone when they rang up they all stayed off.

I'm unable to speak at the moment without uncontrolled coughing from a chest infection, which is followed by gagging. Sometimes it's not possible to ring, and it doesn't take catastrophic medical circumstances either.

Having to set an alarm when you’re sick does seem harsh. As other PPs have said though, unfortunately a lot of workplaces have a phone in procedure in place as it has been proven that it discourages employees throwing a sickie. Do your managers have any scope for discretion? At my work the official procedure is to phone in by xx time. However on the very rare occasions I’ve been off sick I’ve sent a text to my manager and they are fine with that, because they know I rarely take time off.