What happens if your children are sick whilst you're at work?

[Ditaditaddddita]

Say if the nursery phone you whilst you're at work and say your child is sick, can you come and collect ASAP. Are you able to leave work for this? What if this happens regularly, would you not face disciplinary action?

I have no children of my own, but this is something I've wondered about and that worries me.

I’m public sector and my colleagues just leave. Anything urgent gets handed off to another member of the team. Most managers don’t even record it.

The same isn’t true of childless workers with pets, though - we have to take annual leave or unpaid leave if they’re sick and need medical attention. That does cause a bit of resentment I have to say.

Yes a parent needs to leave work immediately and is very common actually. Babies need their parents when poorly and usually is parents as opposed to grandparents etc (I work in childcare).

Yes, I'd be able to leave immediately and get them. I'd then continue my work from home. There's no way we'd get disciplinary action for this!

All employees are entitled to a reasonable amount of time of to deal with emergencies involving dependants. It's unlawful for employers to discipline or try and manage absences that fall into this category.

I deliberately worked part time in flexible hourly paid jobs when my DC were small. It meant that I could easily be around to collect them if they were unwell or injured. There were several trips to A&E and various illnesses over the years.

Their Dad couldn’t leave work easily as it would have meant getting a locum in at very short notice.

DH and I would quickly compare calendars and see who can most easily go and get her. Then we'd do the same thing over the next however many days were needed depending how long she had to stay at home for.

Both our workplaces are fairly flexible and we've generally dealt with it by both working from home and then tag-teaming round meetings.

I work for a family-friendly organisation, and it absolutely would not be an issue.

There have been a few occasions where I've been out on visits and have been called to ask if I can cover a colleague's appointment because one of their kids has become unwell or had an accident at school.

When my kids were little work would let me off if necessary, though my mum was first port of call if she was available, I'd say she picked up at least half the time. I have a line of work fairly easily doable from home, also I was quite lucky that my kids weren't ill very often, which is kind of luck of the draw (I catch everything myself). So I'm not sure it ever happened more than twice a year.

One of us leaves work, not ideal but we have good employers who understand. It is usually me as I have an office based job where I wouldn't usually leave anyone in the lurch or miss a deadline by missing a couple of hours or an afternoon. I can also work from home if necessary. My DHs job would need immediate cover if he left but if I'm travelling or have covered to many child related things recently he will leave and his colleagues understand. He covers for them when they have the same issues. It is very hard the first few months of nursery. We found it too hard and switched to a childminder where they seem to get fewer illnesses (but childminder closes when ill), by preschool their immune systems were better.

You have to just go collect them - same as you would a sick day for yourself

So you would be OK if your surgeon stopped an operation either before it started or stopped midway because tge had to go and collect their child. What about pilots or cabin crew?

Obviously these people aren’t going to drop everything to go and collect their kid, are they. They have a spouse at home who is able to, let’s be honest. Or at least a grandparent/nanny etc. And I’m pilots and surgeons do fall in on the job, and there’s a plan for that.

Well if there's no one else to pick them up one of their parents has to leave work to get them (obviously) whether the employer likes it or not.

*And I’m sure pilots and surgeons do fall ill on the job, and there’s a plan for that.

Pilots, surgeons every manner of job has people who get sick and have to stop work to go on sick leave. What a silly comment

Depends what the husband does. My husband earns a lot more than me and is main breadwinner he's also self-employed but within a field where he has clinics and patients he can't just drop and he won't get paid if not seeing said patients so yeah it will be me everytime because the amount of pay he would lose in one afternoon or two would greatly affect our monthly income more than if I go to pick up. This is why I have taken a complete drop in my career and after being sahm have gone for a job which is better hours for children but crap pay. I work in a school which thankfully seems to be very understanding of this kind of thing and I would be making it very clear that the child has to be properly poorly before I pick up. I wouldn't ask my parents everytime, maybe as a rare occurance but our children are not their responsibility.

If you had no one else then obviously you would have to leave, work might be understanding and if it's a continuous things then yes you would be pulled up on it and it could lead to disciplinary

DH’s work is flexible and from home so he does 90%

I’m a teacher and DH a long distance driver, once i finally get the actual call (office to classroom) I leave within minutes, the time it takes for someone to cover me and have always worked within a mile of DC’s school. Getting through to DH would be hard enough, let alone him actually making it to the school quickly. Any actual days that one of them can’t go in my DH takes, that’s our way of splitting it. I’ve had issues twice in 20 years with employers complaining about it but I couldn’t care less, my kids come first and I’m not leaving them to suffer for any job.

The parents or one of the emergency contacts listed have to pick up within specified timeframe (usually in the policy). At the last nursery my child was guess parents took the p*s (often sick kids would wait for hours at reception) so we all were warned if a child isn’t picked up within an hour the authorities will be notified.

My job is pretty flexible. I get 80 hours of sick time a year and I rarely use it for myself, so I'd take some of that.

I go and get him. And make up the work I didn't get done on evenings and weekends.

You need a plan. When dd was at nursery I had a fairly flexible job where I could pick up if needed (thankfully never needed to) now ds is at school I work in a customer facing role and can't leave but the few occasions he needed collecting thankfully happened on my day off. But dh can collect in an emergency as can my Dsis or dhs dad.

If dh is working from home he goes. If he's in London I go. I'm a teacher so it is a faff but doesn't happen often.
His work is more flexible so if he's not got meetings it's easier for him to catch up later but is finance so probably less understanding of family life excuses 🙄. Mine I really don't like leaving in the lurch but is very understanding as I would expect!

It's just part of having children though. They should come first. In my job I think pretty poorly of any parent who dragged their heals about picking up a genuinely poorly child or sends them in when they are clearly unwell because they have to work.

When DS was a baby he was very poorly with bronchiolitis and then asthma and repeat ear infections. Work had been very accommodating and I had returned part-time when he was 4 months old in 1995 (4 months wasn't unusual then, accommodating was). Because he was always ill and I could neither be reliable nor have a work.life balance due to the number if occasions I spent catching up from 10pm to 2pm, I stopped working when he was 16 months.

When I went back to work, part-time for the first two years, when the children were 5 and 8, I got a job locally for peanuts and retrained. I went back full-time when they were nearly 7 and 10 and we got an au-pair. I don't think I got the call more than two or three times.

I could be at school within 20 minutes in an emergency. DH could not be relied upon to help surgeon/pilot genre.

Now I have staff and try to be supportive. There have been one who take the piss a bit. Happy to support when it's genuine.