Help need a good excuse to call in “sick” to work

[colourPink]

My toddler is unwell - high temp etc. if i say I’m off to look after him I don’t get paid (and lose £130 a day!) but if I phone in sick I do get paid.

However, I’ve had to do it a few times this year and not sure what illness I can have this time. Advice? (I’ve had quite a few colds/ sickness bugs/ ruiner infections..)

OP, you either find someone else to look after your child, so you can go to work.
Or you take the financial hit.
You can't lie about being g sick, because that is fraud.

I agree with others about having a meeting with your manager to discuss contingency plans for caring for dependents. More workplaces have an emergency leave policy now, exactly for this situation. Mine is a weeks worth of single days. And just one day at a time, assumption being you have time to arrange alternative care. Check your policies as you may have this, your manager may not have made this very clear.

This comment is more for others than op, as she's made one post and disappeared, I'm thinking rage bait, esspecasy with the sick in inverted commas.

I'm going to assume that you, the OP, knows more about your home life and family situation, compared to all of these imbeciles who like to bang on about the child's dad doing his share! Clearly if you could ask them for help, you would! Some people just comment to be spiteful. Hope that made them feel good for 0.03 seconds of the day.
At the end of the day, if we had decent employers in this country, as parents trying to ensure we make enough money to make ends meet, we wouldn't need to do this. However, we live in a country where we are born to be empty vessels, working till we drop. I hope you have 0 guilt, because today you're ill with a water infection and being stressed won't help you at all!
Hope the wee one is better soon x

Say you have a visual migraine and can’t see well enough to walk or drive. Then when you go in tomorrow looking fine it won’t look suspicious x

@Bjorkdidit · Today 08:26

''Or people who are fed up with picking up the pieces when 'that employee' is 'off sick' again.

Colleagues having to do their work for them

Managers having to rearrange rotas, arrange cover, cancel appointments etc etc

Parents seeing their child's education disrupted

Service users having their appointments cancelled, rearranged or with someone else who they don't know and might not be as effective because they don't know them well.''

The OP's priority is her child.

Employers will always have to deal with and should plan for staff holiday and sickness.

If everything falls apart when someone is off then this is a management issue...

What a ridiculous post. Well, I didn't assume, I asked. And also made a comment about men getting a free pass, which includes absent dad.

As much as I sympathise with the lack of pay and how it’s important for you to have the money to live I have to agree with PPs about this being a potentially sackable offence if found out. In my workplace persistent sickness is subject to an investigation where they look for things like this.

You should ask for emergency holiday or dependent leave.

If you were fraudulently claiming any other benefits then people would be outraged.
It's not any different & is theft from your employer.

You need to be honest & take unpaid parental leave. The toddler/nursery years are a struggle for everyone but don't last forever.

An appalling sickness record with lots of short unconnected illnesses could come back to bite you if you are up for redundancy, want promotion, want to look for a new job etc.

Unfortunately I get no dependency leave and no flexibility (as a teacher). I can’t “make up the hours”. I’ve done this twice this year (each for one day) and haven’t don’t it since Dec.

I can assure you I don’t take the mick with it. My husband usually books a day off work and does the majority of the I’ll days but he’s on a course today.

somethings can’t be helped - my attendance is usually great and I go above and beyond for my school. Work a lot of extra hours than I need to - I just can’t keep them in lieu.

Already arranged for someone else to have him tomorrow (MIL) so one day is what it is.

Exactly. And even if they can't find out, too much of this and it won't be long before the dishonesty is suspected. She should tell the truth not defraud her employer.

Thanks for all the supportive comments. I’ve actually ended up wasting £90 on a nursery day that he’s too poorly to attend. I do usually have childcare sorted but they will send him home like this and it’s not fair on my LO.

And presumably lie in the return to work meeting as well

Oh and I should say there have been times I’ve said it’s my LO and have taken the hit. We just can’t afford it this month at all.

You're a teacher, you are entitled to several days a year dependents leave. That should be explicit somewhere in your Staff information. Two days is well within the allocation of every school I've worked in.
This will be fine, I think your original post did indicate that it was more frequent than this.

Op , I have no good suggestions, but coming from an extended family of teachers, I think it’s shit how little thought is put into how they manage their own family life.
The assumption seems to be that a better paid partner, with better benefits will pick up the slack . Rant over .

Not in my school. Our local council said it’s head teachers discretion and our head has said 0 days. I’m already looking at changing schools to help with this!

Migraine! Then you can use it sporadically as and when you need.

Don't think the judgers live in the real world…. How on earth would your employer know?

Why does the child’s father’s course trump you. If, going forward, I was going to be covering all the holidays for the child, I would expect him to cover all the term time sick leave. You are saying your job is not important.

So it's a Local Council school? It's very unusual to grant no days emergency parental leave. I think it must be impacting a lot of parents?
Could you talk to the HT about the policy?
You're right to look at other schools! Where I work it is 5 days paid dependents leave per year, further at the HT's discretion.

Exactly this. I’m a manager and would never think to investigate any member of my team over this unless it was constant. Nobody knows your situation, a little kindness wouldn’t go a miss!!!!!!!

God the amount of snotty comments on this thread is ridiculous. If you think it's so immoral for a mum to try to survive working and caring for a child in this country without having to tell lies then get angry at the fucking horrible country we live in and the way it treats us as MUMS and the utter lack of support some of us have as we look after our kids - both from employers and from family. OP is doing the best she can as are so many others and they don't need your cat bum mouth judgement.

OP - go with D&V it's hard to disprove!

Very unusual. We used to have 5 days a year (before I had children). New head = new rules. No wonder we’ve had a high staff turnover!

I believe she feels that, if she allowed 5 days dependancy leave, staff use it as “time off” even when they don’t NEED do. I personally think it’s ridiculous and means I have zero support as a working mum.

@colourPink talk to your union, this doesn't sound right. Check your TPAC

If teachers are being treated like this then no wonder we have an education crisis. How has the profession benefits fallen so far?

People who educate our children should be allowed te to support their own children.

Good advice. I haven’t thought to check with my union. All staff at my school are the same so didn’t realise how unusual it was. (I’ve never worked elsewhere).