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..)

Actually, what is the difference?
Lying to receive money for a service but without giving the service in exchange
vs taking an item from a shop without giving payment in exchange?

A return to work meeting is a meeting with your manager to discuss the reason for the absence and to make sure the employee is fit to return. It is best practice.

Thank you 😊

OP has already said she's had a few days off already for the same reason. So "one or two" wouldn't be enough anyway!

Yes, although later on she says it's only two.

I agree, I can’t believe how it can be this bad?

Where I live it’s paid 120 days a year per child. No questions ever asked if your child is sick. And childcare cost about £90 a month.

Apologies, your unedited post read to me like
you didn't think a return to work meeting after one day was a thing (but that you knew what one was)

I misread it.

Many many people in the UK only get SSP for personal sickness absence. Until the Employee Rights Bill is passed this is from day 4 so it's presently nil pay for days one to three. Teachers and most public sector employees get full pay from day one.

Just say you’ve got a migraine

Have kids at your school had the usual D&V that’s always going around? It’s highly contagious you know…

JFC 🙄

Sometimes you just have to lie. Obviously you could get in trouble if your sickness record is too high, but you and every other mother will have to be doing this. I’d go with migraine.

Sanctimonious smug alert sounding.

I wonder how much unpaid work this, or indeed many, wage slaves undertake.

She's a teacher - she's putting in a lot of extra hours.

At my school even for 1 day absence, it used to be a meeting with the head notionally to check that you were fully recovered for a return to work. Then secondly, the school would overtly ask if there was anything they could help with to prevent a recurrence or support. Take that how you want. It was not a genuine question.

Ok. But you haven’t answered, what is actually the difference from stealing from a shop?

Sounds like she has done it several times already. Once a thief always a thief?

This is one of the reasons why, after 20 years of teaching, I have left the profession altogether. Absolutely no flexibility when it comes to childcare etc.

I had them in my last teaching job and they were standard procedure in the job I had in the third sector for 15 years after that. In the latter job they weren't punitive, but about asking if any support would be helpful.

This doesn’t make sense that everyone saved up for their children before they had them considering woman are having children later than ever, so by that logic they are working longer and saving more now not “back in my day”.

”The contract of employment is about an employee rendering work in return fir pay. To do that they have to do the work. People so often forget this.”
And yet the country is has a huge problem with people going off with stress for months at a time, however people latch on and attack a mother who needs the third day in a year to care for her sick infant.

The shits should do it.

Plus the idea that everyone is shouting for the sick child to be shipped off to some random?

If a child is too ill to be allowed in school or nursery they should be cared for by a parent, not an old grandparent or random relative who happens to have the day off.

People lose all sight of the point and the child’s best interest when it means they get to shit all over a new mother. A sick child should be at home recovering not in new temporary “alternative childcare” that they aren’t used to.

Yes, in my school it was the curriculum deputy. No, it wasn't about support either.

If we lived in a half-civilised country, this wouldn't arise. In Sweden for instance, a parent is entitled to a maximum of 120 days

Whilst I agree with you in principle (although not about the lying) these "civilised" countries have huge taxation too - Sweden has one of the highest effective taxation rates in the world. If you wish to be a "civilised country" then there is a price to pay, and the British public have demonstrated time and time again that they do not want to pay it. An awful lot of MN posters don't want to pay it. The biggest "scare tactic" at every general election is around who is going to increase taxes. Attacks on the elderly and disabled are fuelled by the "we can't afford it" narrative because we do not raise enough money in taxes to fund a "civilised country". If people want paid dependants leave etc, etc, then you will have to pay for it in higher taxes. Since I am one of the few who are in favour of higher taxes, es[ecially in relation to the rich and highly paid, to fund a "civilised country", I am just wondering whether all those on here decrying how awful it is that there isn't paid dependants leave and other "civilised" measures are willing to literally put their money where their mouth is?

As a (not at all well off) boomer, we fought for many of the rights, including things like paid maternity leave, childcare etc during our working lives that are currently enjoyed. They were not given, they were fought for. But I seldom see that same fight these days, just more and more entitlement - "want" but not willing to sacrifice time, energy or resources on getting. People are keen to spout about how there is no magic money tree yet in 2025, the UK's economy is the sixth largest globally by nominal GDP. It is also the second-richest European country by GDP. We can have the same "magic money tree" that Sweden has, but we will have to shift not just money but attitudes. As a society we are selfish, and it is all about us - what we have, how that compares to what others have, and how much more we want for ourselves. To have what Sweden has we need to think corporately about what benefits society, not just us as individuals, and do something about that.

D&V
Migraine
Gastric flu
Fever/dizziness

Can you not just say I feel awful? They don't need a doctor's note for one day surely?