Sick days off work: how many is too many per year ?

Soldato
Joined
27 Nov 2005
Posts
24,697
Location
Guernsey
Guys how many sick days off per year do you think is too many ?

And can there really be too many days off as if someone sick there sick and there nothing anyone can do about it
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Feb 2006
Posts
4,828
Location
No longer riding an Italian
Guys how many sick days off per year do you think is too many ?

And can there really be too many days off as if someone sick there sick and there nothing anyone can do about it

Most companies use the Bradford Factor for sickness - so will base any 'discussions' in those rules; you will trip an HR warning or whatever, based on the number of instances of absence, rather than the duration. One instance of 2 weeks off, is better than 5 instances of 2 days off.

Edit: the views on sickness will vary from employer to employer too.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Sep 2008
Posts
10,051
Location
Burscough
Rightly or wrongly, companies often use the Bradford Factor:

The Bradford Factor is calculated as follows:

b4149bab985e327304075b20e4aea3a774c54f37


Where:
  • B is the Bradford Factor
  • S is the total number of spells (instances) of absence of an individual over a set period
  • D is the total number of days of absence of that individual over the same set period.
It basically judges harshly those who take lots of odd days sick leave against those who might just take one whole week off. Makes sense in my opinion.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Jun 2009
Posts
2,633
Location
No where
Mine use the Bradford with 3 max sicknesses a year.

Fell foul of it 4 years ago, had a chest infection then a bad dose of food poisoning. Then about 6 months later I got t boned in the van cracking a couple of ribs and breaking my upper arm.
Que a meeting with hr about how much time I was sick whilst my are was pinned and I was high on drugs for my chest..
 
Soldato
Joined
23 May 2006
Posts
6,845
our work place has a rolling 12 months allowance of 7 days for self certification. Any more than that and you have to have a doctors note.
As you can imagine, this causes issues...... for instance, i may take 2 days off work for a stinking cold, and then another couple off for a sickness bug.

that leaves me 3 days left that i am allowed to self cert so all of a sudden if i am ill again, i am in the position of needing a doctors not for something which is really trivial or risk running out of sickdays. With doctors already being massively over stretched, they do not need their time wasted by people asking for doctors notes.

So what tends to happen is people come into work with full blown manflu when really they should be home and keeping their bugs to themselves imo. They/I are/am generally unproductive and irritate the rest of the office esp those who sit near us who do not want to get ill.

luckily i do not get ill that often and usually only have 3 or 4 days a year off sick.

OTOH we used to have a member of staff who regularly would brag about going clubbing over the weekend in london or what not. her sick day was even given a name (a <insert her name here> Monday). This was before the rolling 7 days came in. I like to think we should be able to work on trust, but sadly that often does not work out well, but i do think the system we have now is a bit too harsh TBH.
 
Soldato
Joined
23 May 2006
Posts
6,845
That's quite high
really? there are a lot of people at this place who would be sending massive alarm bells ringing then!.

just 1 douse of norovirus can wipe you out for a week (officially you are not meant to go to work until 48hrs AFTER symptoms have passed). (I was tested however and have an fairly strong immunity to it, so must remember never to use that one as an excuse)
 
Permabanned
Joined
23 Apr 2014
Posts
23,553
Location
Hertfordshire
Had 1 day off sick in the past 4 years and that was due to barely being able to walk with a bad back. However being able to work remotely if required helps in this regard.

Previous place used the above Bradford thing.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
91,147
Depends on the situation where I work - if you end up in hospital or have a recognised significant condition then they will try to accommodate it but if someone is constantly taking odd days or multiple instances of several days/weeks off then they'll be asked to have a meeting with a manager after around 10 days or 3 blocks.
 
Soldato
Joined
23 May 2006
Posts
6,845
I've never had a day off sick in over 15 years. In that time I've only missed four and half days due to family emergencies etc.

That sounds great and all, however depending on your job, you either have the constitution of an ox, or you have been in work and spread the love on some occasions then. I dunno, its a tough balancing act but i would rather people keep their contagions to themselves rather than spread them around my team. Caught a very nasty virus off someone at work just before going on my hols a few years back. totally ruined half my holiday.
 
Pet Northerner
Don
Joined
29 Jul 2006
Posts
8,064
Location
Newcastle, UK
My last place would pay your up to a month each year as sickness. they were quite lenient but would look for patterns in high volumes of sickness.

They accommodated a month of for me in 2016 for acute anxiety and helped me ease back into work over the course of another month (changing my responsibilities and raised them until I was at full load again - I was at work full time during the transition back).

In my current role I'm not 100% certain, but I've not been off yet.
 
Pet Northerner
Don
Joined
29 Jul 2006
Posts
8,064
Location
Newcastle, UK
That sounds great and all, however depending on your job, you either have the constitution of an ox, or you have been in work and spread the love on some occasions then. I dunno, its a tough balancing act but i would rather people keep their contagions to themselves rather than spread them around my team. Caught a very nasty virus off someone at work just before going on my hols a few years back. totally ruined half my holiday.

Agreed on this. I've seen people 'Man it up' and come in, only to give whatever they had to about 10 people and they all needed time off.
 
Back
Top Bottom