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

bigmike20vt said:
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)
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People don't normally get a yearly bout of the norovirus.

Sickness is a very tricky thing for businesses to manage/control. On one hand you want to be fair to your employees when they're ill, but on the other hand you don't want them taking the ****.
 
XeNoN89 said:
Flu is one thing but having a cold is not an excuse to not go in to work.
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That one of the problems now as most the people at my work place used to carry on working when they had a cold but that has now changed and were told we must go home (Not come in) so not to pass it on to other workers
 
It's interesting to see how everyone assumes 'sick' means you have a cold/stomach bug etc, there are plenty of other reasons to take time off and it'll be marked down as 'sick'. My current employer has a max of 20 in a 12 month period at normal pay, then you go to SSP. Anything over 2 days or something requires a doctor's note.
I'm not sure I've had time off for colds/bugs in many, many years but I have had plenty of time off 'sick' though for other reasons, including over 20 days in a 12 month period which wasn't fun.
 
bigmike20vt said:
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.
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that depends on where you work. if your work has harsh and strict policies along with managers who can't use best judgement it means people will come in when sick.

if your work is lax about it then obviously you can take days off, etc.
 
chaparral said:
I go to the doctor and get a sick note almost every time am off sick
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I mean my current place's requirement is something like 2 days, I don't know the actual figure here as I rarely/don't tend to get ill. 1 day seems a bit of a waste of time to get a note though, especially given it can take a week or more to get a doctor's appointment?
 
Yea, then everyone else in the office gets it too. Which lowers productivity even more. We usually tell people to go home.

Thing is though, you can't actually sack someone for being ill (without being open to being sued). It's on the employer to prove you were not ill which is pretty much impossible.

If people are off ill all the time they should probably look at their working conditions.
 
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We use Bradford where I work (on a rolling 12 month period), and I have to enforce it, but HR ALWAYS make you come down harshly on everyone.

1 guy who works for us has probably one of the best attendance records (prior to this last 12 months) but mid 2018 got seriously ill, almost passed out at work (went grey) was in hospital for a couple of weeks, came back to work way earlier than he should have done due to staff shortages. Then somebody else came in to work with cold/flu a month or so ago and passed it on to him, he then received a disciplinary and verbal warning.

I absolutely hate it, its stupid.

Nasher said:
Yea, then everyone else in the office gets it too. Which lowers productivity even more. We usually tell people to go home.

Thing is though, you can't sack someone for being ill (not unless the company want to risk being sued). It's on the employer to prove you were not ill which is pretty much impossible.

If people are off ill all the time they should probably look at their working conditions.
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My boss is one of those guys that think you should drag yourself in to work unless you are dying, its such an antiquated way of managing sickness.

And companies don't sack people for being sick, they sack them for taking too much time off
"breaching the companies acceptable level of absence", which amounts to the same thing, just worded in a way that they can't be prosecuted.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
5 different occasions or more than 10 days in any given 12 months period. Whichever comes first...then you would get a disciplinary meeting with HR at my last work place.
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Maybe I’ve read it wrong, but that’s 50 days a year. Nearly three working months. That seems far too much.
 
I've had two sick days in the last six years, one for food poisoning, and the other for a heavy cold(Hangover).

I don't get sick very often, the last cough or cold I can remember was at least three years ago.
 
robfosters said:
Maybe I’ve read it wrong, but that’s 50 days a year. Nearly three working months. That seems far too much.
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You read it wrong.

You can have 1 days, 5 times.

or 2 days, 5 times.

or 5 days twice.

No difference. but anything more than 5 (or was it 3, i forgot) consecutive days you will need a medical note.
 
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MassiveJim said:
And companies don't sack people for being sick, they sack them for taking too much time off
"breaching the companies acceptable level of absence", which amounts to the same thing, just worded in a way that they can't be prosecuted.
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I think if you took it to a tribunal it wouldn't be seen that way. People have sued and got big payouts from companies for it.

A place I worked at maybe 10 years ago were hounding someone over illness. He brought a union rep in who tore their HR to shreds.
 
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