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

[dowie]

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

Depends on the context, they certainly shouldn't be blindly issuing warnings because the Bradford factor gives a score of X.

If someone has a chronic condition that might mean several short periods of time off or maybe a mix of taking half a day off and working form home etc.. then that context ought to be considered rather than blindly applying some formula. If they don't then I suspect that a good employment lawyer can cite his client's disability and tear them a new one if it becomes a serious issue. It doesn't make someone immune from being fired though, I guess the employer needs to take a more holistic approach, see what value they're getting form the employee and if he/she is still meeting deadlines, getting **** done then it shouldn't really matter if they take a day or half day off quite frequently or frequently need to work from home etc.. so long as they're delivering.


Obviously if someone who doesn't have a chronic condition or similar reasonable explanation keeps on phoning up on Mondays during the summer or after bank holiday weekends with "I've got a bit of flu *cough* *cough*" then that is perhaps another matter and could certainly be something HR might want to have a word about.

 

[bigmike20vt]

Not coming in if you have a cold (sometimes hyped up by wusses and called the “flu”) deserves a disciplinary tbh

nonsense..... indeed making colleagues feel guilty such that they feel obliged to come in and spread their illness is more worthy of a slapped wrist imo.

but that said.... what penalty should posting on forums in work time receive?

(joking aside i think if i owned a company i would put a ban on all social media sites and forum access in work time - with possible exception for lunch break. )

.

Obviously if someone who doesn't have a chronic condition or similar reasonable explanation keeps on phoning up on Mondays during the summer or after bank holiday weekends with "I've got a bit of flu *cough* *cough*" then that is perhaps another matter and could certainly be something HR might want to have a word about.

Reminds me a bit of this old advert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-qGHvk4-Ew

 

[-UnderClocker-]

If I'm really sick (vomiting, diarrhea, major headaches) I wont go into work. But when it comes to having a cold/flu, it's not enough for me to not come in. I have bills to pay and sadly bills never get sick. As for how much is too much.. It's hard to say really. It depends on what you do for a living I'd imagine.

 

[NoobCannon]

nonsense..... indeed making colleagues feel guilty such that they feel obliged to come in and spread their illness is more worthy of a slapped wrist imo.

but that said.... what penalty should posting on forums in work time receive?

(joking aside i think if i owned a company i would put a ban on all social media sites and forum access in work time - with possible exception for lunch break. )

And “smoke breaks”.

 

[bigmike20vt]

And “smoke breaks”.

nods..... not really an issue these days, no one in my entire group smokes but back in the day as a non smoker i proper lost out.

 

[CircleFaust]

it depends how many days you are taking off
if it's every other monday then they will see this as a problem. if you are off with the flu for a week then there's not much you can do
and if you are unlucky enough to get it again , well not much you can do, you will be off

the only time i generally take sick days is if i get the flu, last time was 3 days off with it
i try not to take days with the cold, even a bad one.
just try and keep the days down to a minimum and you will stay in the employers good books. but don't be a martyr either if you genuinely cannot work.

 

[FTM]

3 periods of sickness OR 9 days or more will see you interviewed by HR at our place

 

[Pyr0m@nI@]{]

Gotta love when people lump cold/flu together...

That's like saying "sorry, can't come in today, I've stubbed my toe/broken my leg"

lol
I didn't mean to lump them together as such, i just meant I haven't managed to catch anything and haven't been ill for years.

 

[Maccy]

Ask any self-employed person, especially somebody who is a sole trader!

(You will probabally get much the same answer to the question "How many days Holiday should I take each year!"

No such thing as a sick day, we soldier through!

 

[Kronos]

In my last job I was the eldest there by quite a margin but did not have a day off in 5 years. The young uns would have a day off for a paper cut.

 

[Pyr0m@nI@]{]

^this
We hired a couple of young lads last year who ended up taking odd days off here and there, often Mondays.

They're no longer working here

 

[Terminal_Boy]

That's quite high

Not when you have shared air-conditioning in a large building and parents of school-age children working in it. You can guarantee a good year-round supply of germs.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

My workplace does it by the number of absences in a rolling 12 months.

1 or 2 absences in rolling 12 months = you're ok
3rd absence in rolling 12 months = stage 1 warning

Stage 1 is just verbal and stays on file for 6 months. Stage 2 is written. Stage 3 is disciplinary. Stage 4 is dismissal.

They also look for pattens like single-day Mondays/Fridays or around pay day to weed out the drunks etc which I think is fair.

There is an extra rule (my department only) where if it's just a cold, we are allowed to work from home on our company laptops which means that we can still get work done, not bring germs to other colleagues and it also means that we don't incur an absence penalty against the rolling 12 months.

 

[MassiveJim]

Got caught out by the Bradford factor earlier this year, had flu over Christmas, started getting better before the end of the holidays, so only took a half day off and worked from home for a couple of days. Then ended up developing pneumonia and spending a week in hospital

So 2 periods of illness totalling 5.5 days = Bradford Factor of 22

If I'd stayed off the whole time it would have been a single 8 day period = Bradford Factor of 8.

I know what I'll be doing next time (hint, it won't be getting back to work when I'm only feeling "mostly" better!!!)

Is your companies Bradford trigger that low ?

Ours is 64, which means any 4 absences in a 12 month period will trigger no matter the length of absence.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Anything more than 5 days per year is too much imo.

 

[Haggisman]

Is your companies Bradford trigger that low ?

When I say "caught out", I didn't mean any disciplinary action, just that due the nature of the calculation my rating is quite high despite the overall low level of absence

 

[dowie]

My workplace does it by the number of absences in a rolling 12 months.

1 or 2 absences in rolling 12 months = you're ok
3rd absence in rolling 12 months = stage 1 warning

Stage 1 is just verbal and stays on file for 6 months. Stage 2 is written. Stage 3 is disciplinary. Stage 4 is dismissal.

Yikes, what a **** company to work for!

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Yikes, what a **** company to work for!

Indeed, I’d have been sacked after 6 months.

Wonder who his employer is.

 

[montymint]

My workplace does it by the number of absences in a rolling 12 months.

1 or 2 absences in rolling 12 months = you're ok
3rd absence in rolling 12 months = stage 1 warning

Stage 1 is just verbal and stays on file for 6 months. Stage 2 is written. Stage 3 is disciplinary. Stage 4 is dismissal.

They also look for pattens like single-day Mondays/Fridays or around pay day to weed out the drunks etc which I think is fair.

There is an extra rule (my department only) where if it's just a cold, we are allowed to work from home on our company laptops which means that we can still get work done, not bring germs to other colleagues and it also means that we don't incur an absence penalty against the rolling 12 months.

My partner worked at NPower who were exactly like that. Which was difficult for her as she has long term health issues that they are aware of - so she was constantly in a battle with them. I was pleased for her when she was made redundent. She's moved on to a much better firm.

 

[Caracus2k]

But if you past it on to someone else at work that person then pasts it onto there family & friends and so on

You have already likely passed it on so this is a rather week excuse... The only exception I would strongly agree with is a 'front of house' or food service role where no customer or client wants to deal with a sputtering employee.

Common cold
The common cold is infectious from a few days before your symptoms appear until all of the symptoms are gone. Most people will be infectious for around 2 weeks.

Yes I know it goes on to state you at your most contagious when symptoms first appear but this is also the time when the contagious and thoose around them will consciously be changing their behaviour to avoid infection. Regardless unless you work in some specific industries in wouldn't be practical for everyone to take two weeks of every time they contacted a common cold.

the professionals disagree with you

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jul/30/sick-days-taken-uk-workers-fall-lowest-rate-on-record

it seems according to that more people go to work when ill than stay at home when well.

The 'professionals'would not agree with you because they would know that quoting a (mean) average like the article does in its headline without looking more in detail at things like the median, the distribution and underlying reasons would be very misleading.

That statistic conflates thoose who are off work for months on end often for things like serious physical injury with thoose taking numerous self certified days here and there.

An employee who takes 4 days of every year for thirty years self certified and one who doesn't take any sick for twenty nine years but in one year takes 120 days of because they broke their leg on the job would both contribute equally to the (mean) average sickeness in that period but would obviously be rather different from an employee point of view.