Sickness At Work

TELLIT01

The attendance system described by the OP seems to be pretty much the norm these days. At my last employer it was a maximum of 4 periods of sickness, or a total of 8 days, whichever was the lower, in a rolling 12 month period. It was somewhat counter productive in that those who were just 'chucking a sickie' took 2 days off instead of one, on the basis that no action would be taken for less than 8 days so they might as well make the most of it.

notanewuser

My company (half of which is a call centre type environment) takes a tough stance on sickness absence - it's 3 instances in 6 months or 4 in 12 that trigger the informal/formal processes.

Art_Deco

theoretica wrote: »

If she worked with food, or someplace like a hospital they would have a duty of care to their customers to send her home.

As an adult, they are letting her decide if being at work will actually be bad for her or just be less comfortable than being at home.

I work in a hospital and im afraid they dont send you home for being ill, sickness is done on a point system ,

iammumtoone

Undervalued wrote: »

If she is well enough to be at work then she should be there, that is what she has contracted to do. If she is not well enough then she should stay at home. She can't only be well enough because they have a tough absence policy.

It doesn't work like that though. As an employee of a company with one of these strict absence policies I have been at work when I really shouldn't be, I 'save' my allowed absences just in case I physically can't get in ie hospital/can't get out of bed illness etc.

I understand the reasons for these policies to avoid those taking the mick but they don't work. I caught my bug from someone else who shouldn't have been at work but would have been in for the same reason as I went in. I didn't/couldn't do much work as wasn't feeling well enough but at least my bum was on the seat which is all that was needed to avoid triggering the absence procedure.

Art_Deco

iammumtoone wrote: »

It doesn't work like that though. As an employee of a company with one of these strict absence policies I have been at work when I really shouldn't be, I 'save' my allowed absences just in case I physically can't get in ie hospital/can't get out of bed illness etc.

I understand the reasons for these policies to avoid those taking the mick but they don't work. I caught my bug from someone else who shouldn't have been at work but would have been in for the same reason as I went in. I didn't/couldn't do much work as wasn't feeling well enough but at least my bum was on the seat which is all that was needed to avoid triggering the absence procedure.

Agree completely with this, over the last month only about 20% of the staff on our ward should have been working but because of the Bradford point system and being warned about booking to many agency/ bank nurses to cover shifts they have come to work when they really shouldnt have , some were more ill then the patients they were looking after, this is wrong but real life im afraid.

FBaby

If being sick was an automatic sending home, then that would be many women in the first trimester of pregnancy, when they usually rather not inform their employer.

It all comes down to being reasonable. There is throwing up a bit and then being ok-ish, and there is throwing up where there is nothing left in your stomach and after 15 minutes, you need to be rush to be sick again. Same with bleeding, there's a bit a blood in the mouth and there is hemorrhaging heavily.

It sounds like her boss doesn't feel that her symptoms are serious enough to justify going home.

TELLIT01

Undervalued wrote: »

If she is well enough to be at work then she should be there, that is what she has contracted to do. If she is not well enough then she should stay at home. She can't only be well enough because they have a tough absence policy.

Wrong I'm afraid. I've seen people dragging themselves into work when they are clearly extremely unwell, but they are scared to take more time off because of the way the attendance system works. They may be unable to do their job effectively, but simply being on the premises means they avoid action being initiated against them. Utterly stupid way to run the place but it's a fact nonetheless. That's in the public sector too.

TELLIT01

FBaby wrote: »

It all comes down to being reasonable.

It sounds like her boss doesn't feel that her symptoms are serious enough to justify going home.

Because of the management structure, line managers are also often unable to apply common sense to the situation. If their area has a higher absence rate than others they are liable to be hit by disciplinary action themselves. We had some team leaders / managers who would never send people home, the person would have to make the decision to leave. That way it did go down as absence and covered the manager's ****.

daytona0

I used to work in a call center both as an advisor and then a manager....

They can be ruthless with sickness and absences, primarily because you cost them money every time you take a day off!

Seen quite a few people get sacked without a disciplinary when they've had a large number of sicknesses. Ironically, it is always the same old illnesses as well! Headaches, Toothache, stomach bug, the squirts. Half the time they were probably just hungover (but not implying that in your scenario).

In your scenario, a headache or a toothache/infection is not going to infect other people and so the employer doesn't care about her health. They have a duty of care to let her go home sick if requested, to have a first aider on site if required, and to call her an ambulance in an emergency. Beyond that, what are you expecting?!

As a manager I knew full well that people turned up "sick"; with toothache or headaches etc as per your daughter. In fairness I'd generally shift them over to emails to give them a break (where possible), but there were two types of people:

- Those who went home

- Those who powered on through their shift.


Who do you think I liked more? Who do you think made my job easier?

Sickness can be ripe in Call Centers, but you've got to play the sickness game and pick and choose where you take a sick day! And I think your daughter has missed some opportunities to power on through her shift!

Takeaway_Addict

At the end of the day there is no perfect way of dealing with sickness/repeated absents etc.