Never go sick again?

Comms69

MatthewAinsworth wrote: »

Comms - I just needed something to quote

None of this I would actually discuss with them, they don't realise that I work for me rather than them...

You should quote from legitimate sources - here's NHS Choices advice:


What to do if you have norovirus

If you experience sudden diarrhoea and vomiting, the best thing to do is to stay at home until you're feeling better. There's no cure for norovirus, so you have to let it run its course.


Norovirus can spread very easily, so you should wash your hands regularly while you're ill and stay off work or school until at least 48 hours after the symptoms have cleared to reduce the risk of passing it on.


How to treat flu yourself

To help you get better more quickly:

• rest and sleep
• keep warm
• take paracetamol or ibuprofen to lower your temperature and treat aches and pains
• drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration (your pee should be light yellow or clear)

How to avoid spreading the flu

Flu is very infectious and easily spread to other people. You're more likely to give it to others in the first 5 days.
Flu is spread by germs from coughs and sneezes, which can live on hands and surfaces for 24 hours.
To reduce the risk of spreading flu:

• wash your hands often with warm water and soap
• use tissues to trap germs when you cough or sneeze
• bin used tissues as quickly as possible

and no - you work for them. You exchange labour for currency, which is for your own benefit. But you are not self employed.

marliepanda

MatthewAinsworth wrote: »

Comms - I just needed something to quote

None of this I would actually discuss with them, they don't realise that I work for me rather than them...

This is at odds with all of your concerns about sickness, absence, disciplinarys for sickness, zero hours contract etc etc.

You work for them. If you worked for yourself, you wouldnt be bothered, would withdraw your labour and go find another customer to sell your labour to.

TELLIT01

The situation we have today with Attendance Management (AKA assuming all employees are lying when they claim to be sick) is where the pendulum has swung to from the days when unions told staff to treat 'sick days' as additional holiday if they hadn't been sick much during the previous year.
In those days management didn't have the guts to stand up to the unions, now they know there is little the unions can do as long as all staff are treated the same. A person who has had a single period off of x days is likely be treated exactly the same as the person who takes x single days, always on a Friday or Monday. Management know the second person is taking the proverbial, but it's much easier just to use a standard process rather than address the skiver.

sangie595

TELLIT01 wrote: »

The situation we have today with Attendance Management (AKA assuming all employees are lying when they claim to be sick) is where the pendulum has swung to from the days when unions told staff to treat 'sick days' as additional holiday if they hadn't been sick much during the previous year.
In those days management didn't have the guts to stand up to the unions, now they know there is little the unions can do as long as all staff are treated the same. A person who has had a single period off of x days is likely be treated exactly the same as the person who takes x single days, always on a Friday or Monday. Management know the second person is taking the proverbial, but it's much easier just to use a standard process rather than address the skiver.

At no time in 40 years have I ever heard a union advise people to claim to be sick when they are not. Since that would be an offence for which someone can be dismissed, it seems rather a stupid thing for a union to do! All the unions o know advise people not to claim to be sick if they aren't. Would this actually just be more union bashing?

And actually, you are incorrect. The push for sickness management processes actually arose from case law. Employers were being, very rightly, sued repeatedly for sacking people "for sickness" when others with the same or worse records were not dismissed. To dismiss people in the same situations entirely differently is a huge gaping hole for unfair dismissal cases. Eventually the employers realised that. Nothing at all to do with standing up to unions, and everything to do with complying with the law.

lincroft1710

MatthewAinsworth wrote: »

they don't realise that I work for me rather than them...

You had better hope that they don't realise that, normal employer/employee set up is employee works for employer, not employee works for employee.

System

I think that's true, tellit, unfortunately for those with conditions...

Comms/Marlie - I just mean they don't own me, my primary concern in life isn't them, but me. I am free to put my labour elsewhere, but like a self employed person they can have preferred customers, and not all my income does come from work (5% is investment returns)

BooJewels

MatthewAinsworth wrote: »

From the link:
The IDEA Health and Fitness Association recommends two days of low-intensity workouts for every day you had the flu.

A perfect case of selective editing changing the meaning of something. The first words of the paragraph you quoted (about returning to exercise after illness) were "When you are over the flu [...]". 'Had' being the pertinent word in your selective quote.

Sandhy

I agree about the flu comments. Once you've had it, there's no mistake. I had flu about 15 years ago. I lost at least week out my life. I phoned in work saying that I was ill but made the 'mistake' of not phoning in every day (getting a huge telling off when I returned) . I had no idea of what day was which. The only thing I did that week or so was feed the cats. I was in my mid 30's and fit and healthy. The one benefit was I lost a lot of weight!

BooJewels

For what it's worth @MatthewAinsworth; my husband has a compromised immune system due to medical treatment and is on prophylactic antibiotics and carries a thermometer with him with a hotline number to ring at any sign of an infection. Your attendance at work with your man flu** or norovirus could actually kill him. So I sincerely hope that you're not one of his workers.

** I've probably lived a lot longer than you and have had flu twice - in the 1970s during an epidemic that just about closed my school and then again about a dozen years later. I spent 3 weeks flat on my back in bed each time - I doubt I could even have rung in sick (in the days before cordless or mobile phones, so a call would necessitate a flight of stairs), let alone manage a day at work.

I hope you never actually get the dose of flu that would re-educate you as to what it is really like - it's truly horrible. If you do have underlying medical issues, you'd get a free flu jab, you wouldn't need to pay for it. So ask your doc next year.

System

Boojewels - the reaction is different for everyone, I believe most of what people experience is the immune response, and I am on immunosuppressant steroids myself so I don't feel things to the same level. I'm supposed to see a doctor if I get a sore throat on this medication, but between work and childcare I haven't had the time (and probably wouldn't get an appointment anyway). This medication could increase the number of sicknesses I have, and reduce my ability to fight cancer if it develops.

I don't want to infect anyone, I just feel like the punitive sickness system they have forces me into this

And bear in mind the risk that pervades everyday life - I heard one guy on the phone in the supermarket saying he had swine flu, no mask on. We also risk death every time we drive - I'm more a danger when I'm driving tired after a long shift, but again I have no real choice