if I was on holiday (and being paid anyway) and was sick, I’d rather stay off as hols and then I don’t tarnish my employment record with lots of sick days. I work for private sector so I have to consider things like this….
meanwhile in NHSland, we aren’t allowed to apply for other nhs jobs or transfer volontarily, or get secondments to other posts if we have too high a sick record. I have been asked numerous times by my still-ill colleagues to log them ‘fit to return to work’ just before their holidays or a couple of rostered days off for exactly the same reasons as you would geordiemick00.
The drawback ironically is that the healthy hard workers get stuck with sicky underperforming colleagues because the can’t get a job unless they leave the NHS.
[edit] oh and Phil’s observations about the ‘elastic pinging back’ and getting ill about 24 hours into your week off is all too common where I work too. Certinaly 2/3 of my colds and man-flus happen when I am on annual leave. What are the chances of that eh? Sometimes ill enough that I would have rung in sick to work, but never ill enough to bother a GP for a sick note. Mind you I expect that phenomenom is similar for all sorts of fast-paced or stressful jobs.