Viewing 23 posts - 1 through 23 (of 23 total)
  • That sick days poll on the front page.
  • julianwilson
    Free Member

    Since I am rather unusually sick enough to be off work today but happen to be on annual leave this week, mrs and I got to talking about cyclists and sick days: we both ride to work and have had no sick days off work for 4-5 years each.

    I know the ctc go on about this, but are we really typical of regular cyclists?

    Reason being is I thought it would be fun for our HR department to establish who rides a bike to work (or for fun) and work out if, and if so how much less sick we are than the rest of our workforce. (I know a couple of runners and a few gym bunnies at work who have no better sick records than the less fit/chubsters/proper biffers.)

    footflaps
    Full Member

    That poll also got me thinking. When I was younger I never took any sick days and wore it as a badge of honour. Now I’m older I’m much more pragmatic, so if I wake up feeling like crap, I think ‘well I could go in and feel like shit all day, browse the web and achieve bugger all or I could just stay at home and do bugger all here’. Nowadays I just pick the latter as I realise going in ill achieves nothing.

    Obviously having a company which has no idea who is in, who is ill, who is working offsite, who is WFH and who has died does help…..

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    It got me thinking about the difference between functional departments and HR departments.

    If there’s a risk I might be contagious, they don’t want me in. I might make someone ill who’s supposed to be on the standby rota.

    However, HR monitor sick leave like it’s the biggest issue in he world. First workplace I’ve ever been where you can view your “Bradford Score” at the click of a button. Before this job, I’d never come across a Bradford Score. I’ve also never worked anywhere that making other people ill was quite as critical.

    EDIT: – Been off sick since Wednesday.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    I know that, a few years ago, the #1 cause of days lost to sickness in Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade was through mountain bike accidents. I don’t know if that’s changed any.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    First workplace I’ve ever been where you can view your “Bradford Score” at the click of a button

    Our HR has that, however it relies on your logging in and marking the day as sick. However, no one other than HR uses it, no one logs in for anything. I’ve still got unapproved holiday requests for holidays I took 2 years ago….

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    I’ve had about 5 days off sick in the last 5-10 years but a good 12 weeks broken or recovering from surgery after breaking myself!

    CountZero
    Full Member

    I think I’ve had less than four weeks off sick since I started work, and I’m 59. Two weeks off with chicken pox back in the 70’s, a week off with flu, that I’ve no clear recollection of, at the same job, where I worked for eighteen years, no time off at the next job, where I worked for thirteen years, and I think three where I am now, which has been ten years.

    Simon
    Full Member

    I’ve had no time off being ill, but in the last 8 years I’ve had 6 weeks off due to bike related injuries.

    MrSmith
    Free Member

    2 days in 20 years (virus) but then I’m self employed.
    Had various bike injuries (rib/hand/rotator cuff) but if you man-up they don’t stop you putting food on the table.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    That rather depends on what your job entails

    psling
    Free Member

    We have two types of people at work – those that will tell all and sundry when someone is off sick that they’ve “never had a day off in x years” when we all remember the odd couple of days they have actually had off over the years, and those who religiously come in and cough, sneeze & splutter over everyone else and then moan when half the office are then subsequently off sick 🙄

    People who never take time off work whether it be a hangover or a broken leg are either very forgetful or very selfish IME; it’s hardly a badge of honour even though most of us are embarrassed into believing that it is, probably started during our schooldays when sick days are frowned upon.

    jonba
    Free Member

    Think it depends on your job as well. When I first started I could muddle through the day with a headache and cold. Now with more pressure and responsibility I struggle a lot more if I am not feeling 100%.

    4 days over the last 5 years. I’ll go in if I’ve got a sniffle but I don’t get ill very often. 4 of those 3 days were a couple of weeks ago with norovirus.

    Schweiz
    Free Member

    6 months last year. 4 months off the year before. Hard to start working again after so long out of the rat race.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    norovirus – is that Man Flu for 2014?

    kimbers
    Full Member

    I was the same until some shit on a scooter knocked me off and broke my ankle 6 weeks off work more than negated all my healthy years

    Since then we’ve had kids and they are disease sponges !

    bigblackshed
    Full Member

    A lot is spoken about ill people going into work and spreading it to all and sundry. It really does depend on the company you work for. At present I don’t get sick pay for the first 2×12 hour shifts or 3×8 hour shifts. I simply can’t afford to take days off.

    I’ve also worked for more enlightened companies where you were sent home at the first sign of a sniff.

    I’ve also seen the Bradford scale used so religiously that people who take the piss and work the system end up with weeks of extra time off and not progress through the system that’s there to curb excessive time off. I remember being in a dismissal review with a guy who hadn’t had time off in years and then had three absences within the triggering time period and was facing losing his job.

    Sandwich
    Full Member

    Having been caught out by the go to work at all costs mob in the past (10×12 hour night shifts on the bounce). It’s highly inconsiderate to bring your flu to work for the rest of the team to share. Good job it was 20 years ago when I could cope with the stress.

    stu170
    Free Member

    I had 4 weeks this year with a broken collar bone. So was useless at work (aircraft techy) on the other hand my old man had a week off with broken ribs, which I wound him up about calling him a work shy slacker. He then informed me its the longest time off work since he was 16, he was 61 at the time. I said, what about the time you got your leg ran over and broken. He went on to add that he had the pot put on his leg, one day off, and had it taken off six weeks later. The doc said, congratulations mr 170 you can go back to work. The old man said, good I have my wagon parked round the corner and have been driving for 6 weeks. A bloody lorry driver with a leg in pot?!? Mind boggles.
    Then again, and the point to this post is, of you’re on the government sick pay. People cannot afford to not work. Awesome if you have an employer like me that tlets you have so much time on sick full pay

    user-removed
    Free Member

    When I was employed, I was sick at least once every couple of months. For the last few years, as a self employed type, I haven’t had so much as an hour off sick. Funny that.

    boxfish
    Free Member

    So many martyrs…

    samuri
    Free Member

    I know that, a few years ago, the #1 cause of days lost to sickness in Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade was through mountain bike accidents. I don’t know if that’s changed any.

    😉

    I know when we did an absence check against staff at our place (10,000 staff so a good spread), the most common Monday morning sickness complaint was an ‘extreme sport’ related problem. When we looked through the people who had claimed this it was laughable looking at the people we knew who claimed they’d been mountain climbing or open water swimming.

    I guess it’s an easy claim to make when you can’t be arsed getting out of bed on Monday morning.

    badllama
    Free Member

    I was once on a wildlife filming course and the conversation got round to this and both myself and a girl I’d never met before had come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) it was how your parent treated you being off sick from school.

    Hell or high water I went to school as both my parents worked and could not afford to be off work.

    So in my working life I’ve pretty much always gone to work. She had the same experience and said the same thing.
    That includes when I used to work outdoors I borke my fingers but still was working until a company director said I HAD TO BE OFF. lol

    I’m sure it down to how you were brought up 🙂 Or how unlucky you are on the trails 😛

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    I’ve seen all sorts having been full time and a contractor. I used to struggle in unless I couldn’t when I didn’t get paid sick leave which would generally prolong the illness.

    Recently we had to persuade a guy (who was a contractor) to go home as he was properly ill, infecting most of the office and achieving nothing by being there.
    On the flip side we had the useless one who could be off sick for anything and even did the low act of claiming holiday back as sick leave…
    The missus worked in a place (large charity vet hospital) where everyone felt so guilty about taking time off due to them being short staffed at the best of times they all rushed back in post gastro/winter vomiting bug and real flu. The missus got both and was off work for 10 days, I was off for 5 – thankfully I just got the flu part.

    Now I’m self employed again I’m sat at home working with man flu, it’s knocked me for a week and thankfully I’ve not had to fly anywhere or meet anyone. Mostly just been phone work and on the laptop but I’ve been way under my normal levels of productivity really.

    After all that I kind of think it’s there to be used, you will generally get better quicker and be more use when you get back if you use it.

Viewing 23 posts - 1 through 23 (of 23 total)

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