[Closed] Phoning in sick at work ..... feeling guilty 🙁 ...

I haven't had a day off sick for years, so no, I wouldn't feel guilty as I'm not a skiver. The tricky bit for me is that the handbook says I must phone my manager within an hour of my start time (8am) and he doesn't start until 9.

I feel guilty.

To the point where I will rather go in and get sent home, than phone in.

But I'm not sure if I would do that now with an hors cycle each way...

Just remember to use 'that" voice. The voice which is only used for calling in sick, regardless of what's wrong with you.
Kind of like a whimpering sniffle 🙂

Yes I do, so stupidly I've only called in once since 1999. I;ve had medical appointments , dentists etc but only one day off for 'feeling ill' and even then I went in before asking to go home. A workmate caught my virus and took two weeks off.

It's catch 22, take time off and get moaned about or spread the germs and get moaned about.

Im no piss taker, just feel shite !! .... one of the lads i work with has just had 5 months off with a minor op on his knee ! ... now he`s a piss taker !

I do not want sick people at work me or the team, but you are the sort of person I would send home if you turned up with that tale. Others that bleat like lambs all the time will get sent out to a remote site to do a proper days work. Or that is how it should be when I am in charge...... 😉

It's called work ethic!!

Some people will call in at the drop of a hat, then wait until they are 110% fit before returning......
Others will slog and slog and be partially useless at work, and refuse to let their body heal!
Neither of these is great, and a happy medium needs to be achieved!

DrP

You don't get thanked, or an award for going in ill. Take a day off. Rest. Go back to work when you're better.

So you should be guilty, sick days are for when you need them to out on your bike. Unless that's your plan today 😉

@ Bruneep ..... no riding for me 🙁

National sickie day according to the news.

If your ill call in, put your feet up. I used to go in ill till I got sent home, stopped after giving my boss and 2 work colleagues my virus. Got a telling off for that.

Superbowl hangover?

Just phoning in myself.......first time in a long while. Happily it's an answerphone.

@ boxelder .... where do u fancy going ? .. 😉

I've been ill for the last 6 weeks with one thing or another.... haven't missed a day at work though. Being able to work from home has made it easier.

Before working from home I would gladly phone in ill for the once every couple of years that it was.

I wouldn't be feeling guilty about it.

With vomiting or the shits you need to be symptom free for 48hrs before returning to work. So simples.

I end up taking 2-3 days a year, mainly to look after my kids when they are sick though. As a teacher though, it is hard to stand up and properly teach a lesson when you are really crook. Usually it is the mrs (who is a GP) who orders me back to bed when I'm not well. As a teacher we get good sick leave allowance and it can be needed at times. Parents often send the kids into school when they are sick, resulting in the kid spending half the day in sick bay and infecting half the kids (and the teacher) of their classes.

I never used to. I think I must have had a good 7 or 8 year period where I never took a day off sick irrespective of how I actually felt. Definately a macho thing, I sneered at man flu jokes and never complained about how I felt. Just get in and do the job.

When I broke my leg I would have been in work the following week if I could have found some way of getting in. After pressuring my company for quite a while, I managed to get them to agree to let me work 2.5 days from home every week but that was a struggle.

Nowadays I'm far less butch about the whole thing. I'll phone in sick if I'm properly sick (although only if I think my sickness will affect my work), and complain about how I feel a lot more. It's one of the benefits of getting older 😉

Do I feel guilty when I do it?

You bet I do.

Just lie down when you phone in, you'll sound sicker

Feel guilty despite knowing that with certain illnesses its the right thing to do as per qwerty

What little work I will do today will be done from home.

Suppose and can phone myself from the mobile, yep. Better stick my fingers up my nose and sound sorry for myself, otherwise I'll cotton on that I'm bull********.

Maybe I'll add.diarrhoea into the mix, that'll shut me up.

People who go into work when they are ill and spread their germs around should be shot. Just think of the amount of illnesses that would be irradicated by now if people did just that. Common cold - gone....

the missus worked at a certain charity vets, everyone felt so guilty about being off due to the high work load they came back in while still suffering from Flu and Norro Virus.

Anyone care to guess what happened?

If your contagious stay at home.

@ boxelder .... where do u fancy going ? ..

Bed - not with you.......

If I go in like this it'll just mean colleagues get it over Half Term I guess - hatches plan for tomorrows selective infection plan.......

Was off sick this weekend. Wife and sons had a vomiting bug on Thursday, I caught it late on Thursday into Friday- wiped out on Friday and Saturday and only really back to normal last night/ this morning.
Felt bad about calling in sick but was gubbed and would prob have have given it to my workmates and possibly the patients so don't feel that bad!
Annoys me when folk in work plan their sicknesses for the year ahead though!

Just phoned in for my OH, she's been in bed all weekend. Said I'd send her in anyway as she's doing my head in!
Haven't taken a non genuine sickie for a long time.
Worst was when I called into work on the Isle of Wight and I was actually at a friends, in Felixstowe!

I have been signed off work with a sprained ankle, to ensure that I rest it. As I don't feel sick, I feel a little guilty as I never take time off work sick.

However, reading this thread, I agree that I am also guilty of going to work when ill and spreading germs.

althepal - I take it you are going to take the 48 hours off after your last episode that you're obliged to.

I'd rather just go in to work then sit on here all day chatting about bikes and wood burning stoves 😀

nobody has mentioned the obvious - dont mention the Superbowl, especially the record breaking touch down run! 😉 V poor timing to be really ill OP!!

[sorry - get well soon!]

Are people that into the Superbowl in the UK, really?

I've really enjoyed the extended working in the past when work mates have brought in the 'flu. 16 days (?) of 12 hour nights because all were ill around me was a hoot. Guess what? I went off with a bad cold shortly after this period of loveliness and was whinged at by the same manager who had been bemoaning the lack of fit workforce due to our macho man.
You couldn't make it up!

bigyinn - Member
Are people that into the Superbowl in the UK, really?

Some apparently!! I only caught a few minutes in an ad break during Schindlers List. I couldn't take more that 10 mins (of which 23 seconds was actual play 😉 ). Knocked both on the head at midnight.

To counter the bad timing question, my wife works at a school where 25% of pupils were absent with a virus on Friday.

I haven't had a day off sick for years, so no, I wouldn't feel guilty as I'm not a skiver. The tricky bit for me is that the handbook says I must phone my manager within an hour of my start time (8am) and he doesn't start until 9.

i took my first day off in 3 years, was called in for a 'back to work interview' a couple of days later, accused of being lazy.
manager told me he could see a 'pattern' developing, so i told him i would like to hear how any type of pattern could be extrapolated from one instance.
argument concluded quite quickly after that, mainly because he didnt understand the word 'extrapolate'.

EDIT: apparently that word isnt in the swear filter. oops.

I had 3 sickness periods in close succession, and after my 3rd, I was called into my managers office for a stage one sickness interview. I was told my sickness would be monitored for 6 months. Following my interview a colleague was kind enough to come to work and infect me with flu. Feeling guilty, but mindful of my warning, I went to work and infected the other 3 paramedics on my shift (and potentially 12 of my patients ). My station then had to cover a total of 27 shifts as various staff went off with the flu.
I served 13 years in the RAF without sickness, and only call in sick if properly ill or injured, unlike some of my colleagues, but our service policy condemns sickness in all forms as skiving. Good old scottish ambulance service.

@ teamhurtmore .... sorry to disappoint you ... super bowl !! ..... what a crock of shite .... would rather be at work than watch that amercian rubbish !

I was alright till i went to visit my brother in hospital yesterday and now i feel shite !..... coincidence ?

Im no piss taker

Clear conscience then. Don't go in if you're sick, end of. Throwing up? That's carte blanche.

Why not ask work the question? Tell them you've been puking all night, ask them if they want you in, see what they say.

Raindog - Member
I wouldn't feel guilty as I'm not a skiver.

This, plus as I work in consulting, going into the office and affecting everyone else is potentially more damaging to the revenue line than not doing so. I'll work from home if I've got colds and coughs etc, but only DON'T work if I CAN'T work.

If your being honest and can't work - why feel guilty?

Here in Oz people phone in sick all the time and they don't think twice! If you can't get a day off for whatever reason people phone in. As a diabetic I sometimes have to phone in if I've hypo'd in the night and over indulged on the sweet stuff to bring my sugars up and feel like crap in the morning, but even then I hate having to make that call.

Who has a "sick" voice? 🙂

I woke up with a migraine today 🙁 phoned in, went back to bed, finally emerged around noon.
I feel no guilt when one of those strikes. I'm not fit to drive & I'm not fit to stare at a computer screen for several hours at a time

Around a month ago I had the Norovirus, and texted my boss at 7.00am, because I hadn't had any sleep up to that point. That meant taking Friday off, the first day I'd taken off sick in the nine years I've been working at my present place, and previous to that, I'd not taken a day off sick in the thirteen years I'd worked at that firm, and in the eighteen years at the place before that, I'd been signed off for two weeks with chickenpox, and I'd spent a week in bed with flu.
Since getting the dratted Norovirus, I've had a really vile cold type of bug, which caused me to have to actually leave work last Friday morning, because I was shivering, felt cold and was coughing my lungs up.
I've been back at work since, giving it to all those who didn't already have it.
I hate feeling ill, and I've never taken time off with a cold, but what I've got at the moment is horrible, and has been making feel utterly crap, but as it's not actually killing me, I can't justify taking time off, just because rivers of snot are pouring out of my sinuses, and I'm coughing up green goo. 😳

Haven't had a sick day in probably six or seven years but no way would I feel guilty about taking one if I was genuinely sick.

People who insist on dragging themselves into work through choice (or an office at any rate) when they are at deaths door with something infectious are idiots and fooling nobody.

I've been ill for the last week or so, still been working, feeling worse by the day. Had a phone consulation with my GP today who sent me off for urgent blood tests (kidney funtion, liver function, thyroid, blood counts etc) but I still felt guilty leaving early today. 😆

Glupton- was off all weekend- none of us got out the house till Sunday, and even then we were gubbed when we got back!
Not local- I feel your pain! But I suppose its to be expected when there's so much nonsense going on in that respect- I should be ok as is my first for over a year but some folk don't seem to bother/care and get away with all sorts of shit!

aphex_2k - Member
Here in Oz people phone in sick all the time and they don't think twice!

Didn't "chucking a sicky" originate from Aus?

Only time I ever went into work ill was recently when I'd gone away for work and was in a hotel. I just couldn't stand the hotel bed and room any more. Work was pretty grim though too.

I was off today with back ache, my manager is happy enough for us to call in sick via text.

No doubt upon my return it will be the usual song and dance of 'oh you were off I was so busy, I didn't understand why you had worked out some costings in that manner, I had to work late / no lunch etc' Same responses when I return after any holiday, even a day off.

She goes on holiday for 2 week as of Friday, I will manage to cope somehow.

Had Glandular fever early last year,was in work until I physically could not get out of bed(I have a very physical job which demands lots of ladder climbing,bending,kneeling etc).
Was back in after 4days rest,still ill and not really fit for work but would lose a considerable amount of bonus if off for over 4days due to companys policys.
It took about 3months before I felt back to normal.

When you ring the boss put a full Cadburys creme egg in your mouth, one intial biting crush then dial the last digit on the phone, you sound as rough as chuff. 😥

I've only had one day off sick so far in my 25 year career (and that would have been in my first year of working). Will be changing soon as I'm due to have cataract surgery, but it does feel a little guilty to be taking time off sick for that.

As expected my return to work today was met with about 50% of the comments on how busy she was in my absence.

p.s I enjoyed watching Dickinsons real deal while I was off 😀