The Migraine – Is there a better ‘get out of work’ card?!

Now i am not saying people don’t get them and i appreciate they can be very debilitating, but it seems odd that in work some people regularly have them on a Monday and therefore cant come to work.

What are the chances they fall on a Monday or sometimes on a Friday?!

And the beauty is there are no visible signs…. no snotty nose, no hacking cough… the silent assassin.

Do you have a regular ‘sick note’ in work? Is it always the same ailment?

Work?

As a migraine sufferer for over 35 years, stress can be a big contributor, so Mondays, or any day when you’re returning to work, I can understand, but yes, some folks do take the piss.

‘I’m not feeling well’ works for me.  Don’t see why work has to know anymore than that.

Most organisations have a sickness management policy or similar. I think ours starts if you have 4 periods of sickness in a rolling 12 month period. 4 concurrent days off is regarded as one period of sickness, but 4 separate days off are treated as four periods of sickness.

It’s normally managed fairly well by managers as it gives them an opportunity to talk sensibly to someone e.g. if you have young kids starting at school/nursery you tend to get sick more. Quick chat and sorted.

Conversely if they feel someone is taking the piss they can ratchet it up to HR and make it their problem. Also gives HR something to do 😀

‘I’m not feeling well’ works for me.

How often do you use that Bruce? Our HR department wants explanations!

Well, from what i can gather, i havent taken a day off sick in… blimey, i cant even remember, 5 plus years easily.

With regard to not telling work what’s wrong with you most will ask as part of the return to work process.

My finest moment was many years ago when I emailed my boss, pre Teams, and told them that I was suffering from a brown laser. They appreciated that as the first email they read 😁

At my work it seems to be the fat people who are off sick then most, there’s a pretty good correlation between weight and time off sick. Same at my old work. No specific ailments though.

Not sure if it’s cause or effect. Are fat people more likely to be unhealthy and need more time off (probably) or are lazy people who are more likely to take time off more likely to be fat (possibly)

Migraine vs bad headache is a bit like flu vs bad cold. Some people who’ve never had the real thing will mistake something unpleasant for something truly horrible. But if they’ve “just” got a bad headache/bad cold and are unfit to work as a result then I really don’t care what they call it, they should still take time to recover.

Yes some people are more prone to take sick days, but as above if you’re in a large organisation and log it then HR should keep an eye on things. For balance we’ve all seen people who drag themselves in when they really should be off sick, which can then spread their bugs and cause even more absence. You can’t win!

There are some  poor views of  people on this thread.

🤦‍♂️

Remember Rule No.1

An old friend of mine who I worked with at the MOD was called in by his boss to discuss his sick days. But I haven’t had any he replied, exactly said his boss and it makes everyone else look bad so make sure you start taking them 😂

Ironically he retired early on medical grounds later

As a migraine sufferer for 30+ years I have upped my game on the ‘fake’ symptoms front. I can now also spew my ring repeatedly until I’m dry-wretching with a thumping head and and my Stevie Wonder-esque staggering around because I can’t see is something to behold.

My tip when it comes to work and colleagues and health is to spend less time looking at them and dreaming up scenarios for yourself in which you are the victim of their supposed ‘fecklessness’.

Remember Rule No.1

Quite. One of my team gets around 50 migraines a year, it’s incredibly debilitating. I’ve put in place some reasonable adjustments which have made the frequency a bit better.

There are some  poor views of  people on this thread.

Yep, feeling like the Daily Mail comments section.

There are some  poor views of  people on this thread.

or just general observations in their work place?

For balance we’ve all seen people who drag themselves in when they really should be off sick, which can then spread their bugs and cause even more absence

This is what happens at my place of work, as we dont get sick pay, so folks come in regardless (not all, but most do), which as you say, spreads the love :(

I wonder how many days of work are lost due to people going into work when they are ill, we never see that figure reported.

Oh, FWIW, a proper employer will have a Sick policy that possibly revolves around three ‘triggers’ for a discussion.

1. Total number of days sick.

2. Count of instances of sickness.

3. Pattern of sickness across the working week.

You should let HR deal with it and sort your own preconceptions about people now, at source, before it becomes corrosive to you personally.

i havent taken a day off sick in… blimey, i cant even remember, 5 plus years easily.

Everyone gets sick, If I had an employee that’d never taken a day off in 5 years, it would ring alarm bells. Especially so if their role involved the company’s money. If they’re coming in when they shouldn’t be, then I’d also be having a quiet word.

My Mum is clinically diagnosed as having over 15 migraines a month, so classed a chronic migraine sufferer. Some she can carry on her day to a reasonable level, others she literally can’t do anything. She is not retired so thankfully doesn’t have this issue but there can be patterns for some people. There is the something known as a ‘Saturday migraine’, which I can get – that you get a migraine after you stop at the end of a busy week. For others it could be the stress of the week starting.

Some people use the term migraine when they mean bad headache. Proper migraine is another level. I told my son the other day not to say migraine when he means headache, and explained the difference. I’m not a massive sufferer, fortunately, but I had some a few years ago and I’d rather not have any more!

Bit like when people say “my OCD” when what they really mean is * like things put away properly.

Think there’s been a bit more in the press recently about migraine, but I think it needs more awareness so people don’t miss use the condition. Maybe that is something employers need to be doing.

I went through a period where I would get debilitating, migraine like headaches* regular as clockwork every Sunday afternoon at about 2 pm.
Never missed a day of work as a result but ruined countless weekends.

Am I a malingerer too? (Full disclosure: I am quite fat)

*not migraines. Occipital neuralgia as a result of nerve damage sustained in a car accident but still enough to render me temporarily blind in one eye and utterly useless for a day.

Everyone gets sick, If I had an employee that’d never taken a day off in 5 years, it would ring alarm bells. Especially so if their role involved the company’s money. If they’re coming in when they shouldn’t be, then I’d also be having a quiet word.

Interesting. Dont get me wrong, i have been sick, the odd cold or sniffles, but ultimately nothing bad enough to stop me doing my job. I would put it down to my work ethic and trying to eat well and stay fit and healthy.

I mean i have had time off over the years of my employment, but its holiday… for holidays. Oh and i did take a day here and there for funerals.

I would love to be told to take more sick days…. assuming they would pay me for it!

I’d like you to experience a migraine, preferably with flashes, then reassess your opinion.

but ultimately nothing bad enough to stop me doing my job.

OK, but are you bringing germs/infections into work that are bad enough to make others sick? Perhaps more sick than you might be. There’s a new strain of Covid doing the rounds, if you just get the sniffles and a sore head, you’d come into work, right? Would you remember to test? Are there folks at work who would need to shield? have a less effective immune system than you?

Don’t get me wrong, 5 years and no sick days is admirable, but being ill isn’t a character flaw either.

Are fat people more likely to be unhealthy and need more time off (probably)

Yes, but it’s generally phrased a little more nicely.

This is connected to my line of work – which involves weight management and trying to help people stay in employment.

A study from this year, albeit part-funded by Novo Nordisk (who make wegovy):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-69002714

But it’s not controversial to say obesity is correlated with a number of serious health conditions.

“Everyone gets sick, If I had an employee that’d never taken a day off in 5 years, it would ring alarm bells.”

That’s nonsense.

Apart from Covid, I’ve not had a sick day in years, possibly decades. When I get colds etc they almost always disappear overnight and I’ve been lucky not to have anything serious yet.

I got bitten by a dog the other day commuting in and was off to minor injuries, patched up and back at work in a couple of hours but thats all I can remember in recent years. I’m pretty sure hQ consider this a positive and not a red flag!

I should probably declare my particular present ire at the tone of the OP.

My migraines are now very manageable – prob 4 or 5 a year – because I finally (after many years) identified the trigger as physiological. Mine relate to neck stiffness originating in the traps muscles in my upper back. Lots of stretching keeps them at bay, mostly.

But Fender Jnr (2) has been getting them for the last 18 months or so. He’s currently moping around on the sofa having has 5 migraine attacks in the last three days. He’s got through end of year assessments and is now supposedly in the nice run into summer hols. Instead of doing a school trip yesterday and Sports Day today he’s been chundering, waking up in the night with the aura already happening and looking like death in between. He’s 13 and has already had to accept that these are probably never going to go away 100% and will need managing.

So I’m not sure what pisses me off more, TBH – that some people inevitably use ‘migraine’ as an excuse to skive or that other people immediately think ‘skiver’ when migraine is mentioned.

I’d much rather migraines didn’t exist at all.

🤷‍♂️

What @fazzini said. I often get them on mondays, but most common is saturday when you have just got through a stressful week at work, and then when you get to relax after, bang its on. So I usually waste either half of the weekend, or the whole weekend if I get one that lasts two days. What fun.

I have had bad migraines my whole life, and can’t use most of the common medications because of serious side effects. And it is most often stress or the relieving of stress that starts the attack. The worst one in my whole life was after we had been hiking for a week in the wilderness, and on the way back we went to a sauna and a bath, and I relaxed there for hours.

Right after the relaxing sauna and bath I got a horrible migraine attack, could not sleep the whole night, it was all cold sweats and suffering, all the while being close to throwing up and could not even keep my eyes open.

For me, the worst attacks involve serious nausea, sometimes throwing up, throbbing pain on the left foreside of the head, the whole visual field may flicker and flash, and any light will cause pain – usually necessitating being in a dark room, preferably with an ice pack on my forehead.

For the migraineurs here – one cool tip I learned of a couple years back is that pure green light can alleviate the pain quite considerably. Especially being in a totally dark room, with only the green light shining on you.
I read about a couple studies done on this, and then ordered a stage light producing green LED light from Thomann. It really does help – both for reducing the pain when an attack is on, and if you keep the green light on daily, it will reduce the frequency of attacks for many people.

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/green-light-migraine-relief

Harvard Medical School researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have found that exposing migraine sufferers to a narrow band of green light significantly reduces photophobia and can reduce headache severity.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32903062/

Discussion: Green light emitting diodes significantly reduced the number of headache days in people with episodic migraine or chronic migraine. Additionally, green light emitting diodes significantly improved multiple secondary outcome measures including quality of life and intensity and duration of the headache attacks. As no adverse events were reported, green light emitting diodes may provide a treatment option for those patients who prefer non-pharmacological therapies or may be considered in complementing other treatment strategies. Limitations of this study are the small number of patients evaluated. The positive data obtained support implementation of larger clinical trials to determine possible effects of green light emitting diode therapy.

For pain relief, I have found that high dose CBD combined with paracetamol helps me a lot, as I cannot use triptans at all.

I cannot use triptans at all

Me neither. My side-effects weren’t properly serious other than them often making things feel much worse and often being unable to lift my arms whilst it was in my system.

@fenderextender I get heart problems and they may cause a heart attack for a small subset of people, whose heart veins are affected by triptans. I also have a very high hematocrit / hemoglobin (180) – hereditary, so I may get a sroke from them. Thats also the reason they are not recommended for smokers.

I’d like you to experience a migraine, preferably with flashes, then reassess your opinion.

I am hoping this isnt aimed at me, as if so, you clearly havent read my opening post or just dont understand what i have written. I clearly stated that i understand they are debilitating, my wife occasionally suffers. My point was that it appears people use this as a reason to take a day off sick and i was curious if anyone they work with is a ‘sick note’ and what their excuses are.

If it wasnt aimed at me, ignore the above and feel free to address who you have taken offence to.

This was a light hearted thread to unearth if tracy in accounts is often off ill as her dog dies once a month, or that Dave in dispatch often suffers from an ingrowing toe nail every other week.

OK, but are you bringing germs/infections into work that are bad enough to make others sick? Perhaps more sick than you might be.

Unfortunately its a culture where i work, as we dont get paid sick, those who dont want to lose out on pay generally come to work. And yes, its a breeding ground, especially in my office where the aircon just spreads it far and wide. It infuriates me, as i dont want to pick anything up, i dont want to spread, but i have a mortgage to pay, food to buy. I am happy to share my HR departments email if you can get them to see sense! :)

Bit like when people say “my OCD” when what they really mean is * like things put away properly. i’m the kind of boring bastard that like to draw round my tools and colour in the lines with black paint

Ftfy

Everyone gets sick, If I had an employee that’d never taken a day off in 5 years, it would ring alarm bells. Especially so if their role involved the company’s money. If they’re coming in when they shouldn’t be, then I’d also be having a quiet word.

Alarm bells ? I had a day off last year and I had to look at the Self Service app online to check when I last had a sick day- 2018. I am a pain in the arse moaning employee. Also overweight, ex big drinker, ex smoker so not claiming to be Mr healthy.

In bad organisations presenteeism is a common consequence of inaccurate performance metrics and the absence of a growth mindset. Pathological management often embraces dysfunction as it’s easier to quantify absence than actual business value, and allows training and improvement to be left to the individual initiative of employees with ambitions elsewhere. These organisations are where careers go to die; be very careful.

If you took the time to read any of the migraine threads on STW you’d be aware that stress is a major trigger, as is reduced stress. I had countless bank holiday and annual leave days wasted as I’d have a migraine.

That’s nonsense.

Nope, experience. I worked with a woman in accounts that ‘managed’ the companies money, never took a day off, always always dragged herself in,  rarely even took holidays. The HR management found out eventually it’s becasue she was on the take, and came in so that no one else would to look closely at what she did if she wasn’t there.

as we dont get paid sick

That’s against the law. What you mean is ‘we don’t get anything above statutory sick pay’ Then if it bothers you, find a new job or re-negotiate your contract. folks leaving a business becasue it doesn’t look after it’s employees soon start to find ways of offer better conditions.

How often do you use that Bruce? Our HR department wants explanations!

What kind of explanations?

If I’ve determined that I’m not well enough to come into work and the illness is not work related then it’s really none of their business.  If they want to push things then I’ll quite happily go and find somewhere else that doesn’t feel the need to get nosy.

Might be different if you are a migraine sufferer as it’s more likely to be a chronic condition and work might have to provide additional support.

If, as the OP and others are suggesting, they aren’t actually suffering from migraines and just fancy a day off then there’s nothing wrong with, ‘I don’t feel well, it’s not work related, I don’t need any support.’

Why does HR need to know if you’ve got a fever or if you’ve been sat on the toilet evacuating your bowels with excruciating abandon for two days?

A former colleague used to get annual jury service for several weeks and my useless manager never batted an eyelid.

If they’re coming in when they shouldn’t be, then I’d also be having a quiet word.

That’s long been a massive irritation for me in office-based work. People sitting there sniffing and coughing and sneezing over their keyboard, getting up for a another mug of Lemsip, moaning about how ill they feel but “their work ethic means they’ve come in anyway…”

Yes and then you make everyone else ill you absolute cretin – plus you don’t actually get much work done after all that.

Thankfully it seems much less common post-Covid.

“Everyone gets sick, If I had an employee that’d never taken a day off in 5 years, it would ring alarm bells.”

That’s nonsense.

Certainly is. My longest period without a day off sick was 12 years, and I think my total sick days over 35 years was probably about 15. Some people are lucky, some are less so.