The Responsibility Project^®. Exploring what it means to do the right thing

Fresh Living: Calling In Sick

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May 24, 2010 by Valerie Reiss for Beliefnet’s Fresh Living blog

There's a story in the New York Times by a doctor who regularly sees patients go into work with 100-plus degree fevers. She confesses to doing the same. Her (not very convincing) moral: Stay home! But a lot of people don't have that option or don't feel they do. Over at Tara Parker Pope's blog, Well, she asks readers whether they take sick days. Many say they don't. A sampling of comments:

"What's a sick day? I don't have anyone available to do my work if I'm out. I could be barfing up a lung and still be asked to do emergency things from my computer at home. I keep hearing people telling me that if I'm not careful, I'll wind up in the hospital with a heart attack. I'm like, 'Promise?'"

and

From an ambulance worker: "I woke up vomiting one day and found this out the hard way when I called in 2 hours before my shift and got suspended - if I'd done it one more time in the next 6 months, I would have been fired."

and

"My boyfriend, a fine dining waiter, was once told he needed a doctor's excuse to call in sick. Since he has no medical insurance that meant he would have had to pay $150 - $200 for a doctor's visit so he could call in sick... on top of losing money for missing work. Fortunately, when he showed up for work feverish and clearly ill, a more sane manager sent him home"

And on, and on.

Many also comment on the fact that many companies are lumping in sick days with vacation days as "paid time off." So people come in sick so they still have vacation time, making everyone else sick in the process.

It's some sad stuff. We get sick partly because we're stressed from work, and then many workplaces don't allow you to actually be sick, thus not taking responsibility for the problems they help create. And can we keep ourselves well — exercise, eat right, sleep enough, when many jobs essentially demand that we do none of those things? Our messy humanness is in the way of "progress" and profit. The message: Be a better cog, please. And without those "cells" or "immune systems" or "bodily functions," if you would.

I often wonder what our economy would look like if we all got enough sleep, had time to prepare fresh, whole food, work out, snuggle, laugh, play. Maybe it would thrive. And maybe it really wouldn't matter so much at all.

6 Comments

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• May 24, 2010 by LEE DEW

  IF U ARE HONESTLY SICK, U SHOULD CALL IN SICK, FOR COMPANIES THAT DOES NOT HAVE SICK DAYS FOR EMPLOYEES, SHAME, SHAME ON YOUR COMPANY., WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS, YOU CEO'S, COMPANY OWNERS WILL GET SICK TOO ONE DAY. IF THERE IS AN EMPLOYEE THAT ABUSES SICK DAYS, DEAL WITH THAT EMPLOYEE, DO NOT TAKE IT OUT ON EVERYONE.

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  • August 9, 2010 by anne

    I second that. Furthermore, sick people are less efficient than healthy people. Taking time off to recover from illness shortens the time you are sick. I work in a place with many children and elderly and many many germs. Before we put up the hand sanitizer dispensers, everyone got sick all the time. If you did not go home, shower and hop into bed, you'd be sick the whole week rather than just a couple days and the whole staff would catch it by the end of the month.

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• May 26, 2010 by Bill Hall

  I think the concept of Personal Time off days is a great one. You have a total of x days off - sick or not, vaca or not - use them as you will. That is a great flexible solution. If your needs go outside of this, then you discuss it with your manager.

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• June 3, 2010 by BABY-DEE

  WHEN YOU ARE SICK. YOU DON'T FELL GOOD LIKE MY DOG SHE IS SICK

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• July 14, 2011 by no name

  Don't fall for the PTO trap. Here's the scoop. It is billed as a more flexible plan. However, my company blended the traditional sick/vacation and the PTO plan. They kept the occurence accrual and in order to take a sick day they require one day notice. Now, if you call in three times in a twelve month period, for any reason, you can be terminated. If you get sick at work and leave early that is half an occurrence and if there is a snowstorm or hundred car pileup and you're ten minutes late that's also 1/2 occurrence. You can see that can add up and even people who have excellent attendance can find themseves in a bad spot. Workers are rapidly losing the ground gained and we're headed back to sweatshop toiling. Get used to it.

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• September 3, 2011 by pcs

  Employers are just nasty these days... If someone is sick, let them go home or stay home sick. They are the little people that put money in your wallet, and cause those 2nd quarter profits to rise. Those that have kids sometimes have things come up and they have to drop everything because it is their child. Children and family come before work. This is not unreasonable...$#!t happens. And saying it is a quarter of an incident, or a half of a whatever so they can take half of a TO day away from you is petty, cheap, and shows how much the company really cares about you.

  Id much rather have 3 happy employees that respect me, and the company, than 10 that resent me, the company's policies, and find the workday just another miserable 8hrs in the salt mines, slaving for the ungrateful prison guards they call bosses.

  When a company strives to keep its employees happy, the business itself performs better, and people like going to work and enjoy what they do.

  Companies that don't care about the employees will soon realize they have no true loyalty amongst their employees, who will take advantage of whatever they can, call in sick if they just don't feel like coming in, will take shortcuts to perform their job, and will never do as good a job as someone that takes pride in their company and their work. Customers can hear misery in the voices of those they deal with....it's true.

  Be Good To Your Employees....it pays in the end.

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