Sick leave? You don't need no stinkin' sick leave!

[SongsOfDragons]

It may not be for sick leave specifically, but Housemate's boss's boss is refusing to give him (Housemate's boss) two days off to visit his sick mother. We're all saying fuck him and go anyway, but he replies he 'doesn't want to make any waves'.

-_- It's a sad, sad state of affairs.

[Panacea]

It may not be for sick leave specifically, but Housemate's boss's boss is refusing to give him (Housemate's boss) two days off to visit his sick mother. We're all saying fuck him and go anyway, but he replies he 'doesn't want to make any waves'.

-_- It's a sad, sad state of affairs.

It sure is.

When my mom called to tell me dad had to have a quadruple bypass, I marched into my boss's office and said, "My dad has to have open heart surgery. I'm going to Maryland and will be back in a week."

I didn't know what she'd say, but I was going no matter what. Fortunately, her answer was, "Drive carefully, and we'll be praying for you and your Dad. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine."

[Lace Neil Singer]

...and that's exactly how those policies get started! Some people will call off, because they're more interested in getting plastered.

For example, we once had an employee named Kelly, who had a problem with calling off. If she did, it was always a Monday or Friday...and her kids were "sick." Usually about twice a month they were "sick." I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't think I was ever sick that much in my entire life! Anyway, Kelly soon earned the wrath of the other data entry person who was stuck trying to do not only her own work, but Kelly's crap as well. Needless to say, her time sheets got pulled, and she got a major bitching-out by the boss. Got threatened with termination, in other words.

At the pizza place, we had someone like that working there for one month. Reason why it was only one month? She was hired to work Saturday and Sunday day shifts, and three times called in to say that her kids were sick. Basically, she wanted the money without doing the work. After the third time, the boss told her that unless she came into work the following weekend, he would fire her. She called in the following Saturday, and he canned her. Apparently, she was screaming about suing for wrongful dismissal, but we didn't hear a thing back about that, probably cuz no lawyer would take a case where a worker was fired for not turning up to work.

[s_stabeler]

I like the way it's done at my job (I work in the UK)- you don't have x amount of paid sick leave per year, it depends on how long you are sick. ( IIRC, it's something like full pay for a certain number of days, then you get Statutory Sick Pay for however long you're eligible for that.) if your manager is getting suspicious due to the amount of time you are out sick, there are 4 stages ( I think)( they aren't called this, but they give the idea) 1) informal warning- you're called into a meeting with your manager to discuss why you are out sick so much, basically. 2) Formal Warning- you get another meeting w/your manager, this time getting a formal warning over the amount of sick leave. I think you have to see someone to see if the problem is even fixable ( aka, check if the sick leave is going to be a constant thing- basically, will you be able to return to dong your job full-time again) 3) final warning- you get another meeting with your manager, (possibly with your manager's immediate superior too, I can't remember) and you get a warning to shape up or you lose your job. 4) termination- no explanation required. you lose your job.

At any stage, you can appeal ( IIRC, it goes first to your manager's boss, then you can appeal to HR)

[MadMike]

At my job, they won't ask for a doctor's note unless you've been out sick three days in a row. That seems perfectly reasonable to me. If you're out that many days in a row, then you probably need to see a doctor. At the same time, it allows for things like migraines (which I get), 24-hour bugs, etc.

The most I was ever out was two days in a row, with some sort of nasty cold that knocked me on my ass. No one ever gave me any trouble over it.

[s_stabeler]

yeah, I forgot to mention that- no doctor's note needed for the first few days ( I can't remember the number off the top of my head, but I've been out for 3 days w/o needing a doctor's note before. It was an extremely nasty cold.)