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1 hour ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

Similarly when I was younger and working in a shop I'd agreed holiday dates well Ina dance to go to football, then as the time got closer they decided I wasn't having them. So I then got someone to swap shifts (therefore meaning I wasn't taking time off and had zero impact on the management or the work being done) and they responded by refusing to let the person do my shifts for no apparent reason other than spite. The feeling of seeing their faces as I handed in my notice the next morning in enough time to still go was absolutely glorious.

On sick days, a previous manager I had was one of those really annoying managers who said stuff like "unless you can't move then you should be in" but then complained about illnesses spreading throughout the office without the slightest realisation of the irony, even after having it clearly explained.

We just book our holidays online at my work. 

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Sickness absence is like everything else in life, some take the piss and others go to the other extreme. The one thing that does annoy me is those folk who seem to genuinely believe sick pay is an entitlement to be used like holiday leave.

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In a previous life, I was asked to spend some time collecting information on sick days, looking for trends, people swinging the lead. The management view was that people would be more likely to be sick on a Monday or Friday to extend their weekend, that they would take more than one day off so as not appear suspicious, that they'd be off more if they were in a lower percentile of salary etc etc. After looking into this for a while, I had to present my findings which was basically, people get sick, people take days off, people mostly will be sick for six days in a year, get over it. There were no trends. Management always seems keen to assume folk are at it, but mostly there wasn't any data to back it up.

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In a previous life, I was asked to spend some time collecting information on sick days, looking for trends, people swinging the lead. The management view was that people would be more likely to be sick on a Monday or Friday to extend their weekend, that they would take more than one day off so as not appear suspicious, that they'd be off more if they were in a lower percentile of salary etc etc. After looking into this for a while, I had to present my findings which was basically, people get sick, people take days off, people mostly will be sick for six days in a year, get over it. There were no trends. Management always seems keen to assume folk are at it, but mostly there wasn't any data to back it up.

Facts. Don't ya just luv em.
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4 hours ago, MSU said:

In a previous life, I was asked to spend some time collecting information on sick days, looking for trends, people swinging the lead. The management view was that people would be more likely to be sick on a Monday or Friday to extend their weekend, that they would take more than one day off so as not appear suspicious, that they'd be off more if they were in a lower percentile of salary etc etc. After looking into this for a while, I had to present my findings which was basically, people get sick, people take days off, people mostly will be sick for six days in a year, get over it. There were no trends. Management always seems keen to assume folk are at it, but mostly there wasn't any data to back it up.

Absolutely. Our place toyed with a policy a while back where they counted instances of sick absence towards warnings as opposed to actual days lost.

The end result of that bright idea being nobody took a single day off anymore - if you were getting charged an instance anyway, you might as well have a couple of days to yourself once you felt okay.

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Been with my current employers for 11 years. My whole first week in 2006 I was off due to gastroenteritis.

Never had another sickie in ten years until I got the same thing last year. Gastroenteritis is a nightmare for 2 or 3 days, but you do get a couple of freebie days when it's over as the doc signs you off for a week as you can still infect others.

Generally though you get to know those that will soldier on, and lose respect in a working sense for those that always phone in with migraines and "bad flu" i.e. bit of a cold or a Torry Holiday as we call it in the north-east

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I always find the 'caul' (cold) a difficult one. In one sense you really shouldn't be coming in infecting everyone but on the other, whenever I hear someone being off with it my initial reaction is "fucking seriously?! Get a grip".

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In my old work, you could have 4 periods of sickness absence a year. One of the supervisors would rip the piss out of it - she once took 10 days off with a sore knee then came back for a day and fucked off for another two weeks because she'd 'hurt' her knee again, presumably by sitting on her arse as that's all she ever did. Unfortunately for her, the fact that she'd come back for a day before disappearing again meant that she'd taken two periods instead of one. This pushed her over the threshold and she got summarily punted up to another manager for an investigation into her absence. She also claimed to have a condition but could never get the symptoms right.

I eventually caught her fiddling with the wages so she was getting paid extra when she wasn't even working (paid for 45 hours when she was only working 34 hours etc). She'd been doing that for months. Quite a satisfying dismissal. She's now punting Juice Plus.

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9 hours ago, MSU said:

In a previous life, I was asked to spend some time collecting information on sick days, looking for trends, people swinging the lead. The management view was that people would be more likely to be sick on a Monday or Friday to extend their weekend, that they would take more than one day off so as not appear suspicious, that they'd be off more if they were in a lower percentile of salary etc etc. After looking into this for a while, I had to present my findings which was basically, people get sick, people take days off, people mostly will be sick for six days in a year, get over it. There were no trends. Management always seems keen to assume folk are at it, but mostly there wasn't any data to back it up.

I think you fucked that up. Patterns are less obvious in general terms. But study individual records and you'll find them. You could predict absence never mind review it.

In saying that, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. 

Eta: I don't take much time off because going to work is easier.

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Same here.

I had a pretty big run in a couple of years ago. I had a pretty bad spell with my ongoing crohns disease and hit their triggers. The letter that said 'final opportunity to improve' tipped me over the edge. My line managers knew I was in an awful lot in a helluva state and that this was out of order but their hands were tied.

I was even offered a deal where I took unpaid leave for a number of days each year. When I suggested this was a pay cut for being ill they defended it. They even admitted that a teacher diagnosed with cancer had agreed to this.

Eventually after an emotional letter and meeting the head of education suspended the triggers for a year. It was basically kicking the problem into the medium length grass but at least it was a small win.

Folk that just take a day or two for very little really piss me off. But this is an age old problem in society.


My wife does the same job as you and the people from the HR dept in her council who deal with employees who have gone over the sickness quotas are quite possibly the biggest c***s in existence. My wife went over the quota because she had a migraine for several days and they said "if it was so serious why hasn't your doctor referred you for an MRI scan of your brain?". Aye good one Dougie Howser. If the Nazis had won WW2 it would be these people who'd have been the British Eichmanns.

As per above posters I'm fortunate because if I've got a cold I can work from home. If you are ill then you are ill - no point martyring yourself.



















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My wife does the same job as you and the people from the HR dept in her council who deal with employees who have gone over the sickness quotas are quite possibly the biggest c***s in existence. My wife went over the quota because she had a migraine for several days and they said "if it was so serious why hasn't your doctor referred you for an MRI scan of your brain?". Aye good one Dougie Howser. If the Nazis had won WW2 it would be these people who'd have been the British Eichmanns.

As per above posters I'm fortunate because if I've got a cold I can work from home. If you are ill then you are ill - no point martyring yourself.






















Inhumane resources.
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14 hours ago, parsforlife said:

Anyone who takes sick days as a free couple of days off is low life scum who have no respect for management they work for

the colleagues they work with or the commitment they made when signing a contract. It's a clear, deliberate act of gross misconduct and should face instant dismissal, with any future job the chancer wriggles into being one they are lucky as hell to get.

 

Providing you can perform at 60-70% you should be turning up .

You're right, if I have a cold and can function at 60% I should definitely attend my work. I might have 40% of my work wrong, I might get 40% of my drug round wrong and kill 40% of those in my care while infecting all the others and possibly killing a few of those off. Yeah, I've no excuse for not going in really. 

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6 minutes ago, Lisa Cuddy said:

You're right, if I have a cold and can function at 60% I should definitely attend my work. I might have 40% of my work wrong, I might get 40% of my drug round wrong and kill 40% of those in my care while infecting all the others and possibly killing a few of those off. Yeah, I've no excuse for not going in really. 

Would that not be an improvement on your normal %? :whistle

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