Illnesses and calling in sick

[Susan9608]

I"m a little worried that I'm in trouble at work.

This morning, I woke up feeling terrible. I had a very bad sore throat and was terribly nauseated. I went ahead and tried to get ready for work, though, but I ended up barfing in the shower. Then I had some other stomach problems. When I looked at my throat, my tonsils were very red, swollen, and covered with white spots. I took my temperature, but it was only low grade - 100.5. Still, I felt bad enough that I called in sick to work. I couldn't get a doctor's appointment today, so I'm going tomorrow.

My tonsils are so swollen that it hurts to even open my mouth and I'm having a hard time making myself understood. I've been IM'ing my husband for juice and stuff all day, so that I don't have to talk.

I had my husband call my work tonight to let them know I'm still ill and won't be coming to work tomorrow. I suppose I should have tried to call myself, but between our horrible cell phone connection (no land line at the house, only cell phones) and how difficult it is for me to speak coherently, I thought it would be easier for him to call. Apparently the charge nurse gave him some grief over me calling in sick 2 days in a row.

Now I'm worried that I'm going to be in trouble.

I don't understand why things like this have to be punitive. We have a point system at my hospital - every time you're ill or have a death in the family or have to miss work for any reason (except pre-approved vacation time) you earn one point. It doesn't matter if you have a doctor's excuse or not; you still earn a point. If you are tardy, you earn half a point. When you accumulate 12 points, you get fired.

And the points don't drop off at the end of the year; rather, they are on a rolling calender. They don't drop off at the beginning of the year when you have your evaluation and get your raise, etc. etc. They drop off exactly a year from whenever the incident occurred. So if for some reason, you had multiple illnesses or family emergencies or whatever back to back within a six month period, you wouldn't be able to call in for any reason until a full calender year had passed from those incidents; otherwise, you'd get fired.

I guess I'm nervous because I've had a very bad year. I had to have an emergency appendectomy last November, so I was out for a week then. Then I had some marital problems (my husband actually left me out of nowhere, though we're back together and working on our problems now) so I missed 2 days for that in January. Then I hurt my back and missed a day in March. And, last September, I missed a day and a half for fertility treatment (obviously prior to the marital problems. :)). Those are all things I couldn't really plan and get pre-approval for.

I just feel like in the face of such a nursing shortage, it seems counter-productive to make things like illness and emergencies so punitive and threatening. I could see that if someone was calling in sick for a day here and a day there once a month or once every couple of weeks or was always calling in with vague complaints. But, I had legitimate problems along with letters from my doctor and therapist for everything except my back problem.

Do you all think I'm in serious trouble here? should I have gone to work anyways? I truly feel terrible - I'm only on line because I can't sleep because I feel so bad. And, additionally, I'm anxious about my job, so that's not helping.

[Susan9608]

I went to the doctor. I definitely have strep throat. She also thinks I have some kind of gastro, probably from being in Mexico last week. The doctor said it was ridiculous to think I should be working with critically ill kids (I'm a PICU nurse) with strep throat; her exact words were, "don't they care if you give strep to all the kids and all your coworkers?"

Ha! Answer is NO. They just want me to work.

I got a note. I faxed it to them and emailed my direct supervisor. I think I'm going to talk to my nurse manager about this problem, and maybe even HR. It seems like it's a common problem, from what all of you say, and I personally think that it needs to be dealt with.

I wouldn't want someone who was ill taking care of me. I doubt any of the parents would want someone who was ill caring for their children. Plus, we have had a low census lately; when I was at work on Thursday, they were sending nurses home. Sheesh.

[reesern63, RN]

You can't use FMLA for a cold one time, then stomach flu the next, etc. If you have a chronic illness (e.g. heart problems, diabetes, migraines), you may use FMLA in blocks of time or intermittently up to a total of 12 weeks. You cannot be penalized for utilizing FMLA time, but it must be related to your illness. Unrelated illness won't be covered. You may also use FMLA for the serious illness of a family member

You also have to have been employed by the facility for at least one year and worked for at least 1250 hours to qualify.

FAQs on FMLA

[Myxel67]

My manager still asks what's wrong. Since the other nurse and I in the dept/work 56 hrs per pay period, our manager thinks we should be sick on our days off.

Another language thing-----when I went into nursing as a 3rd career, I noticed that people who have always worked in hospitals call "out" sick, whereas people who worked in other fields (office work, teaching) call "in" sick. (at least here in Miami). So many people at the beginning of the thread were calling "in" so maybe it's a regional thing. Then there are those who call "off".... Does this pattern fit with anyone else out there?

[RN34TX]

You can't use FMLA for a cold one time, then stomach flu the next, etc. If you have a chronic illness (e.g. heart problems, diabetes, migraines), you may use FMLA in blocks of time or intermittently up to a total of 12 weeks. You cannot be penalized for utilizing FMLA time, but it must be related to your illness. Unrelated illness won't be covered. You may also use FMLA for the serious illness of a family member

You also have to have been employed by the facility for at least one year and worked for at least 1250 hours to qualify.

FAQs on FMLA

Yes I'm painfully aware of that.

This is why my co-workers who abuse FMLA suddenly come down with migraines or their child has had yet another asthma attack miraculously after finding out that they didn't get the days off they wanted and/or had one too many to drink the night before.

It's not my business I know. I just wish that my manager would get off my back when I call in sick because I don't have FMLA so my every call in is subject to suspicion and interrogation.

Again, she sticks it to people like me who don't have FMLA because she knows she can't touch people on FMLA but how is it ok to punish those who genuinely are sick once or twice a year while the FMLA abusers remain untouchable?

[reesern63, RN]

Please do not blow off migraine. I spent several years nearly incapacitated with migraines. FMLA was a life saver for me. Thankfully, life is much better and I no longer get them like I used to, but they can be truly debilitating.

Just because someone has migraines doesn't mean he/she's a slacker. I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on my worst enemy.

You wish to have compassion and understanding for your illnesses. I put forth that you need to extend the same toward your co-workers as well.

[santhony44, MSN, RN, NP]

It's always seemed odd to me that health care is so lacking in understanding of illnesses in workers and their family members.

Often, though, it's individuals and not necessarily the institution. In one place I worked, the policies were reasonable and most people were pretty understanding; there were a few "bad apples" like the charge nurse who gave me a hard time for calling in late when my son- 18 months old at the time- had to go to the ER and then was admitted.

I personally think that if there are issues with individual workers, those issues need to be addressed with those people and not used to punish everyone. Everyone's probably had those co-workers you could see looking at the schedule and mentally calculating their number of sick hours- you knew exactly when that person was calling in. It's bad enough that the person is making everyone's life more difficult by habitually calling in; it's really too much for policies to be set for everyone based on that person's behavior.

[Susan9608]

Well, I had a laugh today. I'm finally starting to feel better, though the Augmentin is wrecking havoc with my GI system - so I was all prepared to go to work today. Then I get a call at 5:30 (after I had showered, eaten breakfast, etc.) saying that I only needed to be on-call, since they have a low census and no scheduled surgeries.

I almost felt like giving them hell, since this cuts into my pay, just like they did when I called in sick.

I think I'm going to talk to my manager about this when I get back to work. Perhaps you're right in that it's only a few charge nurses who behave this way, but it should stop.

[RN34TX]

Please do not blow off migraine. I spent several years nearly incapacitated with migraines. FMLA was a life saver for me. Thankfully, life is much better and I no longer get them like I used to, but they can be truly debilitating.

Just because someone has migraines doesn't mean he/she's a slacker. I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on my worst enemy.

You wish to have compassion and understanding for your illnesses. I put forth that you need to extend the same toward your co-workers as well.

I was speaking specifically about my co-workers who abuse FMLA time and cited some specific examples of illnesses ranging from migraines to asthma. I never said that just because someone has migraines that they are a slacker. That is a gross generalization of what I posted.

This is not about the persecution of people with chronic migraines.

My posting was about my getting the third degree when I called in sick once or twice a year while people calling in FMLA remain untouched because my manager knows that she can't do anything about people on FMLA. This is an institutional specific issue.

If you have migraines that incapacitate you, by all means use FMLA. But if you have migraines and occasionally or otherwise choose to call in when you've stayed out too late or something came up and you want a day off and the schedule has already been posted, or you have a bad assignment and just want to go home, that is what I was referring to.

I was pointing out that FMLA gets just as abused as any institution's sick call policy and that if my calling in is within reason and within the institution's policy guidelines, I shouldn't be getting the third degree and/or punished for doing so when the need arises, the same as someone on FMLA.