Calling in sick??

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Ok, I was called in to my Director's office the other day, and she told me that I had called in 6 times since January, the last being early April. She said this was grounds for termination, but this all occurred before she took over our unit, and she knew I, nor anyone else, had ever been told about this policy, so she did not plan to terminate anyone over absenteeism, but I would be written up, put on "probation" and could not call in for 120 days and I would have to have a Dr. excuse for any abscence after that! Well, all of the times I called in were for my 3 year old son, we had just put him in day care at the first of the year, and he came down with everything, you name it he had it!! I also had a Dr.'s excuse from his pediatrician for every time, and I was told that an abscence is an abscence, whether you have a Dr.'s note or not, ummmm, but I have to have one if I call in again?? Well, right now, I am sooo sick, chills, fever, coughing, laryngitis.....and after much deliberation, I had to call in for my shift today!! I was going to try and make, but my husband could tell how sick I was and he said he would call, if I didn't!! I would just like some other opinions of this policy. I know I have missed alot of work, and may be let go after today, but I am a Per Diem employee, does that make a difference? I hope I get alot of feedback from you guys on here!!!

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

We have the same policy. It doesn't matter if you have a doctors note for each absence if your abences are excessive, they still can institute their absentee policy (and you and your coworkers ignorance of these polcies is a bit baffling, but no excuse either).

Can you go to a convenient care clinic for documentation of your fever and illness?

Get well soon and good luck to you.

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Our policy is pretty much the same only ours is 7 times in one year. Along the way, you do get warnings though. On your third you get a verbal warning, then on the fifth you get a written warning. By the seventh, they look at the reasonings behind each absence et talk with you to decide what they are going to do. They will also do what they call a "90 day deal" where if you do not call off for 90 days, they are wiped off your record. This is after 3 absences. I got one (the 90 day thing) when I kept having bleeding during my pregnancy. :angryfire I brought in papers from the doc each time. They still did not care. I wrote on their paper that this was rediculous et that I could not guarentee that I would not miss because baby comes first!! But I did not end up missing as all went well and baby was fine. Everything is about the bottom line. And bottom line is they were inconvienced because we were not there!

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Specializes in midwifery, gen surgical, community.

Forgive me for saying this, but aren't we suppossed to be in a caring profession. I had a back to work interview after having 1 day off sick in 3 years!! New policy to flush out the sickies.:o

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We have the same policy. It doesn't matter if you have a doctors note for each absence if your abences are excessive, they still can institute their absentee policy (and you and your coworkers ignorance of these polcies is a bit baffling, but no excuse either).

Can you go to a convenient care clinic for documentation of your fever and illness?

Get well soon and good luck to you.

Thanks for the reply Tweety, and yes, it is a shame that most of us, at least the new employees did not know of this policy, that is the main reason we now have a new Director, due to lack of feedback to employees and now our new Director is having to clean up the mess! However, I do realize it is no excuse for so many abscences, but when I was hired, I told my Director that my son is sick alot, and I really have no one to stay with him, so I thought the Per Diem plan was more feasible for me in case I have to call in, and he agreed, again no mention of the "excessive abscence" policy. It does really bother me when I call in, but I do not do it unless I have no other option, today was no different, I will be going to my Dr. for documentation of my illness today, maybe that will help. What is worse is I just put in a transfer to our OB floor, because that is really where I have wanted to work from the beginning, but now I'm sure it probably won't happen due to my abscences, but who knows, maybe I can bounce back from this and get back on track. My last resort is to take my son out of Day Care to keep him from getting sick all of the time, but finding someone to watch him when my husband and I are at work will be the problem. Again, keep the comments coming, they are really helpful!!

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

My employer takes call offs very seriously. Dr note or not, it counts against you and there have been many employees terminated for numerous call offs. Not much sympathy from our DON or NM.

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Specializes in GERIATRICS, DEMENTIA CARE, MED-SURG.

Don't ya just love when your coworkers come to work with colds and pass them around the unit? I ended up with walking pneumonia last time. What the heck!!! People need to stay home when they are sick............not share with others.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

wow-i consider myself pretty fortunate after reading this posting! my manager mentions sick days when your count reaches 10!

last year i had a fuo and was out for a total of ten days...she mentioned it to me, only because she said that is her policy and she wants to treat everyone fairly. however, she knew that i had been ill and didn't want me at work (duh!) to spread it to the pts, so there were no repercussions r/t my sick days.

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The counseling for excessive call-ins is not unusual, it doesn't matter what the reason is or whether or not you have a doctor's note. Admin doesn't look at the why, but the how many's.

The only thing I would argue here is, that since all of your absences occured before your current director took over, and no one knew the policy, you should not have been written up for it. If you have a union I would contact them about it. If you're non-union, find out how to grieve this.

Years ago the facility I was at decided to crack down and actually enforce the policy because of too many call-ins by certain people. Even though there was a policy many didn't know about it and no one had been enforcing it, so we all got warnings in the beginning. That's how it should have been handled with you.

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Wow, I'm impressed. Ours is 6 occurences - but an "occurence" can be up to 3 days I think. So if you get sick and are out for 2 days in a row with the same cold or whatever, it's one occurence. 6 occurences and you can get fired. We also get a written warning for every day that we miss. I have missed 3 days in 5 years where I work, and I actually get offended when I get that little piece of paper in my mailbox. It wipes clean after the year or whatever, but still. There are people on my unit who miss ALL the TIME! A couple of them have FMLA so they can't really do anything about that. I have never actually heard of them firing anyone for excessive abscense but I think they do have meetings with them and such. Dang, I'm mad just thinking of that stupid little paper sitting in my mailbox! They should be glad I've only missed 2 this year!!!!!

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Oh yes the no fault absenteeism policy ours is no more than 3 days in 3 months and then it is wiped clean. I was sick in January asthma attack with PSVT had doctors note missed 5 days all started from contracting the flu at the facility. I was written up and my yearly eval was docked for excessive absences. I was mad. I found that I was covered under FMLA for those absences they do not count towards their policy. Not sure if you would qualify under this being perdiem since you have to have so many hours put in and I am not sure what your son is sick with if it would qualify. Just a thought for the future and it is part the employers responsibility to tell you if you qualify however I have found that not to be true.

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Wow!! A lot of good information here! I am going to look into the FMLA for this because my son does have allergies and they make him more susceptible to things, and most of the occurrences were due to severe upper respiratory type stuff. I also plan on approaching my other co-workers who were written up and see if they want to file a grievance since she is writing us up for things that should have been handeled by our previous Director. What's amazing is there is a lady I work with who has been with the hospital for three years and she was written up and she also said that she didn't know anything about the 6 abscences thing. Well, wish me luck, I'm off to the Dr. to try and get better so I can return to a job I may or may not have!! Keep the replies coming, they're really helping me alot!!

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