How many call ins?

PedsDrNurseTheo, ADN, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, EMT-P, NP · Jul 21, 2011

Does your hospital have a set number of call ins you are allowed per year, before disciplinary action is taken? If so, how many are you allowed? What is the procedure if you call in over the allowance?

3 in a six month rolling calendar period. Fourth is subject to escalatable disciplinary action (verbal, written, suspension, termination.) Also, on your 4th call-out, they won't pay PTO for the first day - only starting day 2 for a multi-day absence. Multiple day absences count as single call-offs if they fall on consecutive days - IOW, it is to your advantage to stay home until you are really no longer sick.

jennjen512 · Jul 21, 2011

The facility in which I work considers 6 or more abscences in a rolling calendar year to be excessive. If you reach 6 abscences you are demoted on the clinical ladder, ie RN II to RN I. I really don't know what happens if you are an RN I because I came in as an RN II.

pedicurn, LPN, RN · Jul 21, 2011

3 in a six month rolling calendar period. Fourth is subject to escalatable disciplinary action (verbal, written, suspension, termination.) Also, on your 4th call-out, they won't pay PTO for the first day - only starting day 2 for a multi-day absence. Multiple day absences count as single call-offs if they fall on consecutive days - IOW, it is to your advantage to stay home until you are really no longer sick.

Let's say you had three legit occasions of illness during that six month period - does that mean you can be disciplined in the US?

Many of us in peds and ED pick up stuff easily and it's conceivable that we might have three call ins in six months. Many of my coworkers in Australia easily use up all or most of their sick days annually

Marquel MSN RN CCRN · Jul 21, 2011

My institution allotted for six call outs in six month but the policy was just chnaged to three call out in a six month time frame with no sick leave included. Sick leave was also never included when the policy was six call out in six months. So, now after your fouth call out you get corrective action.

PedsDrNurseTheo, ADN, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, EMT-P, NP · Jul 21, 2011

My institution allotted for six call outs in six month but the policy was just chnaged to three call out in a six month time frame with no sick leave included. Sick leave was also never included when the policy was six call out in six months. So, now after your fouth call out you get corrective action.

Yeah, that sounds just like ours. I suspect we work at the same place.

According to my NM, the discipline piece is designed to prevent cases of abuse of call-outs; though how this is differentiated from legitimate illness is problematic. On one hand, we are told not to come to work ill - with a fever or active URI - on the other, we are actively discouraged from calling off. It does put one in a difficult position at times.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Jul 21, 2011

I think ours is 5 and you're toast (ok maybe not toast) in the rolling calendar year. I don't remember exactly how it works but I think it's per event. So if I got the flu and was scheduled 3 days in a row, the first one would be a call in but if I just got it I could go ahead and get sick days for day 2 and 3 because there is some notice. It's all about how much notice you give that determines a call in.

Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2011

We are allowed 8 sick days per year before they start looking at your sick time.

HOWEVER - those are 8 eight hour days. So call in for 2 12 hours shifts - that is counted as 3 days. If you have more than 8 sick days per year, you are put on this "program" where they monitor your sick time.

They also look at why you called in - a bought of flu that lastest a week will be forgiven. I've had surgery and had to be off for 3 weeks- that wasn't counted. What they are looking for (I think - management never really admits to this) are the patterns - call in every Friday evening? Or call in "sick" after you've tried to trade a shift without any luck

That being said, I sometimes think that they also set us up for failure. They have a rule that if you are off due to diarrhea, you have to be 48 hours free of diarrhea before you can come back. If you work 12 hour shifts and the timeing is just a little off, you can rack up your 8 days in a very short time.

I have said this before and I'll say it again. Intsead of focusing on those with sick time, I think we should focus on those with low sick time. Have less than 8 sick days per year? Get a bonus! Some people say that this will just have people coming in to work when they are sick - I say they already do that because of the limited sick time.

NicuGal, MSN, RN · Jul 21, 2011

We are on a point system...one point for each hour. At 24 hours you get a written warning. At 48 you get another. At 72 you get a verbal warning, at 96 you get the getting close to taking a walk to human resources warning. At 112 you take a walk to human resources and the see if they can drop any of the points (ie illness that has doctor's notes, FMLA doesn't count into points). Then they can fire you. It goes on a rolling year, and on the anniversary of the call in the points you accumulated for that day drop off.

If you are a no show for work (ie wrote your schedule wrong) you have 1 hour to call us back after we try to find you, after that one hour you accumulate 5 points per hour until you call. Now that sucks. You also get double points for calling in on a holiday or the day before or after a scheduled holiday or vacation.

Amazing how people always hover at the almost there line and know exactly when points roll off and call in accordingly :cool: It really sucks when you are legit sick and there are the ones out there that abuse their sick time like crazy.

lady constance · Jul 21, 2011

we have the 3 days in 6 month policy ,

and in ADDITION TO THAT, tardies are also considered strikes.. so a call in and 2 tardies, you are also at the verbal warning level...

we have 6 minutes before the shift begins and 6 minutes after start time...

when we had a management change, the new manager wanted and DID go back 3 months , even though the policy was issued in march, she went looking for people who had been sick/tardy since january--BEFORE THE POLICY WAS WRITTEN....and got away with it.........there we perhaps 4 of us out of 38 that came away unscathed... you can bet dollars to donuts i called my parents to PRAISE them for raising me to never be late!EVER! barring a car accident ( which would then eat up one of my sick days)

we have had people written up for clocking in at 7 minutes before start of shift.... ( yah, explain that we can use english language properly-- re word your policy to state " clocking in too early is also considered and becomes an offense, although we shant call it tardy"...although they should consider the french word "tard" as they use it.... quite a play on words!!---

personally, management has been given complete permission and is encouraged to bully, and create a hostile work environment....

Simply Complicated · Jul 21, 2011

Wow there is such a difference in policies. We get 6 call ins a year. But what bothers me, is if you get the flu or something, and you have shifts a couple days in a row, each counts as a call in. So it's easy to rack them up pretty quick.

Although I do think there are exceptions. If it's an injury, and you have a doctors note, I think it's excused from your call ins. Also, I believe that if it's infectious, and you get a note from the doc, it's also excused. Although I'm not 100%. We are a union, so I need to clarify this.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Jul 21, 2011

we have the 3 days in 6 month policy ,
and in ADDITION TO THAT, tardies are also considered strikes.. so a call in and 2 tardies, you are also at the verbal warning level...
we have 6 minutes before the shift begins and 6 minutes after start time...
when we had a management change, the new manager wanted and DID go back 3 months , even though the policy was issued in march, she went looking for people who had been sick/tardy since january--BEFORE THE POLICY WAS WRITTEN....and got away with it.........there we perhaps 4 of us out of 38 that came away unscathed... you can bet dollars to donuts i called my parents to PRAISE them for raising me to never be late!EVER! barring a car accident ( which would then eat up one of my sick days)
we have had people written up for clocking in at 7 minutes before start of shift.... ( yah, explain that we can use english language properly-- re word your policy to state " clocking in too early is also considered and becomes an offense, although we shant call it tardy"...although they should consider the french word "tard" as they use it.... quite a play on words!!---
personally, management has been given complete permission and is encouraged to bully, and create a hostile work environment....

We can clock in 7 mins before. That is our cut off. We must take 31 mins for lunch. Our unapproved OT will be watched every 2 weeks and you can get written up for it so they implemented the 7 minute rule. People were clocking in 30 mins early and not taking lunches and clocking out late, it was adding up to too much OT.