What would you do???

[Kayzee]

Have a question for all you nurses out there. I've been reading a thread about calling in sick. Here's the scenerio: nurse has given her 2 week notice. Would you call in sick to use up your sick day benefits? Is this benefit something we deserve, or would that be just plain deceitful?

[JailRN]

This is one of those sticky things. When you're hired, they tell you all of your benefits, including sick time, but when you use them, you're in trouble. I couldn't call in sick unless I was sick, it's bad karma, and I guarantee I will get sick then. I like my job, and the reputation I enjoy in the community too much to have stuff like that out there. You know, we nurses are so incestious-everybody knows somebody else. etc-it's not worth the risk

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

Our accumulated earned hours off are not sick time or vacation or personal days; they're PTO (paid time off) to use however we choose and assuming there is any left we get it paid to us in a lump sum on leaving the facility. People don't seem to call off in the last two weeks (or at least not any more than they ever did.)

I don't know as I'd want to work somewhere that chose to reward people for calling in sick and punish those who didn't. I mean, there is legitimate illness, but we all know the occasional folks in places that give sick time only for being sick who abuse it to the fullest extent, calling off as fast as they accrue time. That kind of policy only seems to invite abuse.

I still wouldn't feel comfortable calling off under the circumstances you described, but I have to ask what are the other provisions for personal time, vacations, etc.?

One place I know of even allows you to pick up your check the last day of work (but if you aren't there for illness, you just have to wait for it to be mailed.)

[fedupnurse]

If you give notice where I work and you call out sick you don't get paid. It comes out in the wash though because we use the PTO system, so in the end you are paid back unused PTO time. We also have ESL (Extended sick leave) and you need to be on life support to use that. We don't get paid back for any of that.

[fab4fan]

1. I think that an employer cannot legally tell a prospective employer about someone's attendanc record; if the applicant found out that an employer gave negative information to someone, he could have grounds to sue.

2. Think of this: You may feel you would never want to work somewhere again, but you don't know what the future may bring. Someone once told me to try to leave a job in a manner that would not make someone not want to rehire you (in other words, don't burn your bridges).:)

[ceecel.dee, MSN, RN]

We are unionized and contract language makes sick time a negotiated benefit that most of us feel we earned.

My hubby is a business man (who hates unions) and thinks sick time should be paid (to salaried employees who are all full time) on a need-to-use basis. He has no "accumulated sick time" policy in his hand-book. On the other hand, he happily pays the legitimate time (office manager needed unscheduled hysterectomy and he paid her 6 weeks of sick time at only 41/2 months with the company, and she has been a loyal employee for 5 years now) so this works for him. I suppose it gets abused once in a while, but his pay-out is much less frequent than ours, and the honor system seems to work there.

I guess I don't like calling out illegitimately, but that's just me.

[mario_ragucci]

Sick time should be an equal benifit for all. I was happy to see my hospital offer to sell back to me unused sick time. I used to work at a large corporation that was downsizing and it was apparent my job would be diced. I had nearly 4 years of perfect attendence, and the division I was in was going belly up. It did urk me that some employees had more reasons to call in sick, and me, being a single guy, didn't. You know what I'm talking about.

So I wanted to get my earned sick time, and not being in a union, I was going to be made a baffoon of when the axe fell. I had 40 something paid sick days coming to me.

After thinking about it alot, I just went to the doctor and complained of stress and he wrote me out for as long as I wanted. I got my 2 month paid vacation before I left, fair is fair.

[OrthoNutter]

Hmmm....I would have been using my sick days sporadically for a couple of weeks then given my notice...lol