The other day at work the manager was explaining to someone that once someone has been sick 5 days in one year, they will be counseled.
Now, I'm very healthy and rarely call in sick, but some others have legitimate health problems. It sounds discriminatory. She said that this is even with a doctor's note. It also seems to be an infection control issue, since truly sick people will come to work while sick, thus endangering patients.
This is a for profit hospital. There is a union contract giving people sick pay, I'm not sure the details. And, yes, there are nurses who abuse sick time, this is a reality. Yet, limiting it to 5 days when probably people are building up more sick time than that seems unfair.
I was also told in orientation that if you are to miss more than 2 days in a row of scheduled shifts, you must apply for a leave of absence. That, also, seems rather harsh.
Where I work you get 15 paid sick days a year for full time workers. If you don't use them all then they accrue each year. Unless your taking more than your allocated sick days and your off all the time then management don't really care because they'll call agency in.
I would definitely take more then 5 a year.If I'm sick then I don't come in. I don't like working with other nurses who come in with colds and spread their germs all over the place. IMHO they should be sent home rather than putting other nurses and patients at risk.
We used to have a unit director who would require the charge nurse to give anyone "a hard time" who called off on a weekend. Additionally, that poor sick person not only had to call the charge RN, but also the assistant unit director at home. As if though we that much control over illness!!
If anyone gave me a hard time when I was ill, I would consider it harrassment.
Why is nursing so prone to unreasonable demands?
There are 2 good reasons why some institutions have special rules for calling in on weekends or holidays.
(1) A lot of the abusers of sick time have a pattern of calling in on those days. If you look at the attendance records of many people, their frequency of sick calls goes up significantly on the weekends. It's not that people get sick more often on the weekend, it's because they have social plans they want to fulfill or they simply don't want to work on the weekends. So, they find an excuse to call in more often. With the same degree of illness on a Wednesday, they would come into work.
(2) It's more difficult and more expensive for employers to "fill the holes" left by those people who call in sick on those days. Other staff members will not volunteer to work unless significant incentives are offered. So, they put rules/programs in place to discourage those sick calls that are hardest to cover. That way, only the truly sick will call in and the slackers will decide to show up for work.
I'm not saying that harrassment, rude behavior, etc. are ever justified -- simply that there are good reasons for having some special policies in place to discourage the use of sick times on those particular days except in cases where it is really necessary.
I am very lucky where I work. If we have sick time in our bank we can use it without guilt. Our policy states if you have 4 call-ins (must be 8 hours) in three months you can be counseled. So I could call in for 4 hours, and it would not count toward my 4 call-ins. Fortunately we all like working here and don't call in often.
As far as the pet issue, we are supposed to use personal time to take care of our pets, but if a pet dies or has an emergency they let it slide if we say we were emotionally distressed (which is true). I don't agree with Pepperlady. Pets are family too, and if you take on a pet you have a responsibility to care for it. One time my dog needed to go to the vet, and I didn't want to call in so I put it off for a day. He ended up losing 2 feet of his small intestine due to necrosis from eating a sock that got bound up. Obviously I didn't know he was that ill, but never again will I put off taking a pet to the vet if they appear ill.
I am very lucky where I work. If we have sick time in our bank we can use it without guilt. Our policy states if you have 4 call-ins (must be 8 hours) in three months you can be counseled. So I could call in for 4 hours, and it would not count toward my 4 call-ins. Fortunately we all like working here and don't call in often.
As far as the pet issue, we are supposed to use personal time to take care of our pets, but if a pet dies or has an emergency they let it slide if we say we were emotionally distressed (which is true). I don't agree with Pepperlady. Pets are family too, and if you take on a pet you have a responsibility to care for it. One time my dog needed to go to the vet, and I didn't want to call in so I put it off for a day. He ended up losing 2 feet of his small intestine due to necrosis from eating a sock that got bound up. Obviously I didn't know he was that ill, but never again will I put off taking a pet to the vet if they appear ill.
Laney - I didn't agree with Pepperlady either. I know the time I had to put to sleep my dog that was almost 16 yrs old, there is no way I would have been a "safe" nurse if I had been at work while my precious furbaby was at the vet going to puppy heaven. I think that I made the better of two decisions to not go to work that day, because my patients deserved my full attention, and they would not have had it that day. NO WAY!!
I am SO sorry to hear about your dog. That must have been a nightmare for you. I hope he did ok.
One of the best policies I've seen rgarding sick leave was a policy rewarding NOT using sick leave rather than punitive action when it was used. The state hospital where I worked (20+ yrs. ago) added accumulated unused sick time to your "time in service" at the time of retirement. This could increase your benefit if you left after vesting but before age of retirement. I do know of several employees who were able to retire a year or more early because they had accumulated enough hours over the course of a career to "fill in" that last year.
I was not implying that you would not be very sad to put a dog down, I too have one ... but to plan to put your dog down over your work days as opposed to using your time off days, is, IMHO an abuse of the sick leave.
Abuse of sick leave is for people who call out numerous times more than their allotted sick time, without medical documentation (for them or a kid), proof of a family emergency, etc.
We're entitled to our sick days. If I'm out for a day, the reasons are nobody's beeswax. If I have an issue that might be contagious to the staff or will be out for several days, then I'll talk to my boss immediately, so they can make other arrangements for staffing in advance, etc.
My job is never above my family or my health, pets and mental health included.
Scrubby
1,313 Posts
Where I work you get 15 paid sick days a year for full time workers. If you don't use them all then they accrue each year. Unless your taking more than your allocated sick days and your off all the time then management don't really care because they'll call agency in.
I would definitely take more then 5 a year.If I'm sick then I don't come in. I don't like working with other nurses who come in with colds and spread their germs all over the place. IMHO they should be sent home rather than putting other nurses and patients at risk.