Verbal warning about sick calls.....please advise

[SaffireWeldon]

How can i make my situation as gentle on me as possible? Today I received a verbal warming about my sick calls. I have a chronic condition that I live with. And at times it becomes unbearable where I am either hospitalized or at home on sick leave with a drs note sent to my Nurse Unit manager. And at time for some other medical reason which is legit as I have a drs note as proof that I am ill. I had to take off December 25 and 29 with a dr note for an upper respiratory tract infection in which my dr wrote I was not well enough to work...then again in August I was hospitalized with a drs note for my chronic condition which I had to take time off work which was two days however I was hospitalized for over a week. Then again in May my chronic condition flared up again and I was off for a day and a half. I don't understand why I am getting a cold shoulder for being legitimately ill. Please offer some advice...not sure how I feel about this

[poppycat, ADN, BSN]

OCD .......or is it DOC

CDO: it's like OCD but the letters are in the correct order!

[dijanak]

Read your facilities absentee policy, it will explain how and when warnings are issued, it is common for employees to receive a warning after the third absence in a 12 month period.

Really? After the 3rd absence??! That's crazy!! ....unless I misunderstood and we are talking about contingent & part-time positions getting warnings after 3 call-ins.

At the hospital I work at, I am allowed to call-in 6x/12-months before receiving a 1st warning write-up.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Remember, OP said they are casual.

Staffing will stop booking her/him with a track record of cancelling shifts. Casuals usually don't have sick leave.

No, OP didn't say that. Some random poster jumped on to tell his/her own story.

[GrumpyRN, NP]

Just a view from the Peoples Republic of United Kingdom. Here if you are sick often enough with a chronic condition you can be fired despite all the protection that employees have in place. It is a long, drawn out procedure but management get you as you are not fulfilling your side of your contract of employment.

Oh and,

There, their, they're.

To, too, two.

Your, you're.

These things are important and show a basic level of education.

[Ruger8mm]

When you are unable to perform the job you accepted then someone else must do the work. It is not like a job where the work waits. If you cannot perform the job you were hired to do...why would you expect to keep the job? The hospital owes you nothing.

Right on point. A job is an agreement between two entities. The employer agrees to pay for services rendered, the employee agrees to provide services as per company policies.

I don't know why people insist on being loyal to an employer or thinking they are owed anything. An employer will dump any employee in a second to save a penny. It's just business.

[elkpark]

Really? After the 3rd absence??! That's crazy!! ....unless I misunderstood and we are talking about contingent & part-time positions getting warnings after 3 call-ins.

At the hospital I work at, I am allowed to call-in 6x/12-months before receiving a 1st warning write-up.

Different employers have different policies. The last place I worked (before my current employer), you got formally "counseled" after three absences in a 12 mo period, and could be fired after four. Regardless of how legitimate the absences were.

[loriangel14, RN]

Well yeah where I work it comes down to what the union contract says about call ins. Every contract is different.

[RobotNurse]

At what point does a person's inability to maintain health fault their contract for so many hours/ftes?

The facility should work with employees who have documented health issues/chronic illnesses. Offer to let them switch to part-time or per diem instead of throwing an otherwise good worker out the door and treating them as less than human because of a health problem that's entirely out of his/her control.

If s/he is already per diem, then there's even less reason to fire them; it's totally unnecessary as the facility never depended on them full-time on a regular basis - just have them work the minimum required shifts (at our facility it's one shift per month; anyone can do that) until s/he has sorted out his/her health problems and can handle more work. One hopes the facility has more than one per diem in their staffing pool!

[ED Nurse, RN]

The facility should work with employees who have documented health issues/chronic illnesses. Offer to let them switch to part-time or per diem instead of throwing an otherwise good worker out the door and treating them as less than human because of a health problem that's entirely out of his/her control.

If s/he is already per diem, then there's even less reason to fire them; it's totally unnecessary as the facility never depended on them full-time on a regular basis - just have them work the minimum required shifts (at our facility it's one shift per month; anyone can do that) until s/he has sorted out his/her health problems and can handle more work. One hopes the facility has more than one per diem in their staffing pool!

Unfortunately, people abuse the system- I've seen it numerous times.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

duplicate post

[dishes, BSN, RN]

Absentee warnings are given to employees who are absent a greater number of times than the employers policy allows, it does not matter if the absences are due to legitimate, documented illness, all that matters is the employee was beyond the the set number. The OP could have avoided a warning by being familar with their employer's absentee policy and extending the Dec 25 absence to include the Dec 29th so that it was counted as one absence instead of two.

[elkpark]

Absentee warnings are given to employees who are absent a greater number of times than the employers policy allows, it does not matter if the absences are due to legitimate, documented illness, all that matters is the employee was beyond the the set number. The OP could have avoided a warning by being familar with their employer's absentee policy and extending the Dec 25 absence to include the Dec 29th so that it was counted as one absence instead of two.

Are you really suggesting that the OP should have stayed home from work unnecessarily an additional three days (at the holidays, no less) in order to game the system? Wow.