As I'm sitting in my doctor's office waiting to get a flu swab, I thought I'd start a thread. I called in yesterday from the flu. The worst of it actually began tuesday, I had a fever Wednesday, and I still went to work. When I was still feeling pretty drained yesterday, I called in. My nurse manager used scare tactics with me and told me that I had to get tested to be sure it WAS the flu. That pissed me off. I have the right to give no excuse period. Anyhoo...
We've had threads where we've posted the funniest, dumbest and most amusing reasons people have given to call off. So I thought I'd start a thread asking....so what was the REAL reason you have called off when giving an excuse? This isn't meant to encourage unethical behavior, but I thought it would be fun.
One time I called in sick when the flu was going around because I had not had an ounce of sleep in 4 days. I had already called off for that before, and boy was my DON pissed. (I've suffered from crazy insomnia issues for years and have worked with my doctors to no avail.)
My managers clearly didn't get the severity of my sleep deprivation nor care how dangerous it would be for me to be on the floor with lives in my hands saying it was my responsibility to get proper sleep at night, as if I had control over it. So I wasn't about to say it was due to sleep again. So I called in sick saying I had the flu.
Worked 4 12s in a row. Had two days off, but asked to come in for an extra shift on day one off. Was willing to do it, but I was so tired I didn't think that I could be a safe nurse for my patients.
I'm calling off next week so I can take my NCLEX. I asked if someone could switch and was turned down by management. Usually, I call in only if I'm sick.
Sorry I haven't replied sooner. I did, in fact, test positive for influenza A.
Anyway, it shouldn't come as a surprise, but I am anyway that many reasons are due to stress and simply needing to take a mental health day. I'm really tired of nurses being made to feel guilty when calling off as if we are simply lazy.
We are nurses. We went through grueling years of schooling, studying and working PT and FT jobs during school, night and day. Laziness is not in our nature.
It takes a lot out of us giving everything of ourselves to our patients. While that is what we signed up to do, it doesn't make us invincible to the stress and total emotional and mental exhaustion of it. We simply need a break sometimes. Many of us work 1 or 2 part time jobs, and therefore do not have sick days, so we simply lose the pay. Of course I don't want to lose my day's pay. So when I choose to call off, it is a sacrifice and means I NEED that day off.
I had a death in the family. This sounds simple enough, but it wasn't.
My dad's youngest brother was actually my close friend too. He lived out of state: his daughter (not a friend) waited 87 days to tell me he had died. She had no choice but to tell me as I had become such a nuisance leaving my unlce multiple voicemail messages without a call back (not his style) that she couldn't put off telling me even one more second.
The day she finally coldly dropped the bomb was the last day of my vacation. The timing couldn't have been much worse.
Sadly, the delay turned out to be machinations involving the will, as we were the only one's in it. Apparently she took issue with this. But all the credits in the universe wouldn't be enough to compensate for what I lost with the death of my uncle and friend.
My cousin was the executor of the estate. No funeral, no memorial. My uncle's personal belongings were abandoned, and his beloved cat was nearly euthanized had his boss not stepped in to adopt her (my uncle really loved that cat - he treated her like a child, which I guess in a way she was).
The crux lies with the fact my uncle inherited a lot of money from his dad 10 years prior, and my greedy cousin though she would be a millionaire. It turns out my uncle had the last laugh: he spent every penny. I hope he had a grand ole time doing it too, and thoroughly enjoyed himself. I only wish he could spend it all over again.
Due to the circumstances involved I had no choice but to return to work as scheduled. Eventually the sadness and grief just became too much, haunting my every waking moment (and much of my dream state too). I finally took a much needed sick day to go to an appointment with my PCP to request a Rx antidepressant so I could function without crying 10 times a day.
So, I guess I was sick, just not in the way I implied.
BTW, the Rx antidepressant really worked well, except not like I thought it would. The grief is still there just like before, but it's like watching it happen to someone else. The crying jags have stopped at least, because EVERYTHING had previously reminded me of my lost loved one and dear friend.
Convoluted? Totally. Will I recover? It hasn't been all that long ago since I was notified, so the jury is still out on that one - only time will tell. But I needed that sick day to get a antidepressant Rx just to be able to function again, and to begin the slow crawl progression forward.
It was my one and only sick call last year; at the time I was so mired down with grief that guilt never even entered the equation that day.
What a horrible thing for your cousin to do. I can't even imagine. I am so sorry for your loss. Hugs
I couldn't leave work one time when I was working 3-11 because my car was gone. I started at 11:30, looking. I looked one floor above and one floor below where I thought I'd parked it. I called security, and we looked through the whole garage. No car. I was getting ready to fill out the police report when security clocked my husband driving into the garage with my car. He parked it a floor below where I'd left it and then skedaddled. When I got home, he claimed he'd been home studying all night. Lying horse apple! This was not long before I caught him with the neighbor.
As a charge nurse, one of the calls I got was "I slept with my best friend's husband, and I'm so mortified I can't come to work." The 'best friend' was AT work when I got the call.
Another was "I was on my way to work, and I got pulled over. I'm going to jail for a DUI." After the employee (let's call him Dick) went to court, he was sentenced to jail for six weeks but allowed work release. That meant that every time he was scheduled to come to work, the charge nurse needed to call the jail two hours in advance of his shift to affirm that he was needed at work. Then either his wife or his girlfriend would pick him up and drive him to work -- one hour each way across state lines. The upside to that was Dick was always available (and happy to work) for overtime. We just had to call the jail, then either his wife or his girlfriend to go get him from jail and drive him to work. Usually, he'd specify who we were supposed to call, but once another charge nurse called his girlfriend when it was supposed to be his wife and the girlfriend got all huffy and refused to pick him up for a few days.
Called off for the next day when I had a doctor scream obscenities and throw objects at the nurse's station(for something that had nothing to do with the nurses). I've had this happen at more than one facility and never seen them disciplined for it. Found management totally useless. Once called in for sick after I got pulled up to a med/surg floor to "help" and I was the only RN and was assigned 11 patients. There is no nurse:patient ratio, here. It was my first year of nursing. They ordered me in, anyway, and I wasn't aware I was allowed to refuse. I cried all the way to work. I rarely have sick days but mostly just call in if I'm sick. I think bad behaviour contributes to a lot of missed days (agression towards nurses). I see high turnover because of it, too.
rnccf2007, BSN, RN
215 Posts
Worked 4 12s in a row. Had two days off, but asked to come in for an extra shift on day one off. Was willing to do it, but I was so tired I didn't think that I could be a safe nurse for my patients.