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.
I have had a temp >101 for the past 3 days. Coughing, EVERYTHING hurts including my skin to touch. I worked sick on Monday (my charge nurse refused to take the cart and let my febrile self go home even though she could have) and I'm not doing it again. The flu and PNE have been circulating in our facility. Headed to the doctor now.
I have some chronic health issues and am really NOT fond of faking it, personally, but I have done it a handful of times for interviews and mental health days.
Other than that I'm seriously no angel, but I really try not to call out unless it's absolutely necessary. I have gone to work with shingles (before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, the blisters were only on my torso covered in gauze and under a t-shirt + my scrubs). I have gone to work in a prolonged postictal state when it was a desk work/admin day (drowsiness and nausea). I have gone to work with asthma exacerbation and sneaking in nebulizer treatments on my breaks. I have gone to work with migraines and hangovers...
Though I suppose it's also important to note the last couple of years my job has not been caring for critically ill patients. I think it makes a difference, for what it's worth.
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.
OMG that sounds so frustrating! I have experienced poor behavior and useless management as well and couldn't agree more that it contributes so much to high turnover. I have a friend who literally walked off her job and never looked back - she said it was the best feeling after her experiences there. She worked in the ICU with the worse nurse patient ratio I've ever heard of, especially when caring for critically ill patients! One of the most horrible stories she shared was a patient with hyperkalemia being treated with glucose and insulin - orders for fingersticks every 2 hours, and she delegated it to the techs but they were so short staffed it wasn't done for 8 hours and the patient seized and died with a fingerstick of 8! Can you imagine?!
My favorite of favorites was the nurse who called in and said directly to me- 20 minutes before her second shift starting time...Hi --- I won't be in tonight because my hubby is home and we are making whoopy all night tonight! I SO wanted to write her up but my administrator wouldn't let me.
AWESOME! One the one hand, she was honest... on the other, you've got to question her having a brain.
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.
GOOD LORD! You have the craziest stories! Sorry to hear it, btw, a cheating partner is the worst!
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.
Well we are a boring lot. I called in when my dog died. Actually I sat on the couch crying and shaking for two days. He was my best friend for 14 years.
reading about my call-offs being a disservice to my coworkers here is amusing. my hypocrite coworkers have done similar. YOU have probably done the same.
I have had a temp >101 for the past 3 days. Coughing, EVERYTHING hurts including my skin to touch. I worked sick on Monday (my charge nurse refused to take the cart and let my febrile self go home even though she could have) and I'm not doing it again. The flu and PNE have been circulating in our facility. Headed to the doctor now.
Well, it seems that I called it. Type A influenza and bacterial pneumonia to boot. Just called work and let them know that I will be out a bit whee longer than I originally expected.
Back on subject, it takes a lot for me to call out. I have worked with bronchitis and sinus infections. (I wear a mask and perform good hand hygiene, etc.) But I stop at fevers - if I'm too concentrated on feeling hot, cold, shivering, or if I'm struggling to catch my breath, then it's time to call out. Or if I'm vomitting or having profuse diarrhea...as one of my favorite charge nurses says, "If I'm unable to control my bodily fluids, I don't need to be here."
Pericarditis! I've had it chronically for a few years now, which sucks. FMLA has literally saved my job. Otherwise, I'm sure they would have shitcanned me by now. I have worked through it many days, when the chest pain and fatigue are at a dull roar, but on days that I know I can't keep up with two ICU level patients, I don't put people at risk. I stay home.
Also, I've called off for flu-like illness, because I was required to by my employer during an outbreak.
Mental health-wise, I've only called off once, the day after being backhanded by a patient.
I try not to call off, otherwise. I feel like my chronic illness takes away too many days, as it is. Plus, mental health days are what my scheduled days off are for. Always take time to provide self-care on your days off. It pays in spades.
soon_to_be
6 Posts
There might have been a time or two when I expected a hang over in the morning. Not too often... Just enough to have a touch of fun!