How often do you take a sick day at work?

[Ayla]

Have someone drive them, obviously. or just suck it up long enough to get there and back.

Also, most employers prefer you dont get the rest of their workers sick, so telling people unless they're dying, come in is rather stupid. ESPECIALLY in the food industry.

You think its acceptable to miss a day of work to drive your friend to the doctors to prove they are legitametley sick? And ive been so sick, that by the time I would have got to the doctors, Id have thrown up at the very least twice, and shit myself once. I timed it, every 10-15 like clockwork. So fuck that

[Flame6]

My last day had "Paid time off". It was vacation time and sick time all rolled into one. Those who didn't go sick all the time had more time to use towards vacations.

[Ciddy]

Maybe 1-2 days a year, and only when I'm actually sick. I'm not one of those "I AM BIG TOUGH MAN I GO TO WORK EVEN WHEN I'M SICK" people, because I don't want to spread whatever it is I have. Would rather keep myself confined to the house as much as possible until I'm sure that I'm no longer contagious. I get something like 6 paid sick days, if I remember correctly.

Also, it's pretty consistent that I'll get sick around the beginning of spring. Like, I'll get hit with some kind of cold/flu type of bug that hits me so hard I can barely get out of bed for a day or two, and it always happens just once around that time of year. For the rest of the year, I never get sick.

Not sure what it is about that time of year. I would just say it has something to do with allergies because of how consistent it is, how the weather is starting to change that time of year, or whatever, but...it feels a LOT worse than just allergies. Yet it only seems to happen during that time.

[fooliuscaesar13]

At my job, we have "Paid Time Off", not "Sick Days". Except for taking multiple days off in a row (3+, which is usually called "vacation"), my company doesn't care if we call off and doesn't care about what reason we use.
However, that being said - we're a small VoIP company of 55 (give or take). Most of us are quite responsible and work hard and get our shit done, so management doesn't get their panties in a twist if we decide to call off "sick" or not.
So, to answer your question: I'm probably sick 1 or 2 days per year. Sometimes not even that (apparently I lucked out with a decent immune system). I definitely call off all 20 days that I get, though. Sometimes it's scheduled vacation (only once per year), the other 15 days I call off here and there.
Doesn't make me "unreliable" - it's just how our system is designed to work.

[PessimiStick]

The best way to handle sick days is to roll it into the same pool as vacation. Typically this is just "Paid Time Off"/PTO. If you don't do that, some people are going to use sick days as vacation anyway, and the other employees are going to get screwed out of vacation, and/or get upset at people gaming the system. When it's all one pool, no one gets mad, no one gets screwed, and everyone is on even ground.

[Baladash]

I don't think they're actually sick, they're just playing the system.

How do you know? You have absolutely no way of knowing what other people are going through. Do you have a way to link up to their body and feel every single thing they feel? Probably not.


edit: Don't mean to sound like a dick but I was just on the other side of this. I was legitimately sick and had to take an "Extended Medical Leave" - when I got back into work my co-workers just thought I was playing hooky. It pissed me right the fuck off because they had no idea what I went through in that week (including 2 hospital visits) and I don't really feel like justifying my time off to them so... all I'm saying is don't assume you know what is going on in other people's lives.

[Masark]

The best way to handle sick days is to roll it into the same pool as vacation. Typically this is just "Paid Time Off"/PTO. If you don't do that, some people are going to use sick days as vacation anyway, and the other employees are going to get screwed out of vacation, and/or get upset at people gaming the system. When it's all one pool, no one gets mad, no one gets screwed, and everyone is on even ground.

No, combined PTO is a stupid idea that does nothing except encourage people to come into work sick and torpedo the productivity of the entire damn office.

[fooliuscaesar13]

No, combined PTO is a stupid idea that does nothing except encourage people to come into work sick and torpedo the productivity of the entire damn office.

Disagree. The concept works just fine for my office.
Edit: Maybe the people you work with are just irresponsible?

[Ugum]

I rarely get sick (as in can't do my job sick) so I just take days off when I feel like it. Luckily, my job is very flexible with taking time off. They would rather have us take a day off (just to do whatever) and come back the next day in a great mood and feeling refreshed. They are even more lenient in times that we are slow (like the last few months). When we are hammered with projects, they prefer you are at the office, obviously.

I usually take at least one day off a month, sometimes two. It all depends on our work load.

I have worked for places that are very strict about time off and, to be quite honest, people were always really miserable there. I had a heart condition that I was hospitalized for three days for. During my yearly review, that was brought up. I knew right then and there that I needed to get out of that place. The pay was great but the atmosphere was awful. The place I am at now is great.

[Hraklea]

I have been work since 2010 and only took once, when I ate contamined food and had to go to the bathroom every 30 min.

[PessimiStick]

No, combined PTO is a stupid idea that does nothing except encourage people to come into work sick and torpedo the productivity of the entire damn office.

Sounds like you work with idiots. I don't think that can be remedied with policy, honestly.

[Illuminance]

I would love to see a system put into place where people who didn't take a sick day off the entire year, get rewarded with an extra 1-2 days holiday.

My job has this policy. If you take no sick days, you get 1 day bonus vacation time. However, the job also allows you to take up to 5 sick days in a year with no proof, so math-wise it works out to be far more beneficial to call in sick 5 days a year (at least) than to get a bonus day for good behavior.

[Prokne]

I would rather people stayed home when they were sick rather than coming in and getting me sick because they dont want to use sick days. If people arent sick and taking time off, doesnt really matter because those days are allotted. If they take off too many days than it should come out of vacation time and if its strategically done to avoid the hardest days at work, then the evaluation should suffer. No one always gets sick when everyone is expected to work longer or harder to make a deadline.

[Annoying]

No, combined PTO is a stupid idea that does nothing except encourage people to come into work sick and torpedo the productivity of the entire damn office.

Nah, just give out an adequate amount of PTO. I've never been pressured to come into work sick so that I can use more PTO on vacation. I have plenty enough for vacation.

[bergmann620]

We get 3 paid sick days a year, a paid Birthday Holiday, and 5, 10, or 15 days of vacation time depending on how long we've been here. Also, when I last negotiated my compensation, I asked for an additional 4 hours paid each month if I hit my goals- an additional 6 days of vacation essentially. So, I am eligible for ~20 paid days off this year =)

Next time I sit down to negotiate, I am going to ask to be able to bring one of my dogs in with me each day- that's easily worth $0.50/hour =)

I am almost never out sick for more than a day a year.

[Valerean]

I manage a team so I try and set a decent example - I won't come into the office if I know that I'll be probably be giving someone deathflu, but at the same time I don't regard self-inflicted sick days (i.e. a horrendous hangover) as a valid excuse not to come in - get yourself a bacon sandwich, some painkillers and suck it up. I trust my employees to be truthful about it - if they need a day off for personal reasons, I'll take their word for it. Works pretty well too - one of my more junior account handlers took a week off sick as she'd come down with a nasty stomach bug, but that's by far the longest anyone's taken off sick in over three years.

[antelope591]

One of the downsides of being unionized is that people abuse sick days like crazy.....the average employee where I work takes 10 sick days per every 6 month period (how often attendance is calculated). They track it so I know the number is accurate. There's "levels" to how many times you call on sick but u can be on max level for years and no one will do shit. Personally I average about 3-4 days a year, not actually being sick for most of the time but hey might as well. For things like the super bowl or a new WoW release lol

[Saft]

I have the 'luck' of getting sick on my single day off in the week(Sunday), on Monday everything's perfectly normal.

Now I do get sick quite a lot that are mostly both mild and bad colds that I never stay home from and migraine from stress but the schedule in our bakery/restaurant is so tight we either get behind schedule or work an hour more to compensate the loss of manpower. A small break to calm down and a pill with lots of water does wonders.

Luckily I have 14 paid vacation days I can use to rest because this job is very demanding.

One of the downsides of being unionized is that people abuse sick days like crazy.....the average employee where I work takes 10 sick days per every 6 month period (how often attendance is calculated).

I used to work at a supermarket of sorts(ICA) at a new bakery they built and one of my coworkers abused that system to the fucking ultimate. Every single year after the paid vacation she used to claim she was sick(anywhere from fever to nausea) and basically got her vacation extended in the form of sick leave which could be 10-14 days.

[Valerean]

I guess this is one of the huge differences between salaried (read office / financial) jobs and service jobs. My firm runs a bonus scheme - and attendance is absolutely taken into account. If you start abusing our leniency with sick days then your bonus (if you get one) is going to reflect that. You work for your reward - put in the hours or go above and beyond, then you'll get a decent payout to compensate you for your effort on top of a payrise come review date.