Sick Days - How sick is sick enough?

[KRonn]

I'll call in sick if I feel lousy enough to where I know I can't be productive, and/or I'll just feel worse as the day goes on, which may likely lengthen my illness. So I'll stay home and rest. But I don't call in sick very often, and pretty much only when feeling lousy, not for a mental health type day. I have generous vacation time, and my work place is pretty good about sick days.

[DGuller]

For the record, Poland appears to have a completely different system for "sick days" than the US - it's one I'd consider more "fair" (in that it does not penalize people with relatively poor health) but less "free" (in that it limits the person's ability to call in sick).

Effectively, out of our annual holiday allowance (which is between 18 and 26 working days, depending on the tenure and some other factors), we have 4 "immediate holiday" days which we can use to "call in sick" the way Americans do - i.e. you can just call in the morning and say you are not coming to work on that day, for whatever reason. And when you do, you can do whatever you want - it's essentially a normal holiday.

Now, when you are actually sick, the way it works, you go to your GP and he then examines you and based on the results, writes you a medical statement saying that you are unable to work for an X number of days as a result of your disease. He also states on it whether you are required to stay home, stay in bed, walk etc. On the basis of it, you are free not to work but have to follow the instructions or you may be fired (so if you were told by the doctor you have to stay in bed but someone sees you in a theatre, you can get fired, etc.) When you are on a sick leave like this, you are being paid by social security and not your employer, but you retain your right to be paid (i.e. your social security company - membership in one is obligatory - is paying you the same amount you would get from your employer).

Now, you cannot be fired while you are on a sick leave, however your employer can terminate the employment if the duration of sick leave in a given year is particularly long (but it is very long 6-9 months depending on circumstances), since it means you are pretty much unable to work at all. Also, as already stated, you can be fired for abusing the system.

We do have a similar system, most elementary schools use it.  Often times you don't even need to see a doctor, a note from the parent suffices.

[Ed Anger]

I'd love to be able to fire Mart.

[grumbler]

For the record, Poland appears to have a completely different system for "sick days" than the US - it's one I'd consider more "fair" (in that it does not penalize people with relatively poor health) but less "free" (in that it limits the person's ability to call in sick).

Effectively, out of our annual holiday allowance (which is between 18 and 26 working days, depending on the tenure and some other factors), we have 4 "immediate holiday" days which we can use to "call in sick" the way Americans do - i.e. you can just call in the morning and say you are not coming to work on that day, for whatever reason. And when you do, you can do whatever you want - it's essentially a normal holiday.

Now, when you are actually sick, the way it works, you go to your GP and he then examines you and based on the results, writes you a medical statement saying that you are unable to work for an X number of days as a result of your disease. He also states on it whether you are required to stay home, stay in bed, walk etc. On the basis of it, you are free not to work but have to follow the instructions or you may be fired (so if you were told by the doctor you have to stay in bed but someone sees you in a theatre, you can get fired, etc.) When you are on a sick leave like this, you are being paid by social security and not your employer, but you retain your right to be paid (i.e. your social security company - membership in one is obligatory - is paying you the same amount you would get from your employer).

Now, you cannot be fired while you are on a sick leave, however your employer can terminate the employment if the duration of sick leave in a given year is particularly long (but it is very long 6-9 months depending on circumstances), since it means you are pretty much unable to work at all. Also, as already stated, you can be fired for abusing the system.

For the record, the US does not have a system, so what you describe is more different because it is a system than it is in the details of how it works.  The closest the US has is "Worker's Compensation" for long-term illness/disability, and that pays only 60% of the regular wage.  All else is subject to negotiations between employer and employee.

[Ed Anger]

I'd love to be able to fire Mart.

Out of a cannon

[MadImmortalMan]

For the record, the US does not have a system, so what you describe is more different because it is a system than it is in the details of how it works.  The closest the US has is "Worker's Compensation" for long-term illness/disability, and that pays only 60% of the regular wage.  All else is subject to negotiations between employer and employee.

Huh. I though he was talking about his workplace's rules. If indeed they have something like that set up for the whole country--well that's odd.

[Caliga]

Is it though?  20 years ago Poland was running on a planned economy model, wasn't it?

[Syt]

For the record, the US does not have a system, so what you describe is more different because it is a system than it is in the details of how it works.  The closest the US has is "Worker's Compensation" for long-term illness/disability, and that pays only 60% of the regular wage.  All else is subject to negotiations between employer and employee.

Huh. I though he was talking about his workplace's rules. If indeed they have something like that set up for the whole country--well that's odd.

In Germany and Austria there's something called "Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz" (law about continued payment of salary) that regulates how long an employee is entitled to receive full pay/reduced pay in case of illness. In Germany it's 6 weeks within 1 year if the same illness over and over (e.g. back issues), unless there's at least a six month gap between two episodes.

At my workplace I can call in sick for a maximum of three calendar days in a row with doctor's certificate.

[Iormlund]

Huh. I though he was talking about his workplace's rules. If indeed they have something like that set up for the whole country--well that's odd.

Not odd at all. We do something similar in here.  It is something I'm sadly very familiar with as I spent 6 months on sick leave last year. In theory I had to visit my GP every week to extend the leave (unless in hospital). In practice as long as I didn't present the next slip earlier than stipulated I only had to go every two weeks. The first 3 days are not covered, then you get 60%, after some time 75%. Eventually I started receiving more money than I make normally (I noticed it first after surgery which may have triggered it). I guess it was due to some kind of insurance my employer has.

Some employers offer better conditions. For example my parents receive 100% salary while sick from the very first day.

[The Brain]

Because illness is such a huge deal these days to many people, I'm curious to know how Languish handles illness. How sick do you have to be in order for you to stay home from work or school?

If you can call in you can come in.

[Drakken]

I have ten illness days per year, and when I was hired my bosses told me that if I felt ill and thought I wouldn't be productive, I was better to stay home and rest. It's a reasonable threshold, and we tend to use our days rather liberally, as long as we don't abuse (like doing it every week or so). When I don't come to work, it's because I feel really, really shitty, otherwise I just come, even if it means taking a half-day off instead.

And they mean it. Once I worked overtime like mad and, a Thursday afternoon, one of my Veeps came to my desk and "forcibly" evicted me from my office to go back home and take the week off. And to be sure I wouldn't argue, she said it was an order. So I obeyed and went back home to sleep.

Also, I was never asked a medical paper, even once.

[Martim Silva]

Over here, the first three days of the illness are paid by the company (this can be used more than once per year, as your health dictates).

More than that, and you need to get medical leave. Which can last indefinitely, depending on the doctors' opinions. During that time, you collect 65% of your base salary from the State, no taxes.

Because illness is such a huge deal these days to many people, I'm curious to know how Languish handles illness. How sick do you have to be in order for you to stay home from work or school?

Now, Merithyn, until last year my reply would be "until I become delirious" (which kinda happened. One day I stopped seeing my office and saw a Cathedral instead, with flying codexes around me. Another time I thought I was working properly for some time, until my eyes suddenly straightened and I saw that on my monitor was a page totally filled with "dfkhdkjhsakjhdkjhfs" text). THEN I knew I had to take a day off.

But today we have a new factor: SWINE FLU.

This shit is contagious as Hell, and it hit us hard. The State has pretty much demanded all people who have flu symptoms to call the State Health Line (800 24 24 24) and if the condition is similar to H1N1, they are required to stay at home for a week.

Unfortunately, in my workplace the "work a lot" mindset is also combined with the "utterly retarded" trait, so the imbeciles who got the H1N1 came to work... needless to say, the virus spread like wildfire, helped by a lot of people coughing and sneezing all over the place.

Unfortunately for them, the H1N1 isn't a regular flu, so after a day spent spreading the disease, they get several days of suffering at home. We got decimated, and a LOT of our staff is now on sick leave. A good chunk of the remainder is basically coughing themselves to death at their desks, trying to get enought strength to move around. Several work with their coats on, even tough we have our air conditioned set to high temperatures. We have four confirmed H1N1 cases and another dozen absentees who are currently sick for more than three days but don't want to take the test. I've never seen a flu hit so hard in my whole career.

I have been yelling at these retards who come to work to go home for nearly a week now, and while most obey, some think it kinda shows dedication to come to work anyway. And the result is even more staff  severely sick within 24 hours. Even the managers who tend to keep working no matter what are falling like flies to this and actually taking sick days, something I very rarely saw one of them do, let alone three of them in short succession, leaving them totally wrecked for most of the duration.

(I'm freezing the wages of those idiots who don't follow my instructions. Dedication my ass)

The positive side is that we've had no fatalities so far. As for me, I have been trying to stay as clear as possible from everyone and made *very* clear I want no coughing on me (resulting in these idiots coughing into their sleeves when they're near me).

That said, the Air conditioners do make the air go around, and I couldn't keep away from a shitload of coughers/sneezers at all time for the whole week, so I suspect I have it, too. Since last Saturday I have to relieve myself 3-4 times a day (never had this), often feel light pain in my body, my temperature is steady at 37º and I lost all my sex drive (usually an indication that my body is sick and needs energies elsewhere).

Still, it's bearable. They say the swine flu hits everyone in a different way. If what I have is the H1N1, then it acts like a strong laxative to my body. One can say it literally made me shit myself.

[Syt]

Get. A. New. Job.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that it ain't much better elsewhere these days.

Anecdotal evidence from you suggests the contrary.

I'm also a negativist lazy whiny bitch. Though psychologist friends have suggested I should have checked out if I have a mild to medium form of bipolar disorder.