primitives call in sick; boss checks on them

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4915961

Oh my.

Liberal_in_LA  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-26-09 05:19 PM
Original message
 
Of employers who checked on sick day claim, 17% drove past employee's home. 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/01/26/cb.playin...

One-third of workers play hooky

Just not wanting to go to work that day was enough to keep 34 percent of workers from showing up this year. Although most truant workers lacked the motivation to go to work, some were avoiding the headaches awaiting them at the office. Nine percent of workers who played hooky wanted to skip a meeting, spend time working on an overdue project or avoid the wrath of a boss or colleague.

Another common reason employees skipped work was because they had other things to do. Thirty percent of workers needed to relax and recharge, and 22 percent caught up on their sleep. Medical appointments, personal errands and quality time with friends and family were also good enough reasons to feign illness.

If you do decide to call in sick when you're not, be prepared to sell your story with sniffles and a throaty cough; 18 percent of employers have fired workers who missed work without a legitimate reason. Thirty-one percent of employers checked up on an employee who called in sick. Of those employers who did check, 71 percent required a doctor's note. Fifty-six percent called the employee at home, while 18 percent asked another worker to call the employee at home and 17 percent drove by the employee's home.

As tempted as you may be to weave an elaborate yarn explaining your absence, the truth is your smartest route. If you're honest with your boss, you don't have to worry about a slip of the tongue or an unexpected run-in with the boss foiling your alibi.


Plus, employers have grown flexible in terms of what constitutes a sick day, as 65 percent of them consider the need to take a mental health day a valid reason to take time off. Therefore, the need to take a personal day no longer has the stigma it once did.

tekisui  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-26-09 05:21 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. Being sick of work is a good enough reason, IMO. 

Those sound like some asshole bosses.

Bucky  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-26-09 05:22 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
3. Mental health break. It's the trade off for not having 4 weeks of vacation like they do in Germany

Canuckistanian  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-26-09 10:31 PM
Response to Reply #3

31. That's a big part of it, I suspect

Americans have the LEAST amount of vacation days of all the industrialized countries.

It's no wonder that absenteeism is problem.

Ikonoklast  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-26-09 05:38 PM
Response to Original message
 
9. There was an employer in my town that sent a manager out to see if an employee that called in sick was at home. As she was trying to look through the kitchen window, the police arrested her and booked her under suspicion of burglary.

She called the boss to come bail her out, and he refused using the excuse that he never expected her to do no more than drive by the house.

Liberal_in_LA  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-26-09 05:40 PM
Response to Reply #9
 
10. bwwwwwwwah ha ha. Karma.

Ikonoklast  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-26-09 06:04 PM
Response to Reply #10
 
14. She was an idiot.

The employee was upstairs in the bathroom and heard someone prowling around the house, and called the cops.

The manager sued the employer over this, saying that she was arrested in the performance of her job directed by her employer.

The judge ruled that they were both idiots.

spin  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-26-09 05:48 PM
Response to Original message
 
12. When I worked we had five paid sick days without question...but the supervisor would hassle you if you took any when she gave you your yearly appraisal.

I was an old guy that they were trying to convince to leave (so they could hire a younger cheaper employee). If I didn't take the sick days, they just found something else to hassle me about.

So I always took the five sick days. I'd just call in and say I had diarrhea.

Skittles  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-26-09 10:12 PM
Response to Reply #12
 
25. the trots is a good excuse

not too many questions for that one

BerryBush  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-26-09 09:50 PM
Response to Original message

21. Here's a great story for you--not about a sick day, but a day off.

I had a job once where we had the option of taking Presidents' Day off or coming in to work. One year, I thought my boss understood that I was not going to come in. Apparently, she didn't. I went out to run some errands that day and was shocked to come back to my apartment and find the glass on the back door had been broken and there was a note on the door saying "CALL POLICE." I called, and a cop actually came over and verified my identity and called her and said that he had personally seen me at home. Why? Because my boss called the cops when I didn't show up that morning for work and didn't call in sick. She was worried about me. I had to prove to the police that I was her "missing employee" and that I was safe before they would leave. They told me they had come to knock on my door to see if I was home, and when they got no answer, they broke in to see whether something had happened and I was unable to respond.

Oh, and I asked them: You broke the window on my back door, aren't you going to fix that? No, they said. That was my problem. Or, more properly, my landlady's problem. She had to pay to get it replaced. Luckily, she didn't charge me.

From then on, if I was going to take an optional holiday, I made damn sure my boss KNEW.

DU AdBot (1000+ posts)      Tue Jan 27th 2009, 07:18 AM
Response to Original message

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[TheSarge]

And these people wonder why they can't keep a stedy job at any level more than fry cook at McDonalds.

[NHSparky]

I work for a large company, and I will say that while we are "allowed" so many sick/hospital hours per year, hardly anyone ever comes anywhere near that limit because of the hassle we get if we reach a certain level (I believe over 40 hours in any 1-year rolling period.)  So think about it--out a couple of days with a cold, back, etc, just twice a year, and you're already there. 

We do require doctor's clearance to return to work if out more than three consecutive days--but that's more of a short-term disability/FMLA issue than anything policy-related.

Finally, I don't know anyone who tries to take "mental health days".  Our 9/80 schedule is pretty good on that, and given the fact most of us are former military, mostly Navy nukes, and we think anything under 80 hours a week is a pretty damn good deal.  I look at it this way--I got three "sick days" (SIQ) in 12 years in Uncle Sam's Canoe Club--one time in "A" school when I was running a temperature of 103, and one day each side when I had my wisdom teeth removed.

Of course, I'm typing all of this from the house in my jammies because the bosses gave us today off before hitting the other diesel outage tomorrow... 

[JohnnyReb]

"....65 percent of them consider the need to take a mental health day a valid reason to take time off.".... 65% of the work force are crazy DUmmies. ...I didn't know that.

Mental health break. It's the trade off for not having 4 weeks of vacation like they do in Germany If you work years at a job instead of a few days here and a few days there, you could have 4 weeks or more paid vacation, ask my wife.

Americans have the LEAST amount of vacation days of all the industrialized countries.

It's no wonder that absenteeism is problem. If the leech's of society, welfare, foodstamp, section 8 housing, fraudulent disability claims, were eliminated then the rest wouldn't have to work so much.

Being sick of work is a good enough reason, IMO. 

Those sound like some ******* bosses. No it's not and you sound like an ******* DUmmie employee.

Thirty percent of workers needed to relax and recharge,(get high) and 22 percent caught up on their sleep. (party hardy much do you) Medical appointments, personal errands (make a dope run) and quality time with friends and family(party time again) were also good enough reasons to feign illness.

[Karin]

Wonder how many there called in on Gay Day.  Any mention of that?  Nobody at our company did. 
On inauguration day, I felt lousy.  But, I called in Capitalist and came to work. 

[Vagabond]

The hardest part of it for me is that I have kids and me and my wife work.  When I was stateside, we sould run a trade off, if a kid was sick the night before my wife took the day off.  If they got sick after my wife left for work, it was my problem.  I was surprised at how much time I took off, just taking care of sick kids.

She is talking about not working anymore whenever #3 comes along, that's fine with me.

[jukin]

I wonder how the lazy DUchebags would feel if the boss called in sick on payday and there were no checks?

[Tantal]

Bucky  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-26-09 05:22 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
3. Mental health break. It's the trade off for not having 4 weeks of vacation like they do in Germany

Sounds like this DUmmie's in the wrong line of work. I get 6 weeks of paid vacation a year.....which will go to 7 weeks in another 3 years. Also, my sick time accrues, so I'm currently sitting on 1000 hours of it. I'll be saving it up, so, when Mrs. Tantal has the baby, I'll be able to take a few weeks off to help her while she recovers. It's one of the many benefits of being a good, hard-working employee. We spot the losers, dead-weight, and DUmmies early-on, so they get washed-out of training before they can become a drain on the department.

[Vagabond]

Sounds like this DUmmie's in the wrong line of work. I get 6 weeks of paid vacation a year.....which will go to 7 weeks in another 3 years. Also, my sick time accrues, so I'm currently sitting on 1000 hours of it. I'll be saving it up, so, when Mrs. Tantal has the baby, I'll be able to take a few weeks off to help her while she recovers. It's one of the many benefits of being a good, hard-working employee. We spot the losers, dead-weight, and DUmmies early-on, so they get washed-out of training before they can become a drain on the department.

You sound like my Dad before he retired from being a cop.  He wound up on annual leave for four months just to burn it before he retired.  I like to work so much that I'm considering starting my own business next year, I hear startup business owners really don't get time off.

[NHSparky]

And even when you work for a large company, there is some flexibility.  Technically we're supposed to put in for time off for medical appointments, etc., but I've found if you try to work with them, they'll work with you.  That's why I make doctor or other appointments for as early or late in the day as possible (preferably later).

Where I run into issues is things where I can't make specific appointments, like now with my television busted.  I'm basically going to have to wait until I get back from Iowa and still be without the TV (no great loss, thankfully) for a couple of weeks after I get back until someone can come out to fix it.

[thundley4]

We don't have sick days, but do have two personal days, but we are supposed to give a 48 hour notice for personal time, and two weeks notice for vacation time.  That being said, I've went in on a Friday morning and have asked to leave early many times, with no problem. Most of the time I could choose to go in early the next morning to make up the time instead of using personal or vacation time.