Just called in sick for the first time in six years. That's my not-taken-a-day-off-from-work-ever record destroyed.
It's only a cold but I didn't realise one set of lungs could produce so much snot. Not so much counting tissues as entire bog rolls.
No one else will come near me. Throbbing headache. Blocked sinuses. Even the lady on the phone when I called in sounded sympathetic.
Still, should be fixed by Christmas Eve at least.
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Hard luck, ghastly, can be worse than flu. Painkillers and mood ameliorators. All that phlegm and sweat is water so drink lots of that. Three days you'll be over the worst, don't be pessimistic.
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I usually get sick between Xmas and new year, thus avoiding sick leave. Psychosomatic, probably.
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Have you tried zinc tablets? Don't cure you, but I've found they reduce the symptoms.
Also galvanise you into action. ;>)
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Nobody thinks any better of you going to work sick.
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It is probably not a good idea if you have to drive a 500mph bus with wings.
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>> It is probably not a good idea if you have to drive a 500mph bus
>> with wings.
Its got autopilot
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>>
>> Its got autopilot
>>
My car has cruise control but travels a long way while I sneeze on a motorway.
If FF was flying by hand he could blame a lot on turbulence, even a rough ( sorry positive ) landing. :)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 20 Dec 14 at 16:03
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>> Just called in sick for the first time in six years.
>> It's only a cold but I didn't realise one set of lungs could produce so much snot.
>>
I know the situation only too well.
When ever I got such a serious cold I elected to stay home.
The reason was because I always developed a most awful "wet" cough that was almost continuous and sounded as if it was my last breath.
Although I could still function reasonably well I would not impose myself on my office.
I did not like calling in sick but I always considered it the best option.
Today, at home I still just get exiled to the spare bedroom until I am rid of it.
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>> The reason was because I always developed a most awful "wet" cough that was almost
>> continuous and sounded as if it was my last breath.
Mrs B is in similar state today. Nearly always gets her in last week of term but this time waited until she finished on Wednesday.
I'd have though sinus trouble would be the show stopper for FF. I'd not fancy being on an aircraft as pax in that state never mind being expected to fly it.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 20 Dec 14 at 10:04
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Years of self employment gave me a particular view of how ill I felt. When no one is going to pay you to be off it kind of changes your perspective. I've had two days off sick in 35 years.
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>> Just called in sick for the first time in six years. That's my not-taken-a-day-off-from-work-ever record
>> destroyed.
>>
>> It's only a cold but I didn't realise one set of lungs could produce so
>> much snot. Not so much counting tissues as entire bog rolls.
>>
>> No one else will come near me. Throbbing headache. Blocked sinuses. Even the lady on
>> the phone when I called in sounded sympathetic.
>>
>> Still, should be fixed by Christmas Eve at least.
>>
You big girls blouse, get off your backside and get out and get some fresh air in your lungs. It's only a little sniffle.
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You are all wimps.
Not had a day off work due to illness for 17 years.
(But then I have been retired for ---17 years:-)
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I don't know how many days sick I've had in my working life, but even ignoring injuries I should think it would be in the weeks, not the days.
If you feel ill, you should stay home.
If you are contagious, you should stay home.
There is not much value in an inefficient, suffering and contagious worker.
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>>
>>
>> There is not much value in an inefficient, suffering and contagious worker.
>>
Eh?
I've been like that all my life.
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Some people seem to get sick more readily than others. My brother in law seems to manage it for at least 4 months every year. Always in the summer months oddly enough. He is so debilitated by his various ailments that conventional medicine doesn't appear to help him. Instead he finds playing squash, golf, going out on his motorbike and taking extended holidays seems to work better. Of course having been off sick all summer his employer then has to re-grant his "lost" holidays so he then gets a nice long break at Christmas to recuperate from the the couple of months unbroken work he's slogged to put in before that.
I won't say who he works for but have you ever wondered why train fares are so high?
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In my youth I worked with a fit but challenged twenty something who was notorious for his liking for a four day week. He'd come in on Monday and tell the foreman, "Sorry I couldn't make it on Friday, I had a heart attack". All his excuses were completely outlandish with one life threatening but short term affliction after another and said with a straight face and fully expecting to be believed. He got away with it for two reasons -
1/ People used to find it so funny they just put up with it.
2/ The employer in question was a local authority.
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I had a colleague who became a mother a few years back. Ever since she always manages to have extended periods of illness around the school holidays.........
Summer before last was a classic - off with stress from July to September. Needed peace and quiet to recover......found out later she had an extension built on her house while off
Typical large company mentality - my boss wanted to take it further, but HR helped her be redeployed to another department
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Our oufit runs something called 'Attendence Criteria'. If you have a sick free year you get a Reward Leave day. Another year you get 2 days. Another year 1 day and a 4th 2 days - if you get the drift. You can stack these up to the end of service if you wish. Any movement in post / promotion requires you to have had no more than an aggregate of 33 days over 3 years. Special exemptions for maternity, disability and certain conditions etc.
Consequence people role up with coughs and colds and spread it around.
Of course if you have no ambitions you can have your 8 day uncertified slots as and when and if you really cannot get to work you might as well have the 8 days as 2 or 3 because you have lost a Reward Leave day anyway.
As draconian or unfair (for the genuine) as it seems it does seemed to have quelled that public sector mentality and we went from the near bottom of sickness tables to the top.
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>>
>> There is not much value in an inefficient, suffering and contagious worker.
>>
But it's often said that the contagious period is the phase just before you have the worst symptoms. So some of the times when you think you might be going to really bad cold, you don't.
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And there was I thinking you'd parked an A320 IN the terminal building....:-)
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We started a reward system at work. If you manage 3 months you get entered into a draw for a weeks pay, 6 months is one months pay and 12 months is a vauxhal corsa. Not really sure that the corsa is an incentive though......
The stats are published telling us how many were eligible for the draw, and then the names of the winners. First draw and a guy in my office won something. He had quite a bit of time off sick, but must have just managed the 3 months widow to get in plus he's a work to the minute kind of guy - never goes the extra, and is generally unhelpful if you need his support, so not much of an incentive to the rest of us.
I would prefer some kind of more inclusive incentive like extra days holiday, although I understand we now have the lowest sickness rates across the group (and one of the lowest in the sector) so its achieved its objective
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That seems incredibly generous, mikey b, what company is that? Itake it that there was a chronic sickness problem?
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>> That seems incredibly generous, mikey b, what company is that? Itake it that there was
>> a chronic sickness problem?
A chronic sickness problem in the workplace is indicative of something else. Rather than trying to bribe attendance, curing the underlying problem might be more effective.
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I wonder how workers in the public sector with their allocated sick days would cope with the absence policies that most private companies have these days
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In my game, legal, moral or not, if you're off for more than a week you're unlikely to be welcomed back. It's not right of course, and people have tried contesting things but in jobs which are entirely performance rewarded and measured it's easy enough for an employer to say you hadn't met your targets so you were out because of that. Harsh but fact.
Strangely enough there's a queue for the jobs as they can be quite well paid if objectives are met.
Nasty business at some levels, not for everyone but financially attractive if you're any good at it.
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>>
>> Nasty business at some levels, not for everyone but financially attractive if you're any good
>> at it.
>>
I think that's right, it's not for everyone and I include myself in that, not a culture/place of work I'd like to be involved in. Not knocking you btw RDH, each to their own.
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>> I wonder how workers in the public sector with their allocated sick days would cope
>> with the absence policies that most private companies have these days
Which bits of the public sector have allocated sick days?
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>>
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>> Which bits of the public sector have allocated sick days?
>>
When I worked for a local authority anyone who didn't take a minimum three weeks sick per year was considered a fool - I must have been one of the biggest because I rarely had a day off. This attitude went right across the board, culminating rather hilariously when the worst of the bunch were due at a disciplinary hearing to explain their excessive sick time and it had to be cancelled because the two officers in charge and the union rep were all off sick. I kid you not.
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Not allocated though. I know plenty in the public sector, happens in isolation but I don't see it happening (from my pov) in any massive way. I'm not saying it didn't happen to you, just not seen everyone getting themselves signed off for weeks year in year out.
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>> I wonder how workers in the public sector with their allocated sick days would cope
>> with the absence policies that most private companies have these days
The allocated sick days thing is a curious myth.
Worked in public sector for my entire career from 1978 until 2013. In something like half the posts I occupied the induction talk included reference to "other places" where ten days a year uncertificated sick was treated as additional annual leave but it was made very clear the practice was not tolerated locally.
I met a few who 'swung the lead' over days off for winter snuffles and others with genuinely recurrent conditions who sailed near the wind but equally came in too often when unfit.
Later we had formalised policies with back to work interviews and 'welfare' intervention at early stage so as to facilitate 'inefficiency' proceedings . Only avoided an appointment with them myself because my boss averred that my broken bones were a self limiting condition.
A friend managing a lad being treated for that syndrome that makes your willy a funny shape had to fight a battle royal to keep patient's job open.
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>> >> That seems incredibly generous, mikey b, what company is that? Itake it that there
>> was
>> >> a chronic sickness problem?
>>
>> A chronic sickness problem in the workplace is indicative of something else. Rather than trying
>> to bribe attendance, curing the underlying problem might be more effective.
>>
Not sure at what level you decide its chronic, but I agree that there is usually another reason driving it. In my case the company's roots can be traced back to state ownership, and some of the time served members of staff remember those days fondly...........we are now responsible to share holders so the employees such as myself who are under 45 have a slightly different set of values
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>> That seems incredibly generous, mikey b, what company is that? Itake it that there was
>> a chronic sickness problem?
>>
Lets just say very closely connected to the OP
Not sure I would call it a chronic problem, but I understand we were above the sector average, but there are two sites in question. One is mostly manufacturing with a majority of shop floor staff, and the other site (mine) has very little manufacturing and a large professional staff base.
The issue was driven by one site, but the incentive was applied to both - I guess to demonstrate equality
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>> Lets just say very closely connected to the OP
>>
>> Not sure I would call it a chronic problem, but I understand we were above
>> the sector average, but there are two sites in question. One is mostly manufacturing with
>> a majority of shop floor staff, and the other site (mine) has very little manufacturing
>> and a large professional staff base.
>>
>> The issue was driven by one site, but the incentive was applied to both -
>> I guess to demonstrate equality
>>
Ok thanks, mind you if it works it works. Must admit you've piqued my interest in which company!
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No longer a walking, talking snot machine. Fixed. Even managed a run this evening.
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I hope you stay recovered.
Based on my recent experience, and that of a significant number of friends and relations, the current crop of viruses(sp ?) seems to come back and bite you a 2nd or 3rd time!
Maybe it is an age thing? The fit and young survive, the old and weak just go down hill:(
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Going downhill?skiing is great for us old gets. Gravity rules ok.
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The Older I get the better I was.
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'er indoors has had whatever bug is doing the rounds. 'She' never goes to see the Quack, but succumbed last week after having the Lurgy, partially ridding herself of it and then succumbing once again. Flu? Can't move much, Bronchitis according to the Doc' and 'Barking' like a hound. She is not very well for sure.
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@Sooty: Recall what FF 'drives' for his day job?
Last edited by: Gromit on Sun 21 Dec 14 at 22:23
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Ah right thanks. That explains alot. :)
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I've known people refer to the 'lurgy' when off sick. Found that amusing because I thought the definition was an indeterminate illness - made up for sure. But that's what he'd be off sick with :-) As in not ill really. The USA use the term cooties I think.
Maybe my colleague was ill but his excuse was fake?
I've worked for my employer for just over 19 years. Real days off ill are minimal. First real days off sick was actually due to an accident in 2006 in Italy. Annual leave/holiday converted to sick. Cheeky request but (a) I had a doctor's note from Italy and (b) we'd been in a bad accident and so took the holiday time later!
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sun 21 Dec 14 at 23:48
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>>I've known people refer to the 'lurgy' when off sick.
Me too.
I looked it up and my memory was good
The term originates from an episode of the 1950s radio comedy "The Goon Show" in which an epidemic of "The Dreaded Lurgi" was said to be about to sweep across Britain. It turned out that the lurgi was in fact a ficitious disease created by brass instrument makers who had claimed that no brass band player had ever died of the lurgi (thereby increasing sales hugely).
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When SWMBO was working she developed some sort or reaction that produce a rash of tiny red spots.
The GP gave her a sick note for a week.
She was not unwell but he said that all the other staff who were pregnant would not trust his diagnosis so keep quiet about the rash and enjoy the time off.
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c. 1980, a colleague of mine with a sense of humour, and a better vocabulary than our manager at the time, self-certificated his days off sick with the reason "General Torpor".
The boss agreed there was a lot of it about.
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Our place has very recently partially withdrawn self certification. If you are off on the day before or after a Bank Holiday, or the day before or after your normal holiday, then you must get a note from the Dr.
As the local doctors will all apparently charge a tenner for that if it's less than seven days, plus you have to try to get to see them on the day anyway with all the hassle, I suppose HR think it will reduce instances of anyone trying it on.
Seems a bit rough to me if you are genuinely ill on one of those occasions, as you now get the extra hassle as well as a financial penalty. It hasn't as yet affected anyone in my department so not sure how it will pan out.
However, as there are apparently limitless other good things they do for us that are really generous and make my wife's eyes pop out on sticks when her tell her whatever the latest is, as her place does the absolute minimum for their staff, I can't complain.
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My old employer introduced something similarly complicated. Once you had he more than 3 days sick in the preceding two years, they would only pay you after the first three days of any subsequent absences.
This ensured that anybody unfortunate enough to be ill when they had already used up their 'free' days was inclined to make at least a week if not a fortnight of it.
All reasonable managers, when conscientious staff were genuinely ill, just called a day or two's illness "working from home". Of course the stats were then worthless but showed a significant improvement in overall absenteeism.
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>> When SWMBO was working she developed some sort or reaction that produce a rash of
>> tiny red spots.
>> The GP gave her a sick note for a week.
>> She was not unwell but he said that all the other staff who were pregnant
>> would not trust his diagnosis so keep quiet about the rash and enjoy the time
>> off.
I got german measles and because I was working in an environment around lots of women my GP signed me off. My boss turned up, unexpectedly, at home, to make sure I was OK and found me painting the outside of my house. He was less than impressed, but by the time he found me a post away from women I wasn't contagious.
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>> I got german measles and because I was working in an environment around lots of
>> women my GP signed me off.
Quite right too. I had a cousin born with a heart defect because of his mother's exposure to German Measles. He died aged four when corrective surgery failed.
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Looking at the tree in the garden being bent almost horizontal in the wind, I'm rapidly coming to conclusion that the crapness of the weather is directly linked to me doing overtime.
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>> Looking at the tree in the garden being bent almost horizontal in the wind, I'm
>> rapidly coming to conclusion that the crapness of the weather is directly linked to me
>> doing overtime.
Facebook friend in area reports situation at Leeds Bradford last night thus:
Got to admire the Jet2 crews. Non of your British Airways Plum in mouth, Queens English with these crews. After landing with a X wind of up to 34 knots, on a wet runway, ATC just asked the crew to comment on the approach. "It were all over't shop" came the reply.
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Six year record ruined - Armel Coussine
