Do you call in sick, or do you email in sick?

When you wake up sick on a workday morning, do you email that you won’t be coming in, or do you phone? What’s current office etiquette?

Email is generally seen as a bit dodgier, at least when you phone the person on the other end of the phone can hear that you’re sick.

I have on occassion sent an email when i’ve been up all night and have reached about 4am in the morning and know that I’m not going into work the next day - I’ve sent the email then so that if I should be able to get to sleep, I don’t need to wake up to make the morning call.

I have just about gotten my office trained to know I am extremely reliable with e-mail - way more so than phone. I screen all my calls but my e-mail is on all day. But really, I do both - call and leave a message, and then e-mail so they have my addy sitting right on top in their inbox.

I usually email as there’s a time difference as well as more than one person that ought to know.

So, I dash off a note to “sick” in my address book, and everyone knows. My primary manager might be out of the office, or in a meeting, or wherever, but the Crackberry will shortly tell the tale.

E-mail is unreliable. If the department’s server is down, my e-mail wouldn’t get through and everyone would wonder what became of me.

Minor aside… In New Jersey all I’ve ever heard is “calling out sick.” Not being indigenous to this area, I persist in saying “calling in,” but this is likely to get corrected.

NJ_Kef: “Hi, this is NJ_Kef, I’m calling to say I’m taking a sick day.”
Co-worker: “Oh, you’re calling out?
NJ_Kef: “No, I’m calling in to say that I’ll be out.”
Co-worker: “Okay, I’ll tell the boss you called out.”

Carrier pigeon.

Works every time.

Neither - if I’m sick I “work” from home :wink:

I didn’t know you could do either. Mine usually goes into the toilet.

I don’t do either cause I can’t afford to XP I just dope up on Dayquil and hope for the best. Besides, I’m the only one doing my job (reception) and if I’m not there…it’s not like there’s anyone who can just cover for me.

Phone. My manager insisted that I call him, even though he sometimes went all day without checking his messages. And even though he was the last person who needed to know where I was. He didn’t know what I was responsible for and wouldn’t have had a clue about covering my absence.

So I’d call him and leave a voice mail, and then I’d call the people who mattered and give them a heads up.

I have to phone in sick.

I also have to phone in well! If I’ve been off sick then I have to phone in on the day I am coming back to confirm that I’ll be there.

I’m not even sure if my phone still works as a phone.

Email all the way.

We’re required to call our college division office. It’s just not done via email, especially since they need enough notice so they can post the classroom doors.

I’ve done each, as seemed appropriate at the time.

I phone. Emailing just seems dodgy to me. I certainly start to wonder when one of my staff emails me.

I try to do both – I phone to talk to my boss, so that if there are any questions or impending doom or anything like that we can have more of an interactive conversation. Then I will email so that the receptionist and the administrative aide know I am not going to be in the office (it is likely that my boss won’t see them, or will forget to mention it). This also lets me provide written instructions for anything that needs to be done while I am absent.

Sometimes I do the same thing that sandra described, if I know I’m sick because I’m up … being sick … at an ungodly hour, I will email to let my boss know I am going to try to sleep in, but always add that he can call if necessary.

I phone and leave a message if no one is in yet to pick up. I actually never thought of using E-Mail, but it strikes me as a bit of a cop-out. At least on the phone they can hear your voice on their voicemail box, or if they pick up they can hear it directly.

I would tend to email in first, and leave it at that if my manager responds with an ‘okay, get well soon.’ (Especially because I’m generally an early-in guy, so if I know I’m not able to get on the bus, that’ll be before he gets there.)

If I didn’t get a response, I’d probably try calling just to make sure that the message went through.