# How often do you call in sick to work and how many of those days are you actually "sick"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 19, 2010, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545 "2010-01-19T11:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![renee\_g](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e480ec/32.png) [@renee\_g](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/renee_g)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/81 "2011-04-20T02:27:28Z")
I kid you not— she calls in sick at least 5-6 days a month… almost like clockwork. A bunch of us at work can predict (down the days) and week that she will be gone and voila! She delivers. It is sad really. She has no kids to care for nor elderly parents. She is 33 and sick all the time. It is sad. I thought when I googled this topic I would see lots of people calling in sick more than 2 days a month but I did not… wow! I can see if you are caring for sick children but then I work from home on those rare days. But, 5-6 days a month! that is insane to me. She claims she takes days off so she does not get others sick but we all have individual offices and no one really interacts with her anyway. ---
**Author:** ![scootergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/82 "2011-04-20T02:43:11Z")
I Probably call in sick an average of 4 times per year. 90% of the time it is legit. At this point I have more sick leave built up than ever before because I no longer have to be there at 7a.m. When I worked the early shift it seemed like if I woke up feeling shitty I was more prone to calling in. Now at least I have some time to get it together and make myself feel better then head in even if not feeling 100%. There are however people at my work who call in on a regular basis and rarely have more than a days worth of sick leave available. Like Renee said, “almost like clockwork…” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/83 "2011-04-20T03:20:41Z")
I call in sick about as often as I post to or vote in this poll. Once a year. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/84 "2011-04-20T03:42:25Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I call in sick about as often as I post to or vote in this poll. Once a year. I hear you on the voting in this poll once a year thing…and my vote for 2011 has changed. I originally wrote that I called in sick once every two months or so, which now seems absurdly frequent - last time I called in sick was about five months ago. (Though once in that five months I was sent home early because I looked so miserable.) ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/85 "2011-04-20T03:43:02Z")
> [@porcupine](#): > > This is me. > > I probably take a day every 6 weeks or so. I only call in sick when I am in too much pain (or too nauseated, or too dizzy) to do much of anything. I come into the office with low-grade migraine very frequently, but when it gets bad enough that I stay home, I’m physically incapable of doing much of anything at all, except for resting. Sometimes it’s taken a while for co-workers to get this - some places they would call me when I was home sick with a migraine. I’m not just home cause I “don’t feel good.” > > I can’t recall taking a sick day when I wasn’t sick in many years, cause I need to save them for when I need them Of course, more and more places don’t have sick time separate from vacation time, which I hate. Me three. I’m in the chronic migraine club too, and I’d say once a month. Currently unemployed, but the job I was at for 7 years, I could work from home if necessary, or else it would’ve been much more. Generally the times I wasn’t able to work from home were when I’d had a migraine for over a week (my personal record is 19 days) and just wasn’t functional, or, if I had run out of meds and couldn’t beat the pain down to a tolerable level. I never called in “for fun” or for mental health days, not that I’d have to because we also just had PTO. I wasn’t looked on favorably because of my attendance, that’s for sure. It was office politics and martyr complexes, not poor performance though, and my boss was understanding. (“Why does SHE get to work from home and I can’t?” Guess what? You can.) I’m unemployed now because I left my job to immigrate to Canada, but I think that in any other company I would’ve been let go. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/86 "2011-04-20T03:50:32Z")
I never call in sick unless I am sick. Last had a sick day a bit more than five years ago. I’m also an Aussie and ‘sickies’ aren’t the national pastime they once were. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/87 "2011-04-20T05:03:01Z")
> [@badbadrubberpiggy](#): > > I voted about every 6 months. > > I work at a hospital - I’m not medical, but we’re open every weekday the hospital is open, so we don’t get holidays & sick time separate from vacation - if I take a day off, it comes out of my vacation, no matter what it’s for. So if I call in sick, I’m actually sick. > > Fortunately, I don’t get sick often. When I worked for a hospital they changed the policy from sick leave and vacation leave accruing individually to simple Paid Annual Leave, which accrued faster than vacation days but slower than sick days. You could tell which staff members treated their sick days as vacation days because they bitched long and hard about all the leave they were losing. People like me, however, who only used sick leave a few times a year when we were actually sick, came out ahead. Instead of having hundreds of hours of sick leave build up that I’d never use, I had hundreds of hours of paid leave that I could use whenever I wanted a break. It was great - I wish my current job with the municipal bureaucracy did the same. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/88 "2011-04-20T05:12:12Z")
> [@Arrendajo](#): > > Instead of having hundreds of hours of sick leave build up that I’d never use, I had hundreds of hours of paid leave that I could use whenever I wanted a break. It was great - I wish my current job with the municipal bureaucracy did the same. I’d prefer that sort of system. I have hundreds of hours of sick leave accrued AND hundreds of hours of Annual Leave. I also work in a hospital and think I must have developed immunity to just about everything going. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/89 "2011-04-20T05:18:34Z")
Never. I think the only time in the last 15 years I backed out of a day at work was when I was in the hospital in Mammoth, CA with a concussion, a split liver, a torn MCL and a few other bruises from my snowboarding accident. I’ve continued to work after tearing my ACL in a Joe Theismann-esque injury and after many other things that would have sent most people to the hospital in an ambulance. There’s no crying in stagecraft! ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/90 "2011-04-20T11:06:58Z")
This is admittedly not my strength as an employee. I am a chronically sick person, and I am also a chronically depressed person. I put ‘‘once a month’’ but it’s usually once every two months, for a few days. I do not call in sick unless I am genuinely sick… the problem is, being sick makes me depressed, so I may not recognize that I am feeling better because I confuse depression fatigue with illness fatigue. So from time to time, I miss days due to depression. I’ve improved with this over time, as I become more aware of the issues. I imagine I will improve even more in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/91 "2011-04-20T11:44:21Z")
When I get sick I get really sick and am out for days, so I save my sick days for those times. I don’t think I’ve ever pulled a sickie. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/92 "2011-04-20T14:03:58Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > In my job, we can take vacation days or hours as we need to, as long as the project you’re working on allows it. If you call in sick, you had better be sick; most companies emply an agengy that checks up if people that are sick more then a couple days really are sick, and they require a doctor’s notice. > > But then, we in the Netherlands have a lot more vacation days then you guys. This year, we have 42 days; so, 8 full weeks. Most companies offer up to 5 or 6 weeks. Sigh. I get two weeks and three days a year. American employment is dildos. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/93 "2011-04-20T15:37:16Z")
Since I’m an hourly consultant, if I call in sick, I not only don’t get paid for the day, but my compamy will get fined if I don’t get a sufficient replacement, so I haven’t called in sick once in the last 3 years. I HAVE called in “snowed in” a couple times this winter though. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/94 "2011-04-20T15:37:31Z")
Almost never. I don’t actually get sick (seriously, I haven’t been sick in years), and we have personal days at my job, so they all blend in together. I usually know when I’m getting stabby, so I schedule a few personal days in advance then so that I can not kill everyone. Maybe about once a year I get up and say “Fuck this” and just call in. The new job I’m starting in two weeks sadly does not lump all the time off into personal days, so I plan on calling in sick exactly five times a year very soon. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/95 "2011-04-20T16:15:25Z")
Once a year or so. In almost 40 years I called in sick one day when I wasn’t. It didn’t suit me. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/96 "2011-04-20T16:34:57Z")
I call in maybe every 3 months, usually for one of the kids. And, yes, someone is always legitimately ill if I call in for a sick day. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/97 "2011-04-20T16:57:18Z")
“Never.” If I want off for a personal issue, I switch my days off. (I work part-time – 3 days per week.) I love this flexibility. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/98 "2011-04-20T20:09:00Z")
I picked “once every six months.” I almost never get sick, and since I telecommute most days of the week if I get a minor cold or something I can work anyway. I have been known to take an occasional “mental health day” (I justify it by the fact that nobody minds people taking sick days for their kids and whatnot, so I should get one every once in awhile when I just feel too fried to work). I haven’t done it in a long time, though–the telecommuting really makes it much easier to take care of a few little things I need to do at home in the course of a workday, without losing any productivity (I do them during times when I’d otherwise be net-surfing–my job is pretty much “we don’t care how you spend your time as long as you get your projects done on time and with quality and attend whatever meetings you’re supposed to attend.”) ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/99 "2011-04-20T20:24:54Z")
> [@Arrendajo](#): > > When I worked for a hospital they changed the policy from sick leave and vacation leave accruing individually to simple Paid Annual Leave, which accrued faster than vacation days but slower than sick days. Very similar situation at my law firm. They changed policy a little over a year ago because they decided it was silly to force people to lie about being sick when they just needed a day off. So we now have a bucket of APL (All-Purpose Leave). Currently, I have 32 APL days instead of the 20 vacation days and 12 sick days I used to get. I don’t think I’ve used 12 sick days in a year since 2002, and that was because I was under a doctor’s care for a hernia issue. ---
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545/100 "2011-04-20T20:37:11Z")
I’ve been self-employed for years now, but back in the days when I had a paycheck job I was getting something like 10 sick days a year that didn’t carry over. I was always a little hesitant earlier in the year to take a sick day unless I was pretty sure I was going to be useless at work due to some ailment. Later in the year I’d get a little less sticky about it, and it would take a little less to get me to bail on a day of work. Even so, it was a pretty rare, although not unheard of, occurrence for me to take a sick day just for the sake of taking a day off. Maybe once every year or two. It helped that the direct supervisors that I always had were pretty cool about letting me take a short notice vacation day if I needed some time to take care of personal business. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-call-in-sick-to-work-and-how-many-of-those-days-are-you-actually-sick/525545.md?page=6)