Pulling a sickie is not an option in my job.

The BBQ Pit
#1

And today I feel like shit.
If we know we’re going to be sick a few days in advance, the rota can be rearranged to cover all shifts. The shorter the notice the harder the task. Possibly involving one or more staff working double shifts or having one or no days off.

If the notice is long, there’s still the problem of lack of staff.

But if the notice is nil. If one of us wakes up feeling almost to weak to move, we pretty much have to come in.

Today that was me. And here I am. At work.

I’ve already been sick. In the hallway. I cleaned it up. Felt better for the activity (and because being sick tends to result in feeling ok afterwards).

I ate this morning. Not because I was hungry but because I was desperate for some form of energy. I ate some bbq chicken legs, and some chopped tropical fruit (some of it very nice, I’ve got to find out what that was)

That’s what I puked.

This diet is just too restrictive. I can’t even eat fruit realistically. And I just found out that caffeine is out (it produces the same insulin responce as sugar)

I’m thinking of simply eating less (not restricting carbs or fat) and excercising a lot more.

#2

Good idea.

#3

Jesus, where do you work that you can’t take off when you’re puking your toenails up?

That doesn’t sound right.

#4

It’s an internet-based service. If I don’t turn up the guy who does the shift before mine has no choice but to stay, otherwise the service (ok it’s a betting website) is unavailable, and hundreds of gamblers don’t get to gamble.
As I woke up I only had the weakness. I would have pulled a sickie (in another job) for that alone, but it was only after I got here that I felt sick.

We have barely enough staff, and not all the staff are trained to the required level of competence. It takes an exceptionally long time to train someone to do this job, there’s nothing like it in the world (so there isn’t any formal training available)

#5

It’s not your job to make sure there are people qualified enough to do your job. If your sick, your supervisor needs to figure it out. If someone has to stay, then too bad.

#6

I hear you, OP. Sometimes in the real adult world of jobs and such there are cases where you just can’t be sick.

My Ex SO was an internal med resident. She couldn’t be sick ever unless she was hospitalized. That was not a written policy, but was told to her by the attending physician.

My job is not so life-critical as a doctors, but there are times when I simply cannot be sick - or, that is, take off sick. I am my own supervisor from a functional (not administrative) stance, and if I don’t show up to meet a client, inspect a facility, present a paper, or so forth then no one else can really do it, period. To that end I’ve had do such things as go on trips with ear infections that caused my drum to explode on the plane, delivered technical papers at conferences with no sleep for nearly 36 hours, and taught a class in Spain without having eaten for 48+ hours.

It’s because of that and my declining health, which has taken a serious downturn since Summer 2002, that I’m seriously studying the pros and cons of retiring at 50, or maybe even 45, while I still have some time left. :o

#7

If you’re feeling sick, why were eating BBQ at all, and especially with fruit? :confused:

#8

I gotta ask, what the heck do you do that the software itself can’t handle?

#9

How long have you been at low carb, Lobsang?

Many many people experience “induction flu” which I’m sure you have read. Hopefully you will get over it soon. Or, it’s not diet-related at all. Luckilly for me, induction made me FULL of energy as opposed to how you feel but if I do sway off then get back on I do get the ickies.

And if you think you can’t live w/o caffiene, perhaps weaning yourself off it instead of just stopping cold turkey while you feel like crap would be a better idea. Try doing induction-level carbs then once you feel better start working harder on the caffiene.

Good luck - stick in there.

#10

I just have to say that I read on another thread you’re starting Atkins and are in the first two weeks (you said you were under 20g of carbohydrates a day). If the bbq chicken had any kind of sauce on it, you probably already went over the 20 limit with sugar etc. And fruit is pretty much a big no no for the first two weeks (after which you add it back in slowly, starting with berries) because of the high amounts of sugar.

I’m not going to debate the merits of low-carb dieting (or even what my opinion of them is), but it doesn’t seem that you’re following the “rules” quite properly.

And I gotta agree with smiling bandit, why were you eating bbq if you felt crappy?

#11

Any business with that little cover for important staff really is gambling. What happens if you become seriously ill? does that guy on the other shift have to work 24/7?

#12

Next time puke in your managers office while telling him you may have to go home.

I hate this idiocy. You end up pissing off your customers and causing yourself move hassle and expense in the long run by trying to skimp and save on staff.

Fuck them. Go sick, get certified by a doc and if they sack you sue them for constructive dismissal. You have rights.

#13

Anyone else having Animal House flashbacks?

Depends where you are. Some places they can let you go for any reason, and you have little or no recourse. It may be unfair, but it is legal. Still, a place like this might make me keep my resume current.

#14

I’m not sure about the Isle of Man but I’d imagine it’s not far off UK law. In which case they’d be wide open if they sacked you for a certified absence once it wasn’t part of a pattern of absences.

It’s actually quite hard to sack a full time employee over in this part of the world. A series of warnings both written and oral have to be gone through unless the employee does something really heinous like hitting somebody of being very abusive etc.

I agree though that depending on your location and job details(part-time, short term contract … ) YMMV.

#15

See it’s that attitude that turns people into workaholics for no good reason. The reality is that most people’s jobs are not that important and just as one day you had to sit down and figure out what to do, odds are other people at work can do it too if forced to.

Before I call in sick or take a vacation, I ask myself the following questions:

  1. Is someone’s life or freedom dependent on me being at work?
  2. Will a satellite fall from the sky, a dam break or building collapse if I don’t show up today?
  3. Will someone’s personal fortune (including my own) be made or lost based on the work I do today?
    If the answer is no, I think it’s pretty much ok to skip work.
#16

This I just don’t get (that and having residents work sleep-deprived). How does it help the sick to be attended to by someone who is possibly contagious as well??

#17

There’s also the issue of bringing your sickness into the workplace and infecting everyone else.

The last company I worked for were very strict about absenteeism. 3 incidents of absence in a year and you were put on a warning.

One night I as the team leader on the production floor asked the manager if I could send a girl home as she was very sick, running a fever and was being of no use whatsoever on the floor. I was told no. She then asked and was told no and she better be in the next night.

She came in and was even worse. At one stage I nearly rang an ambulance as she was near collapse.

The next week half the shift were out sick with the same bastarding bug and the rest of us had to work like maniacs to hit a shipment. Managers were pulled from their desks to run machines, Q&A procedures were bent, emergency couriers were required to ship the goods. Cost a fortune in overtime and other expenses.

Silly shortsighted management.

#18

Woa! Got a lot to answer here.

As I mentioned, at this point I wasn’t sick, I was just weak. I ate the chicken and the fruit (small amounts - 3 small drumsticks, and about half a small pack of chopped fruit) because I needed energy. I wasn’t thinking straight in order to make sure I ate something right which is difficult enough as it is at the local store.

See above. I wasn’t thinking strictly about the diet. I was looking for emergency food. Perhaps I needed the sugar in the fruit.

The software isn’t a mindreader. It requires a human being to put in day-specific data, and to be present to make sure the data matches up with other hubs, and if anything goes wrong, network problems etc… It’s complicated.

It was a sunday, and like Una Persson I am informally my own supervisor. On a sunday my boss isn’t here.
My company is a 7day a week 364 day a year business. Only last year did we decide to be dark on christmas day. One missed unscheduled day can have a domino effect that might do permanent damage. Unless I am risking permanent damage to myself by coming in, I come in.

BTW I don’t fear the sack. I just fear numeroous ill effects to the company and my reputation of being awol.

#19

Fair enough but any company that has a situation were a staff absence could lead to “permanent damage” is a badly managed company. It puts the staff under too much pressure and also risks losing customers due to lack of coverage.

The staff are basically being punished for this mismanagement of recourses.

#20

I don’t defend it, I only report it as happening.

My job is stressful but it has lulls. In the lull times I can easily take off sick, because I feel like it, as comp time, etc. But when it’s a peak time, or a critical moment, if I don’t do it, most likely no one else can. It sounds like I’m selling myself up, but honestly, there is no one else that I’ve met or know of that does some specific things I can do or as well as I can do. And if I don’t do it, nobody does.

Would I be fired? No, it would be very hard for that to happen. Would it negatively impact my relations with the client and make it difficult to get work with them in the future, thus making me lose money and leading to potential loss of job in the future? Possibly, depending. I mean, if I’m supposed to be teaching a class overseas (always in the EC somewhere), where several engineers and managers have flown in from other countries, and they’ve all flown there and have taken off time and booked into hotels, and I don’t show up, then they’re out several thousand Euro, plus their time, plus given their schedules, they may not be able to make it in the near future - or be that interested.

If I don’t do it, not many people can. My two assistants could wing it, but as soon as things got hairy they’d be saying “Ummmm…I don’t know…” a lot. Plus neither of them wants to lecture and instruct in a classroom setting, and one is pretty much paralyzed with fear at the prospect and might outright refuse. Oh yeah, one refuses to travel overseas due to “fear of terrorism”, so they’re out.

I used to have a consultant I hired in Europe who traveled with me and who could fully replace me, but she changed jobs and now I have no backup. So if it’s not me, it’s no one.

Like I said, I wouldn’t get fired, but it would be bad. I might have to reimburse the people for their travel and expenses, refund their money for training (of course), and it could easily cost, for a class of 10 people or so, upwards of $30-40,000, plus a loss of maybe $20,000 for the class. That’s a huge amount of loss which I (meaning my budget; it doesn’t come out of my pocket, of course) cannot bear.