I’d sack him for use of the term “epic fail”.
What’s with that shit? It’s all over the internet, and I’m even spotting it here. “Fail” is a verb, you fuckheads.
When I lost my wedding ring, I drank far too much and had to call in sick mid-week. I hadn’t ever been so hungover I couldn’t work before or since and I don’t often call in sick. I learned that while being drunk cheered me immensely and entertained my boyfriend gi-normously, my ring was still gone and I was vomiting every hour on the hour all morning.
<hijack> Wait…you had a wedding ring (one you cared about, no less) and a boyfriend at the same time? That’s a story we’ve just gotta hear! </hijack>
I consider paid sick days a benefit, not a privilege. The only thing perfect attendance gets me is 3 extra days at my desk per year. Besides, all the boss needs to hear is “The way I’m feeling, I’m not going to make it in today.” Simple and vague enough for both parties, I think.
A hungover is usually worse than most things people call in sick for, why is it not a valid excuse? Headache, puking, nausea… this aren’t good enough reasons to call in sick?
I don’t think it matters why you’re calling in sick, as long as you don’t do it any more often than other people. A bad hangover is worse than a bad cold; regardless of how you got that way, a sick employee is not much use to anyone at work.
If the guy has X amount of sick days allowed, and he uses no more or less than any of the other employees, I don’t see why it’s anyone’s business WHY he was sick.
He was a moron for posting it on Facebook, though.
Exactly. Sick days should be for things beyond your control. Our policies specifically state that if you cannot come to work because you have trashed yourself, then you must take a day’s vacation.
I’m of two minds on this … sick is sick, and if a person has sick days available, why not?
On the other hand, I think calling in hungover and then posting about it on facebook and then getting into it with the supervisor on the phone is a pretty decent litmus test for general dumbassness. I wouldn’t want a person that dumb working for me.
So I guess I think it’s one of those scenarios where there is nothing wrong with it if you can be subtle and stay off the radar, but it’s a sign that you’re too immature for adult society if you can’t manage to pull it off gracefully.
I’m with this guy.
One time I went home sick from work because of opiate withdrawals. Of course, between shivering and throwing up every ten minutes, that really does look a lot like the flu.
But the term is “Crapulence”. You have an illness.
I’ve gotta say that’s one of the stupidest analogies I’ve heard. And to think 2 people tried to make it…
I don’t know too many people (and here’s the invitation for about 10 of them to come out of the woodwork) who don’t know where their limits are in terms of how much they can drink without being hungover the next day. Yeah, if someone spiked your drink, or had an unexpected drug interaction, I can see this being forgivable. I would not think it unfair to be reprimanded by my employer in this instance, however.
If I decided to go on my first skiiing trip ever, and launcehd off the black diamond hill and wound up inthe hospital, I would also expect my employer to be righteously pissed. It shows a decided lack of judgement.
Wait, drunk people have poor judgement? I am SHOCKED! :eek:
If this were one of my guys, I would let it slide - as long as it wasn’t habitual. If he were taking sick leave regularly because he drank too much, I would count him as unreliable and probably let him go.
Why not use a personal day? They are there for when you need time to take care of personal issues/tasks.
One or two days a year I just plain old don’t feel like going to work. I’m not physically ill, but I might be stressed out, or in a particular bad mood, maybe I just need a break. If this happens, and it does, maybe once or twice a year, I take a personal day. Big whoop.
My company gives us a bank of 8 sick days per year. At the end of the year we only get paid for half of what we did not use. Therefore we get more for our money by actually taking those sick days.
I have no problem with people using sick days when they’re hungover or just need a break, as long as it’s not habitual. Bragging about it on facebook is just moronic.
I’m curious - when you guys call in sick, are you required to provide a specific reason? Because I have never had a job that did. Whether I have the flu or am hungover, all I need to do is call in, say I’m not feeling well, and (hopefully) that nothing urgent is on my desk needing to be done in my absence. I have never had a boss ask what was wrong with me. We need a doctor’s note if we are out sick 3 days in a row.
I think part of the disagreement here concerns how people define “sick”. I view it broadly, as any situation that renders an employee physically, mentally, or emotionally incapable of performing his job. IME women tend to use up their sick leave balance related to childbirth. I’m not sure childbirth is a sickness, and it certainly is volitional in most cases, but I have never heard anyone question the use of lengthy periods of sick leave both before and after birth. Nor do I think anyone should question such use.
When I had been working here only a couple of years, one afternoon I got a call at work that my dad had had a stroke and was in the ICU. I went to tell my boss (actually my boss’ boss, as I couldn’t find my boss) that I would be catching the next train to head to the hospital. As I stood there crying, he saw the need to tell me that I had to take annual leave (vacation) rather than sick. Well, you can guess the effect that had - although I had rarely used sick leave before that, afterwards I had no qualms about using it whenever I wanted. In my opinion, that afternoon I was mentally incapable of pereforming my job, and should have been entitled to use sick leave. But he felt otherwise.
I think the skiing example is fine. Or what if I am drunk over the weekend and fall down some stairs. Come monday I am not hungover, but my injuries keep me from coming into work. No sick leave? What about elective surgery? Or a piercing that gets infected and requires treatment? An STD? When you employ people, IMO you should realize that some percentage of your employees will do stupid things, leading to their suing the benefits they provide. I think it crosses a line for a boss to put himself in a position where he chooses what illnesses are or are not severe enough to warrant leave.
90wt - I agree that it sorta sucks to lose your compiled leave. I think that provides an incentive for people to misuse it. Our situation is kinda odd in that we get no disability leave - the only disability leave is whatever sick leave you have compiled over your career. So you do have an incentive to not just piss away your sick leave. Right now I’ve got over 1000 hours piled up after 20+ years.
I think a fair compromise would be to allow folks to cash out a percentage of their accumulated sick leave on retirement. Say 50, 25, or even 10%. But I don’t make the policy. So what you have is a lot of people mysteriously getting sick a lot in the year or 2 immediately before they retire. Gee - who’da expected that! :rolleyes:
We don’t get personal days. It’s either vacation time or sick leave. Vacation time needs to be scheduled in advance.
I have called in sick from not getting enough sleep, or just feel under the weather. If an emergency pops up, we can take unscheduled vacation I suppose.
If I take time off to get chemotherapy for smoking-related cancer, how’s that any different? Or time off to have surgery for a torn ACL I received playing backyard football? Or time off for a cardiac screening due to my high cholesterol levels? All three are self-inflicted (mind you, none of those three are true for me… I was just making examples ;)).
How many of them have such a high correlation to being screwed up the next day? Feel free to argue it to your boss, that these things are al the same. And when he (or she) treats you like a 10 year old, don’t be surprised.
Holy crap! That’s 30 weeks of vacation!