I always just say that I’m not feeling well and won’t be in. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a mental health day or I’m really sick - I still always feel guilty and worry that they’ll think I’m faking it.
he last time I was sick, though, everyone in the office got the same cold to one degree or another. So at least in that case they knew I wasn’t faking it because everyone knew exactly how bad I was feeling. That wasn’t fun. I wish more people had stayed home and had kept their germs to themselves!
Almost every time I “faked it” and called in, I ended up actually getting sick that same day. “I can’t make it in today, I don’t feel well” click ahh dang, where’d this fever come from?
I figure it was either my guilty concious giving some validity to the claim, or my brain knew before the rest of my body did that I was really sick. Regardless of which it is, I don’t fake it often, just in case.
Chalk me up as one of the “feels guilty, even if I really am sick” folks. I always feel like I’m abandoning my coworkers, even though I know I won’t help them by passing my germs on to them. That doesn’t make me feel any less guilty though.
The only time I didn’t feel guilty calling in was a day I requested off. My boss told me he couldn’t authorize it, because too many people were going to be out that day. As I was walking away from his desk he stopped me and said, “But I can’t control whether or not you call in sick…” and winked at me. The reason for my request had been an important one, and my boss knew this. He couldn’t give me the day off pre-scheduled because of the policy, but gave me permission the only way he could. I took that day off guilt free.
My company gives us plenty of vacation but doens’t allow us access to it for the first six months. (I have 18 days left.) So for Christmas, I used all my personal days, and I’ve only had sick days left since then. Whenever I want a day off, I have to pretend I’m sick. I wish we just got one pile of personal-slash-sick days so that we could use them as we please, but nooo. I’ve had to make up stories a couple of times, and I hate doing it, but that time is mine. As long as I don’t run out, I will use it whenever I please and for whatever reason.
And if people ask “what I had,” I say, “that’s personal.” I mean, what if I had explosive diarrhea? Or a gynecological problem? None of their business at all.
My employer make it easy. Call the attendance hotline number, at the tone enter my employee ID number, *, number for benefit requrested (1 for vacation, 2 for sick leave), *, then the last four digits of my shop (3839) then I hang up.
My company makes us call a “sick line” where we leave a message on an answering machine. I leave my name, who my supervisor is (and department), when I plan to be back at work, and if I remember, my phone number (they ask for it in the message, but I conveniently forget, because I really don’t think they need to call me back!)
I then fire off an email to my supervisor, telling her I’m out for the day (my “illnesses” are usually migraine and/or insomnia, so one day to recover is usually enough) and letting her know what equipment I was using and any details another chemist may need to know to finish my work, assuming it can’t wait a day. I tell her the reason I’m out, but that’s really just because I like her and don’t mind her knowing. If it was something more serious, I may or may not describe the problem, it’s never happened, so I don’t know.
I also feel guilty the whole day, but I don’t take the time off unless I really need it. I don’t take half days, simply because my job is nearly an hour away, and the drive just isn’t worth it for 4 hours of work. If the work I’m missing is something that they might need me for, I give my supervisor my home phone number too, but she’s never used it, and it would have to be one hell of a crazy situation for them to need me that urgently!
I just call in and tell them I’m sick and that I’m not coming to work.
The only frustration I have with this is that they push me to go to the doctor’s. If I don’t, I can’t use sick time and have to take it out of my vacation, which pisses me off. I don’t have a car and the train station is over 1 km from my house. My clinic is 2 km from the station. If I’m healthy enough to make a 6 km trip on foot, I’m healthy enough to go to work. Screw that! If I’m sick I’m staying at home and sleeping, not taking a bloody hike.
At my old jobs I would just call in sick and say “I’m sick” basically. Pretty cut and dry, but I always felt guilty no matter what, since I did have the habit of calling in when I wasn’t. Basically the more I hated the job, the more likely I was to call in sick. Although there was one job where my supervisor would call your house in the middle of the day to make sure you were home and really sick.
But now, I dread the day when I’m truly sick at my job. We get 1 sick day a year and no personal days. If you can’t make it to work, it’s your responsibility to find someone to work your shift. If you can’t, you have to come in. What’s horrible for me is, only two other people do the same job I do and their schedules are such that they can’t work for me on the weekends. Usually people just come into work no matter how they feel and tough it out.
I called in one day last week because I had my first real migraine ever.
Me: “Hey Steve, it’s Sarah. I’m not going to be in today.”
Steve: “Yeah? Why’s that?”
Me: “Uh… because I’m sick?” (Honestly, I’m calling in sick, for fuck’s sake. What kind of question is that?)
Steve: “You don’t sound very sick.”
Me: “Yeah, well… I am.”
Steve: loud, annoyingly obvious sigh “Okay then.”
And then I hung up the phone pissed off because he basically accused me of lying. Then I started feeling bad because, really, it’s just a headache. I probably could have made it in. And then I decided I had to pee and so left my extremely dark room to use the bathroom. When I opened the door between my bedroom and the bathroom and the sunlight made me puke, I went back to feeling pissed off. What a jerk. “You don’t sound sick.” Fuck you, man.
I phone my admin assistant, tell her I’m sick. I ask her to re-arrange my meetings for the day, and remind her of my number at home in case there is a problem with the re-arrangement or anything else of a pressing nature comes up.
“I can’t make it in today, I don’t feel well” click ahh dang, where’d this fever come from?
