Employees frequently calling in sick (full-time, office, good, shifts)
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Unfortunately the law is on the side of the employee. I can see how an employer may be frustrated that an employee is constantly calling out sick as it does impact the business but the reasonable accommodation protects the employee because the accommodation can be a change in policy or rules or the way things are normally run. Allowing an employee to stay home with proof of a doctor's note is a change in rules if that is not customary practice at your job.
And yes you are correct, no federal laws specify employees are entitled to sick days. I worded it incorrectly. I meant IF an employee is given X amount of sick days then they are entitled to use X amount of sick days. If no sick days are given (or once the given amount has run out), an employee is entitled to use FMLA for up to 12 weeks of unpaid sick days (assuming the criteria of being there for 12 months, etc, has been met).
It depends on whether the law is on the employee's side. Currently we're debating vague generalities and have no actual fact pattern to base our opinions. It's going to depend on the job requirements as to whether being absent from work is a reasonable accommodation. For example, a police officer who patrols in a cruiser needs to physically be at work so there is no reasonable accommodation that would allow him to work from home. But there are some IT jobs where working from home is possible so the making such an accommodation could be reasonable. If someone has an illness that will take her out of work for eight weeks, for example, that seems to more of an FMLA issue.
Regarding the sick days, I wasn't clear but my point is that even if an employer offers sick leave, the employee is still not entitled to use it without permission from his supervisor. In actual practice, in a vast majority of cases, when an employee asks for sick days off he gets them, which creates this pervasive notion that employers have to give employees sick days off upon request.
Could she just work from home? Whenever I'm sick, I work from home. I'm still working (I'm much more productive, in fact), but can physically rest, recover, all while preventing it from spreading. It may not be possible for all jobs, but if it is, I'd highly recommend it.
Wow, you all are lucky to work places where employers have to accommodate you for being sick. Most every place I have worked you miss more than three days there's little point in showing up cause you're out.
How do you think a company should respond to an employee that calls in sick frequently, but is legitimately ill?
I have a coworker who has taken off at least two weeks (if not more, I haven't been keeping close track, obviously) over six months due to the flu or similar illness. Three days here, two days there, five days two weeks later, and so on. However, she clearly is sick every time.
I was told that another employee at a different office took many sick days and they were no longer allowed to use illness as a reason for missing work. I am not sure how that is handled.
I believe it and it's very possible, especially in the corporate world. The issue is not whether the person is really sick or not, the issue is the frequency of the absences and their negative impact to the business.
The problem is, even if the reason is legitimate the employee is still missing a lot of work suddenly and inconsistently. All the other employees must pick up the slack. It does get exacerbating. But it also seems unfair to say "you can no longer get sick".
No, she isn't. She does make questionable relationship choices, though, which lead to some of her absences. But that isn't the business of the employer.
How can relationship issued lead to absences where she's sick? She's either sick or has issues.
I say if they run out of PTO and vacation..get rid of them. I think at my current job-if you are out more than 3 days you need a doctor's note. When someone is constantly out-they normally have someone else doing their work and feeling the heat.
Recently my job hired a "friend" of the HR woman. This 30 year old mess constantly pops pain pills and she just hit her 90 days has called out rather a lot. I feel the heat when she's gone but, to be honest, I value when she's not there. I can't stand her. I look at it like "peace in my world today"
That's why I love PTO for total time off. We had a policy here of 2 weeks of vacation, and a week of sick days, but there was flexibility on the sick days because you really don't want people coming in sick.
It took one employee to switch us to PTO for both. She would call in sick on and off, for about 2 weeks or so on top of the week that she got, then expected her entire 2 weeks of vacation on top of that. Funny, her illness was always stomach trouble, so hard to "see". After the second year, and she'd taken 5 weeks off, we switched to 3 weeks PTO. She started getting nicked every time she called in sick and when she requested her yearly vacation she was told she was out of PTO. She left shortly after that.
Sadly, there are people that abuse the kindness of their employer.
I have type 2 diabetes and a pinched nerve causing pain in my right leg. I take off often due to low energy and fatigue. Some days I wake up after having an hour of sleep. I take off lots. Dont be judgemental on the sick, one day it may be you.
I can't emphasize this enough. When I was in my mid 20's I made a smart comment about the older secretary who worked for the firm who had to take time for "womens issues" about hadn't she learned how to handle that by now. Twenty years later you might find out why she hadn't learned how to handle that by now and all the other assorted garbage that comes along with not being 25 anymore.
I am debating whether I should call out Monday because I don't want to be in a situation where I am the only one who came to work after a weekend blizzard and have to do double work because everyone is out.
To those who say I shouldn't worry about it because I'm not management: Well, of course. But this isn't a discussion with management, this is an internet forum to discuss issues related to employment. I can be as interested in workplace policies as I want. The discussions on FEMA are great and informative.
At our company, we have not been given an employee handbook, job descriptions, or an organizational chart. The boss thinks these things are unnecessary and verbal discussions once in a while one-on-one with certain employees is enough. We make it up as we go along. I wrote my own job description at the request of my supervisor when management refused to provide it.
My supervisor is making the complaint that leave policies are unclear to help advance our case that we should have an employee handbook. She tells us that she cannot officially approve leave or overtime, but is supposed to keep track of leave and overtime (how confusing). Most of us ask her for approval anyway because when we ask anyone else they tell us to talk to her. No one will sit down with us together to tell us the policy or write it down. If leave is unpaid, sometimes there is no request made in the first place; people just leave and put it on their time card. No one makes noise about it, so we guess that is okay. It is a messed up situation that I cannot do anything about.
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