Sick Time

[VSUMarco]

I've noticed a lot of departments allow a great number of sick days for their officers. I presume this would be because they don't want members risking their lives if they're not at 100%, understandably. Having a strong work ethic behind me I'm rarely used to taking sick days, even when I am sick. I'll truck in with a fever, cold, as long as I'm not vomitting more frequently than once an hour.

It begs the question, however, that officers who take more sick days, are they less-likely to be considered for promotions, or viewed unfavourably by superiors? I was always under the impression that it works kinda like the postal service, rain or shine, tornado or apocalypse, SARS or Anthrax, you always show up for your shift.

How do your departments view sick days? Would they prefer you stay home so you don't get other members sick and fully recover so you can go 100% the next day? Or do they want you to come in no matter what?

[ofc129]

One of the first things they do here when somebody puts in a transfer request for CID is look at vacation/sick time taken. If someone is always calling out, even if they have the time for it, that's a definite black mark against them. If it comes down to two people getting one slot and they're equally recommended, it could definitely be a tie-breaker.

Kristen

[SilentEnforcer]

Sick time abuse runs rampant at my place.
But it seems the disgruntled, the slackers, the marginal employees and many of the RODs are the biggest offenders, imagine that.;)

[fanish]

In 5 years at my current job, I have called out 5-6 times. There are some new people that have called out more than that in the last few months. We don't accumulate sick days, we have to take vacation pay to get our 40 if we call out. If you get seriously ill or someone in your family dies or gets ill, you can get some pay if you are out sick for 3 or more days.

I can't imagine taking 12 or more days off for being sick each year. I guess I'll just accumulate them and take a pay out. It looks like most places pay out at 30-50% of what you have accumulated when you retire. Not a bad chunk of change when you have a couple hundred sick days built up.

[PC August]

Originally posted by VSUMarco
Having a strong work ethic behind me I'm rarely used to taking sick days, even when I am sick. I'll truck in with a fever, cold, as long as I'm not vomitting more frequently than once an hour.
I was always under the impression that it works kinda like the postal service, rain or shine, tornado or apocalypse, SARS or Anthrax, you always show up for your shift.

I'm glad I don't work with you. I pity your co-workers and the people you deal with who get to catch whatever you've got thanks to your "strong work ethic".

If you're frickin' sick then call in sick for Pete's sake. That's the purpose of sick days, that's why your association pushed for you guys to get all those sick hours. Of course you don't abuse it and call in when you're fine, but I can't stand it when people come to work in the midst of some cold and spread it around like a hurricane.

STAY HOME!!

[jnhdrac]

We can use up to 1 year of sick time towards retirement, so you are pretty motivated not to waste it. Having said that, before I left permanent midnights, I was going through sick leave at a faster rate than I really wanted to. Since I have been on permanent days, I think I have called in maybe 2 or 3 times in 3 years, and one was from the hospital when my son was born.

Leaving a year early is a pretty powerful motivator to me to only take sick time when there is no way out, but if I am sick and should not be at work, I'm not going.

[Chase]

Originally posted by ofc129
One of the first things they do here when somebody puts in a transfer request for CID is look at vacation/sick time taken. If someone is always calling out, even if they have the time for it, that's a definite black mark against them. If it comes down to two people getting one slot and they're equally recommended, it could definitely be a tie-breaker.


Exact same way at my dept.

[VSUMarco]

Originally posted by PC August
I'm glad I don't work with you. I pity your co-workers and the people you deal with who get to catch whatever you've got thanks to your "strong work ethic".

If you're frickin' sick then call in sick for Pete's sake. That's the purpose of sick days, that's why your association pushed for you guys to get all those sick hours. Of course you don't abuse it and call in when you're fine, but I can't stand it when people come to work in the midst of some cold and spread it around like a hurricane.

STAY HOME!!

The feeling is mutual PC August, I'm glad I don't work with you and I pity your co-workers who have to take on an extra work load just because you can't come to work due to a nasty case of the sniffles. By the way, if you know the slightest bit about medicine, you would know that the time someone is most contagious is when they are pre-symptomatic. Post-symptomatics are much less contagious.

I guess I exaggerated a bit in my last post... I've never really been so sick that I've vomitted every hour. What I really just wanted to know is how departments view people calling in sick. We all know those who fake the sick voice on the phone to their boss, the ones that come up with ridiculous stories, and even the ones that come up with plausible stories that you know are fake. I just hate talking to these people the next day and have them bs right to my face. "Oh man I was so sick yesterday I was puking through my eye-sockets."

So before I go too far off on a tangent, just to regroup here, I was under the impression that it's come in no matter what, but I guess it's nice to know there's that security behind you if something really nasty happens to you.

Cheers! :D

(P.S. Sorry for sounding b*tchy earlier. I guess I could delete it right now but I don't feel like it. :))

[fanish]

Originally posted by PC August
... I can't stand it when people come to work in the midst of some cold and spread it around like a hurricane.

STAY HOME!!

At my job(retail) you get written up if you call out more than 3 days in any rolling 60 day period. If I called out everytime I had a cold, fever, etc, I'd be fired by now for attendance. I know it's that way at A LOT of places. It may not be fair and it may lead to spreading viruses, but it's pretty common place. Like I said in my earlier post, we don't get sick days, we have to compensate ourselves with vacation time when we call out so there's even less incentive to call out.

I make the call as to whether or not I can perform my duties effectively as the deciding factor in calling out.

[PC August]

Originally posted by VSUMarco
The feeling is mutual PC August, I'm glad I don't work with you and I pity your co-workers who have to take on an extra work load just because you can't come to work due to a nasty case of the sniffles. By the way, if you know the slightest bit about medicine, you would know that the time someone is most contagious is when they are pre-symptomatic. Post-symptomatics are much less contagious.

Sorry brother, my specialty is law enforcement not medicine. All I know is when I'm around sick bastards I tend to get sick myself. Don't seem to happen when I'm around healthy folk. But what do I know.

Maybe your department only has 3-4 on the road at any time, I don't know, we're somewhat larger so the impact is less. Of course the workload can be a little more. I'm not advocating calling in sick, I haven't been sick in 2 years now, but if I was legitimately sick, I'm gonna do myself and my brothers a favor and book off for a shift. I would hope they'd do the same.

:D

[geordiecop II]

PC August,

I would tend to agree with you on this one.

I would much rather have to manage the extra
workload created by a collegue being of sick than
catch whatever nasty condition he's got.

I find those "martyr's" who drag themselves into
work, no matter how ill they are, consequently
infecting those around them, almost as irritating
as those who take time off when there is nothing
wrong with them.

[ftlaudcop]

depending on the area where yr from,
patrolling northern city's and having
mother nature sick call's and dealing with
sick ,nasty people.
or us southern cop's, dealing with the already natural high
crime rate, homeless ***** holes, warm weather, which tends to spread the germs more, and the " creepin crud" for any sickness not already identifiable. we have 25 yr vet's with no sick time on the books, and have people who use every 8 hours they get, and when some of these people get sick they call out for us to donate our vacation time to them.
not sure how it affects promotions etc , assignments, you would think it would, but when working for a political office , " probable cause" to believe, things like that would be taken into consideration. not so !

[Bob L]

In my dept. sick time and vacation time are looked at first when requesting a transfer of any kind. I will advise this though. Please don't abuse your sick time. If your sick, by all means stay home and get better.
I had surgery back on May 20th, and i'm still out of work recovering. If it were not for saving sick time i'd be in a big mess now. You never know when you may need it, especially when age creeps up on us all.

[Sgt Lobster]

In the UK police currently get 6 months on full pay & 6 months on half pay. Prior to September 1994, we used to get unlimited sick leave. Even now the chief officer has discretion to keep you on full pay.

Going sick however can have a big effect on your job & promotion prospects.



Lobster.