posted
Yesterday I was laid up at home with a strained muscle in my back. When I called in to work, I told my boss that I could come in if they got busy, and not to hesitate to call me if they needed me. I would prefer to spend the day resting in bed, but could come in to work - I was not contagious or anything.
Well, they did get very busy, and no one called me. Now my coworkers are resentful that I wasn't here to help with the onslaught of work.
What do you think of this? Who's right and who's wrong? How do I mend the fences with my coworkers who got slammed?
-------------------- HA! That's so funny I forgot to laugh...excluding that first Ha. -Stewie Griffin Posts: 112 | From: Albuquerque, NM | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
Tricky. In my opinion, you made the mistake of handing over the responsibility for determining how ill you were to your bosses. I can't imagine as a boss phoning someone on sickleave and asking them to come in.
Politely tell your workers you were too injured to work might be a better plan than telling them they could have called you and you would have come in and helped. I hope your back is better today, incidentally.
-------------------- "You watched it. You can't UNWATCH it." Posts: 1646 | From: UK | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
The potential for aggravating your back problem is the best reason you have. Would your co-workers had preferred it if you ended up out for three weeks INSTEAD of a day?
If you have the sick time, and you are not one to cry wolf with it, then you shouldn't feel the least bit guilty that you stayed home and rested your back.
posted
You are in no way obligated to inform your coworkers of your situation. And you shouldn't feel like you owe them an explaination.
After all, they obviously weren't concerned about your well being. You should be annoyed by their rudeness and childlike behaviour.
ETA: I hope your back is doing better. Don't let it get worse because of work. Take the rest you need.
Posts: 332 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Jan 2006
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Rhiandmoi
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
To mend fences with your coworkers - chocolate.
If you get in a similar situation again, call in broken in the morning, and then call in just before lunch to find out how the day is going, so you can go in for the afternoon if they need you.
-------------------- I think that hyperbole is the single greatest factor contributing to the decline of society. - My friend Pat.
posted
It's best to call in sick and not leave open the option of being called in to work. If they need you badly enough, they will negotiate with you. But let your supervisor be the one to initiate that.
As far as your co-workers go, they are being little brats. Paid time off is paid time off. It's no one's business what you do with it nor is your medical condition their business. If you're allotted 5 sick days a year and that's all you use, then no one should gripe. It would be a comopletely different story if you were calling in sick beyond that.
LR
Posts: 780 | From: Dallas, TX | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
There's another issue here that needs to be mentioned. I'm not sure of the exact legal situation, but if I were the boss, and was told by an injured employee that I could call him in if they were "really busy", I'd be extremely worried about my legal position if I did so, and the worker's injury got worse. I don't even want to think about how an attorney could play that in front of a jury.
Dog Friendly
-------------------- "Nobody ever got stoned and beat up his old lady" -- Spence, snapdragonfly's friend Posts: 768 | From: North Hollywood, CA | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Good points, one and all. Next time I'm sick I'll stay that way and leave the guilt for someone else.
-------------------- HA! That's so funny I forgot to laugh...excluding that first Ha. -Stewie Griffin Posts: 112 | From: Albuquerque, NM | Registered: Oct 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Rhiandmoi: To mend fences with your coworkers - chocolate.
Why would you have to mend fences? Say: "Hey a-holes, I was sick. Get it? Too sick to work. If I weren't sick, I would have come in. Now get off my back.
Pogue
-------------------- Let's drink to the causes in your life: Your family, your friends, the union, your wife. Posts: 11325 | From: Kentucky | Registered: Nov 2000
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Rhiandmoi
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
One of the questions posed in the OP was "How do I mend the fences with my coworkers who got slammed?"
My answer was chocolate.
I had no comment on whether or not mending fences was necessary.
-------------------- I think that hyperbole is the single greatest factor contributing to the decline of society. - My friend Pat.
quote:Originally posted by Rhiandmoi: To mend fences with your coworkers - chocolate.
Why would you have to mend fences? Say: "Hey a-holes, I was sick. Get it? Too sick to work. If I weren't sick, I would have come in. Now get off my back.
Pogue
Except that the OP wasn't too sick to work. The situation was more "sick enough that I prefer not to work, and would get better quicker if I didn't." There's a difference and how that difference is handled depends (in my expereince) on your position, the number of people available to take up your slack, and your employer's time off policy.
I've worked jobs where there were paid sick days and plenty of folks to take up the slack (or the work I did was the kind I could catch up on the rest of the week.) I've had jobs where if I called in I just wouldn't get paid for that day and me not being there meant a much harder day for those who were. I've had jobs with a passive agressive martyr of a boss who would cut my hours for the rest of the week if I dared to be sick when she needed me.
If I was sick enough that work would be pretty miserable and I thought I'd get better quicker with a day in bed in the first kind of job, I called in. In the same situation in the second kind of job, I would either tentitively call in ("hey, what's the schedule look like - huh, do you mind if I don't come in till the afternoon, I can help catch up the paperwork then, but I'm feeling crappy") or go in but let it be known that knocking off early would be great, and/or call around for someone who wanted some extra hours while I was there. With the third kind of job, I learned to just suck it up unless I physically couldn't get out the door. (As I do now that I'm self employed as a dog walker.)
There is nothing wrong with the OP doing something genericly nice for the coworkers who had to pick up the slack. In some job situations you weigh how you feel against the impact of you not being there. The OP tried to do that but got short circuited by a boss who didn't take the offer seriously enough.
Posts: 96 | From: Attleboro, MA | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Buckleupp, in my book a strained muscle ranks as high as, even higher than, a severe cold any day in terms of calling in sick. Just because you aren't contagious doesn't mean you needed to be at work.
As long as you don't abuse the sicktime policy, there's no reason to apologize to your coworkers. Buy the chocolate for yourself!
-------------------- Let's just pretend we're normal for a minute ~ New favorite T-shirt quote Posts: 1193 | From: Ohio | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Kahuna Burger: I've worked jobs where there were paid sick days and plenty of folks to take up the slack (or the work I did was the kind I could catch up on the rest of the week.) I've had jobs where if I called in I just wouldn't get paid for that day and me not being there meant a much harder day for those who were. I've had jobs with a passive agressive martyr of a boss who would cut my hours for the rest of the week if I dared to be sick when she needed me.
If I was sick enough that work would be pretty miserable and I thought I'd get better quicker with a day in bed in the first kind of job, I called in. In the same situation in the second kind of job, I would either tentitively call in ("hey, what's the schedule look like - huh, do you mind if I don't come in till the afternoon, I can help catch up the paperwork then, but I'm feeling crappy") or go in but let it be known that knocking off early would be great, and/or call around for someone who wanted some extra hours while I was there. With the third kind of job, I learned to just suck it up unless I physically couldn't get out the door. (As I do now that I'm self employed as a dog walker.)
sorry, but I read this as YOU being the passive aggressive martyr kind of boss (at my count, the third work situation you mentioned), since you're self-employed!
-------------------- Like every good third-in-a-series it contains a whole load of ewoks, ‘Clubber’ Lang, whey-faced Sophia Coppola, Sean Connery as the Pirate Captain’s estranged dad, a crappy CGI alien, and Richard Pryor on a donkey. -- Gideon Defoe Posts: 2211 | From: Harford County, MD | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
Sort of a hijack, but I'm curious where the line is drawn. I ran the call-in log at my last job, so I heard all the sob-stories. For about a week and a half, we had electrical problems at work that caused the lights to flicker. A co-worker with epilepsy called in, not because she was sick, but because exposure to the flashing lights would cause a seizure. HR had it on file that she was epileptic, and OKed it but still gave her a guilt trip of a lifetime.
-------------------- "Tout le monde est fou, sauf vous et moi." Posts: 47 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Jocko's Jolly: sorry, but I read this as YOU being the passive aggressive martyr kind of boss (at my count, the third work situation you mentioned), since you're self-employed!
I'm a total bitch to myself as a boss.... And my christmas bonus sucks! Posts: 96 | From: Attleboro, MA | Registered: Nov 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Bramble Silvertree: Sort of a hijack, but I'm curious where the line is drawn. I ran the call-in log at my last job, so I heard all the sob-stories. For about a week and a half, we had electrical problems at work that caused the lights to flicker. A co-worker with epilepsy called in, not because she was sick, but because exposure to the flashing lights would cause a seizure. HR had it on file that she was epileptic, and OKed it but still gave her a guilt trip of a lifetime.
Was your job to log that the call had been made or confirm the veracity of the story you were given?
Giving people guilt trips for using the leave they're entitled to is beyond the pale.
-------------------- "When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty."--George Bernard Shaw Posts: 19266 | From: Nashville, TN | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
YMMV, but I think you should have just called in sick then called back at noon or so to see how things were going and if there was anything you could do from home (I don't know your kind of job, but if there were phone calls to be made or something along those lines...).
Your boss probably didn't want to make the call that you were needed and may not have even noticed that everyone else was busy. It's happened to me a number of times, but I pretty much have my bosses trained now.
Your co-workers have no reason to resent you, but they will. And they'll probably get over it. As soon as they need your help with something else.
One great thing about my office, if you look sick, you are asked if you don't feel well and would you like to go home? If you are coughing or sneezing excessively and look sick, you are told to go home and not come back until you are better. Our office manager is more worried about spreading disease than lost person hours.
-------------------- "Maybe getting in the last word doesn't really mean you win." - The Clarks Posts: 486 | From: Pittsburgh, PA | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by AnglsWeHvHrdOnHiRdr: Giving people guilt trips for using the leave they're entitled to is beyond the pale.
Generally speaking, I do not call in sick to work. I am probably "too sick to work" by most standards three or four times a year, but my own guilt over the possibility of leaving my co-workers in a lurch will eat me up. Also, my boss is an absolute NFBSK about people calling in sick.
It's one thing to put your foot down on excessive call-ins, but model employees face an inquisition if they call in for any reason and have to speak to him. I agree, it is absolutely ridiculous to treat sick employees that way, and it's a pretty grim reflection on the boss's character.
Posts: 115 | From: Kentucky | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Bramble Silvertree: Sort of a hijack, but I'm curious where the line is drawn. I ran the call-in log at my last job, so I heard all the sob-stories. For about a week and a half, we had electrical problems at work that caused the lights to flicker. A co-worker with epilepsy called in, not because she was sick, but because exposure to the flashing lights would cause a seizure. HR had it on file that she was epileptic, and OKed it but still gave her a guilt trip of a lifetime.
I don't have epilepsy, but I have a history of migraines, mini-strokes and strokes. I could not work in a workplace like that without at the least a crippling amount of pain. I want to be horrified about the guilt trip, but it's all very familiar to me.
Posts: 45 | From: Edinburgh, Scotland | Registered: Oct 2006
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