[OT] Pulling a sickie

[MrChumble]

It's a work day and I'm sat at home! I'm so evil!

Well no, I'm having a day of holiday. I had to be at home to receive some new kit for my PC :)

Thing is I might have been pulling a sickie if it wasn't for discussing that very subject with my colleagues at work yesterday (thus making it totally obvious that I was faking it :)).

I'm hardly ever ill (touch wood) so while most people get a few days off work each year from illness I tend not to. I believe in America they give you like 5 sick days a year and if you don't use them cos of illness you get them as holiday. Not so in the UK (although with 5 weeks holiday a year I think we win).

So the question: is it ok to take sickies? Or do they make you evil thieving scum whores?

(A note for the foreign types: pulling a sickie is faking illness to get a day off work. It usually involves lots of exaggerated groaning over the phone and minor/vague symptoms like "I'm feeling a bit under the weather" or "I have a migraine".)

(An additional note for those people who like to -rep me for unfair polls. This one wasn't meant to be fair. Deal with it :p)

[Capt. Rik]

never pulled a sickie in 7 years of working.

I have sympathy for some people doing it though when there is some really important reason for the absense tho

[bounty]

Fuck work if i get 4 sickies a year i take 8.

[coppertop]

I have very rarely done it, but in my workplace its almost impossible to get a day of at short notice, so when something very important has come up I have ocasionally taken a day of sick instead of asking, getting told no I cant and then being screwed. :angel:

[Mantiz]

Sometimes, hard to resist when you start at 4am. I'm usually a 12-hour sleeper :)

[joran420]

yeah in the US technically if you dont use your sick days they go poof at the end of the year(lthough vacation time and personal time off roll over year to year) I just take vacation and tell teh boss to use my sickdays instead of vacation then once i get up to 300 hours of vacation i can cash em out at 14.00 per hour(~~14.00/hr more or less my salary)

damn i just did the math and if i cash out on my 300 hours vacation thats like a 4200.00 pay check :)

[Dru Blood]

i take sickies when ever i feel like it, my employer treat me like shit so what goes around comes around for them.

[steweygrrr]

I'd pull them if I didnt get sacked for them......even when they are legit...

Damn you Chumble....

[Jest]

Tbh I think it depends on the work I need to get done. If you have nothing to do that day and will just end up surfing the Neocron forums all day, then take the sickie! But there are some days when there is just way too much to do and no chance in hell Im taking a sick day on one of those days. (Not even if Im really sick :p )

[Richard Slade]

Never pulled a sickie...

Could be cuz I ain't ever had any work to pull a sickie from, but still...

[Spermy]

Ah sickies... in my book, they're called weekdays. I Heart My Bed! :lol:

[jernau]

If a) I don't have anything urgent on, b) it doesn't dump crap onto anyone else (unless they deserve it ;)) and c) the employer has annoyed me at all then I see no problem.

Any sensible company budgets for it anyway and in most cases the senior (mis-)management are up to far worse.

Also you can be damn sure they won't reward you for never taking a day off sick.

[ichinin]

Not from work, i think i have been healthy for one year, maby it was 2002 or 2003.. didn't even get my nose runny.. (except that i got into a severe depression, but i didnt have work to go from..)

[Ryman]

LOL the company i work for pays up to 20 days sick a year with full pay and no loss of bonuses...... that would be a shame to waste it :p

And whats more i feel no guilt ...... even with the 28 days holiday they give me aswell .....

[seraphian]

everyone does it on occasion...

it's a well 'known' fact at work I have a weak stomach, so I can get out of work saying I have a flu any time I want...

I've seen some people do some CRAZY things to get out of work though... including intentionally cutting their own hand bad enough to need stiches (whilst working in a restaurant... it was a NUTS day and we think this guy cut himself on purpose, though I'm not sure he meant to cut that deep...) and using emetics to make themselves puke on the job (nothing gets you out the door like running to a trash can and projectilly vomiting for a few minutes)

[Jonax]

Nah - I prefer to work continuously until I knock myself out. ;)

That way - Every few months, I spend a couple of days in hospital recovering, doctor tells my boss that I need a holiday, work forces me on paid leave without touching my saved days, and I take a week off free :D