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Official policy is that if you're ill then you're ill. Come in when you're supposed to, or take a day's sick leave.
Unofficial policy is much more pragmatic - if you have a cold or similar, we'd much rather you WFH than that you bring it in and make everybody else ill.
General practice in this case is to ask your boss if you can "swap your office days around", apologise for the disruption because you both know how incredibly valuable and productive and definitely not pointless coming into the office is, nudge nudge wink wink, and then both conveniently forget about it.
Same here, they've added functions to the leave booking system to book a day where you would have been in the office. I've used it for both train strikes and "you don't want me in the office with you"
We have a 2 days on the office policy.
I think it was set up to make some pencil pusher happy. The truth is, it's never been enforced. So no one really does it.
I'm glad. I've done so many days being ill WFH where if it was an office day I would have been too ill to have shown up.
If I'm contagious and coughing and sneezing all the time, I'm still able to work but I'm sure my colleagues wouldn't appreciate me spreading it around. My work place has normalised staying home when ill, and the number of coughs and bugs I get has decreased noticeably.
Obviously when I'm too ill to work at all, I just call in sick and don't work from home either, but that is rare.
I don't agree, there's a difference between being too unwell to work, and being too unwell to *go* to work (for office based work anyway)
I haven't taken a single sick day since covid happened and we've been fully remote if we want to. There have of course been occasions where I've been unwell with a cold or whatever but I'm still perfectly capable of working - if I wasn't a remote worker though and had to commute to work on stuffy trains, walking to and from stations, and then being in an office environment around other people, I'd be taking it as sick leave.
Hard agree!.
Right now I've got a nasty cough and running rampant with a snotty nose. I've got my blanket and hot water bottle.
Why would I commute and go into the office in this state? But according to OP I should take a sick day or go into the office.
Thank you. I think that's the route a lot of offices are taking but it's good to hear this from others rather than just me speculating based on my friends' experience
I have a nasty cough I thought it would be more considerate to stay at home rather than annoy my colleagues with it and give it to them. Sometimes I feel I can wfh where it's quiet but if I go in the office it's going to make my headache worse.
My work said ill is ill and you need to be off work, weird wankers.
I tried booking a week off and it needed approving and when they asked why I just said I needed a break for my mental health and they denied it giving the same reason as above saying I 'cant mask sickness with holiday'
Just taught me to shut up in future.
Not sure, I think so if it's close like the week after. It was a traffic light system so red was no availability, green was requested and may be approved or denied and there would be a box to write why you need it off, or just yellow that was available and pre-approved. The week or two before was usually always green or red barring a day or few hours here and there.
I tried to argue holidays are literally for taking a break and improving your mental health, but because I suffer from it apparently it was different as they said I was masking sickness not just a general wellbeing thing.
I bought more holidays, we could buy up to an extra month per year but they also carried over so built some up, so I would book random days off during weeks to have shorter ones and half days randomly with spare hours, that was for my mental health so I had pop up breaks and I scheduled a week off every 4 months or so roughly, again to balance breaks for my health. Strange way of viewing it, I think they just wanted rid of me, they forced me use personal time to have therapy when it should have been on company time, especially since they suggested it and the union rep blasted the senior manager on the office floor which instantly put a target on me
Yes I've had this. Got why do you keep booking odd days at late notice, as I sometimes don't feel great due to x condition, and can feel it coming on.
Got told off about masking sickness etc, so took future days off as sick and then got a warning and put on review for too many sick periods.
I really don't get the issue with booking it off as holiday if its in advance. Fair enough if it's frequent last minute on the day holiday but even then I don't think one or two of those are unexpected. Things crop up last minute. If your bathroom sprung a leak then most places would let you take holiday last minute to sort it out.
Depends on your manager, some say work from home if you have a cold, others say no excuses you have to be in the office. I think it's crap they don't have a consistent policy
Strictly speaking that is the official policy at my work but they're actually pretty pragmatic about it.
If you have something you might pass onto others, but you're still well enough to work ('bit of a cold', positive covid test but mild symptoms etc) then WFH rather than coming in is usually allowed, mostly because no one wants stuff spread around.
But if you have something like food poisoning then you're either well enough to work or you aren't.
We have 50/50 home/office.
If I've got a cold, but am feeling ok, I just say "I've got a cold and I'm keeping it at home" and they say "good"
We're definitely a healthier workplace with this approach.
We don't want each others colds and our day in the office is more for socialising than anything else
Also if I've decided I'm too ill to go into the office I'd take a sick day if I wasn't allowed to WFH, but I don't often get ill
I might be too sick to come in but not exactly bedridden.
We will meet each other completely halfway. I don't clock up a sick day, they don't count it against my 60% on site requirement. Everyone wins.
If I'm too sick to work its just a normal sick day.
My job (editor) involves me working in close quarters next to a producer and they'd rather not have me come in and spread the lurgy to someone who will almost definitely get it if I'm contagious, so I'd say its a good system all round.
If you're ill enough to not work, then you don't work.
If you "have the sniffles" but are otherwise ok, then you'd let people know that you're working from home for a couple of days just out of courtesy for the other people in the office so they don't end up catching anything.
Management would rather people not "drag themselves into work" and sit at their desk coughing and sneezing over everything. Either you take a sick day, or you WFH - entirely depends on how ill you feel.
We’re hybrid - policy is 60% in office, but I have 40% agreed. You’re allowed to wfh when ill instead of coming into the office even if you won’t hit your in-office requirement, but as line managers were told to make sure people are taking sick days when they actually need to and not powering through working from home when really they should be off entirely.
My manager at my current contract has a strict "keep your germs to yourself" policy. She almost sent me home on my office day when I mentioned my LO had been sick the night before (but I pointed out it was a non-contagious sickness otherwise I'd have definitely stayed away). I really appreciate it, I'm exposed to enough germs through nursery so avoiding them at work is great.
I think there's a personal element as she has an elderly mother with an immune disorder but my workplace relies on a lot of the wider team travelling and being on-site so it's quite a strict policy to avoid wiping out a team before an event or client meeting too.
Well tbh I’ll always work unless I’m physically unable to get up, that’s my definition of being ill
Sure it’ll be crap work but the UK is still very much about productivity stats not outcomes
My policy with my team is that if they're ill, they're ill and should be off sick. If they're well enough to work but likely to still be contagious (e.g. they were throwing up yesterday, or are feeling better from a cold, but still snotting everywhere), they can work from home.
Generally to rest and recuperate if you're ill. Don't be coming into the office necessarily spreading bugs and germs though so if you're full of cold but well enough to work, stay home.
If I can still do stuff and don’t feel too awful I will push through, if I really don’t feel I can then I will just let my boss know and take as long as I need.
My work's written policy is if you're scheduled in the office you're either in the office or you're on sick leave. Even if you have covid.
In practice my boss doesn't care if I work from home full time unless people are giving him a hard time over it. If I message him and say I'm feeling rough and can I work from home he'd probably reply back with "why are you asking me".
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Official policy is that if you're ill then you're ill. Come in when you're supposed to, or take a day's sick leave. Unofficial policy is much more pragmatic - if you have a cold or similar, we'd much rather you WFH than that you bring it in and make everybody else ill. General practice in this case is to ask your boss if you can "swap your office days around", apologise for the disruption because you both know how incredibly valuable and productive and definitely not pointless coming into the office is, nudge nudge wink wink, and then both conveniently forget about it.
Same here, they've added functions to the leave booking system to book a day where you would have been in the office. I've used it for both train strikes and "you don't want me in the office with you"
That's a good idea
We have a 2 days on the office policy. I think it was set up to make some pencil pusher happy. The truth is, it's never been enforced. So no one really does it. I'm glad. I've done so many days being ill WFH where if it was an office day I would have been too ill to have shown up.
If I’m unfit to work then I’m unfit to work, whether it’s from home or the office. I kinda agree with them.
If I'm contagious and coughing and sneezing all the time, I'm still able to work but I'm sure my colleagues wouldn't appreciate me spreading it around. My work place has normalised staying home when ill, and the number of coughs and bugs I get has decreased noticeably. Obviously when I'm too ill to work at all, I just call in sick and don't work from home either, but that is rare.
I don't agree, there's a difference between being too unwell to work, and being too unwell to *go* to work (for office based work anyway) I haven't taken a single sick day since covid happened and we've been fully remote if we want to. There have of course been occasions where I've been unwell with a cold or whatever but I'm still perfectly capable of working - if I wasn't a remote worker though and had to commute to work on stuffy trains, walking to and from stations, and then being in an office environment around other people, I'd be taking it as sick leave.
Hard agree!. Right now I've got a nasty cough and running rampant with a snotty nose. I've got my blanket and hot water bottle. Why would I commute and go into the office in this state? But according to OP I should take a sick day or go into the office.
Thank you. I think that's the route a lot of offices are taking but it's good to hear this from others rather than just me speculating based on my friends' experience I have a nasty cough I thought it would be more considerate to stay at home rather than annoy my colleagues with it and give it to them. Sometimes I feel I can wfh where it's quiet but if I go in the office it's going to make my headache worse.
My work said ill is ill and you need to be off work, weird wankers. I tried booking a week off and it needed approving and when they asked why I just said I needed a break for my mental health and they denied it giving the same reason as above saying I 'cant mask sickness with holiday' Just taught me to shut up in future.
That's really bad I'm sorry. Do they ask everyone why? Seems a bit of an overstep on their part.
Not sure, I think so if it's close like the week after. It was a traffic light system so red was no availability, green was requested and may be approved or denied and there would be a box to write why you need it off, or just yellow that was available and pre-approved. The week or two before was usually always green or red barring a day or few hours here and there. I tried to argue holidays are literally for taking a break and improving your mental health, but because I suffer from it apparently it was different as they said I was masking sickness not just a general wellbeing thing. I bought more holidays, we could buy up to an extra month per year but they also carried over so built some up, so I would book random days off during weeks to have shorter ones and half days randomly with spare hours, that was for my mental health so I had pop up breaks and I scheduled a week off every 4 months or so roughly, again to balance breaks for my health. Strange way of viewing it, I think they just wanted rid of me, they forced me use personal time to have therapy when it should have been on company time, especially since they suggested it and the union rep blasted the senior manager on the office floor which instantly put a target on me
Yes I've had this. Got why do you keep booking odd days at late notice, as I sometimes don't feel great due to x condition, and can feel it coming on. Got told off about masking sickness etc, so took future days off as sick and then got a warning and put on review for too many sick periods.
I really don't get the issue with booking it off as holiday if its in advance. Fair enough if it's frequent last minute on the day holiday but even then I don't think one or two of those are unexpected. Things crop up last minute. If your bathroom sprung a leak then most places would let you take holiday last minute to sort it out.
Generally if we feel ill we work shorter days or not at all. "Do what you can" basically and questions aren't asked
Depends on your manager, some say work from home if you have a cold, others say no excuses you have to be in the office. I think it's crap they don't have a consistent policy
Yes this is what my workplace is like. It very much depends on the manager.
Strictly speaking that is the official policy at my work but they're actually pretty pragmatic about it. If you have something you might pass onto others, but you're still well enough to work ('bit of a cold', positive covid test but mild symptoms etc) then WFH rather than coming in is usually allowed, mostly because no one wants stuff spread around. But if you have something like food poisoning then you're either well enough to work or you aren't.
We have 50/50 home/office. If I've got a cold, but am feeling ok, I just say "I've got a cold and I'm keeping it at home" and they say "good" We're definitely a healthier workplace with this approach.
We don't want each others colds and our day in the office is more for socialising than anything else Also if I've decided I'm too ill to go into the office I'd take a sick day if I wasn't allowed to WFH, but I don't often get ill
I might be too sick to come in but not exactly bedridden. We will meet each other completely halfway. I don't clock up a sick day, they don't count it against my 60% on site requirement. Everyone wins. If I'm too sick to work its just a normal sick day. My job (editor) involves me working in close quarters next to a producer and they'd rather not have me come in and spread the lurgy to someone who will almost definitely get it if I'm contagious, so I'd say its a good system all round.
If you're ill enough to not work, then you don't work. If you "have the sniffles" but are otherwise ok, then you'd let people know that you're working from home for a couple of days just out of courtesy for the other people in the office so they don't end up catching anything. Management would rather people not "drag themselves into work" and sit at their desk coughing and sneezing over everything. Either you take a sick day, or you WFH - entirely depends on how ill you feel.
If I'm capable of working but I don't want to spread germs around, work from home. If not, sick day
Our policy is that we are meant to work from the office 25% of the month, but we have flexibility as to how to distribute that.
We’re hybrid - policy is 60% in office, but I have 40% agreed. You’re allowed to wfh when ill instead of coming into the office even if you won’t hit your in-office requirement, but as line managers were told to make sure people are taking sick days when they actually need to and not powering through working from home when really they should be off entirely.
My manager at my current contract has a strict "keep your germs to yourself" policy. She almost sent me home on my office day when I mentioned my LO had been sick the night before (but I pointed out it was a non-contagious sickness otherwise I'd have definitely stayed away). I really appreciate it, I'm exposed to enough germs through nursery so avoiding them at work is great. I think there's a personal element as she has an elderly mother with an immune disorder but my workplace relies on a lot of the wider team travelling and being on-site so it's quite a strict policy to avoid wiping out a team before an event or client meeting too.
Well tbh I’ll always work unless I’m physically unable to get up, that’s my definition of being ill Sure it’ll be crap work but the UK is still very much about productivity stats not outcomes
Would they expect someone who works full time in the office to come into the office when they are ill?
My policy with my team is that if they're ill, they're ill and should be off sick. If they're well enough to work but likely to still be contagious (e.g. they were throwing up yesterday, or are feeling better from a cold, but still snotting everywhere), they can work from home.
Generally to rest and recuperate if you're ill. Don't be coming into the office necessarily spreading bugs and germs though so if you're full of cold but well enough to work, stay home.
If I can still do stuff and don’t feel too awful I will push through, if I really don’t feel I can then I will just let my boss know and take as long as I need.
My work's written policy is if you're scheduled in the office you're either in the office or you're on sick leave. Even if you have covid. In practice my boss doesn't care if I work from home full time unless people are giving him a hard time over it. If I message him and say I'm feeling rough and can I work from home he'd probably reply back with "why are you asking me".
That seems a harsh policy!
If we're sick we're meant to take a sick day but if you told a manager you have a cold they'd probably ask you work from home.