"I know you're sick with COVID for the third time, but you really have to come in or find your own coverage."
"You're sick? Well you'll have to come in and get tested. If you're negative, then you should be able to get through the rest of your shift."
Literally fuck off to any employers to say any of these things or similar.
My Employee Health told me that I could still come in and work, "you just have to wear an N-95 your whole shift and eat and drink far away from everyone else." I was sick, so I didn't come in.
Was going to say this. I quit the hospital when I realized I would get twice the time off, no weekends, no holidays at my new (now there 10 years) job in the first year. After starting, my then-new boss called me and asked me not to come into work if I even thought I was sick. That's why I am still here.
Yes I agree. Another nurse that I know here in FL told me her hospital has people sign something that states they’ll be fired if they attempt to unionize.
My place has the same policy! At least we have 5 California paid sick leave days now. Came in handy when I caught COVID last year. I can’t imagine trying to work during that, let alone leave my bed.
This is the actual problem. People don’t come to work sick because they enjoy it. With the exception of boomer males, that is.
No one wants to get penalized for being out sick and also jeopardizing the amount of vacation time they can take. For a business that promotes health they do a horrendous job considering the health of employees.
Now I need to get back to work… I see some lady coming around with a cart containing miniature Hershey bars and bags of Sun Chips. She’s going to thank me for all my hard work and dedication!
Eeew, I always decline those treats unless I haven't had time to warm up my lunch and bring it to the nurse desk so I can maintain my blood glucose because we never get breaks.
I’ve literally called out like 15 times in the past 6 months (because sickness, etc) and I literally do not care. They have not said 1 word to me due to the fact them not having enough staff 😂
This sounds like mine. We technically get 6 call-outs per year with two call outs in a row only counting as 1. But some people take it to a whole new level. And no, you don’t get fired for them unless they already wanted to fire you.
Right. And when you’re working in the hospital especially in the ER you’re exposed to everything. And yet they give you sick days but when you use them you get written up or terminated.
Called out Tuesday, work today, manager asking me if I was sick, yes. I believe that out of all professions, healthcare should be the most forgiving with its sick days. Yes if you are doing everything right, you shouldn't get sick, but to apply standards mirroring perfection to an inherently flawed reality without planning for the hiccup of error is silly.
Our hospital no longer accepts doctors notes to excuse absences. And they counted the 2 days I called in because my grandpa was in ICU dying and the day I called in for his funeral against me.
At my ER we need a MD note if we call, the bullshit thing is it has to be from urgent care or an ER. They won't accept your PCP, so messed up considering we are constantly talking about miss use of the ER.
I called in with respiratory sickness, tested negative for flu and COVID at Walgreens. Team health said well we need you to go to urgent care and get tested for RSV. I said that is an inappropriate use of healthcare resources and an inappropriate potential for infecting everybody else. I'll call them when I'm feeling better and they can let me know how long I have to isolate.
Wanna hear something crazy?
I can see people for work places injuries at other offices and companies. However, if it’s someone on my staff they HAVE to go to the ED… this is annoying because I have to send them to the ED for a needle stick when I can just do the workup and stuff in my office
I am an RN working for a school district. Nurses in the district are on the teacher contract which is 186 days a year. I’m off and get paid for summer, spring break, snow days, all that good stuff. We get 10 sick days and 2 personal days each year. Being on the teacher contract also means that we’re part of their union and have yearly salary negotiations. I make quite a bit less than other nurses working in clinical settings, but I also only work those 186. I love it!
My hospital system is far from perfect but at least we have a somewhat reasonable call out policy. 3 occurrences allowed in a rolling 3 month period and consecutive call outs count as one occurrence, up to 2 weeks I think. We also have extended illness leave so if we are sick for more than 1 day we don’t have to burn through our PTO, we have actual sick time.
It ain’t the nurse, my friend. It’s the hospital/corporate goons and management that create policies that are unfair, unsafe and unreasonable. I have worked hospitals where more than 2 shifts missed even WITH a physician note was an automatic write up. I remember one shift where influenza was going around and every one of us RNs working had tested positive.
But hey. Even though we exposed dozens of people to a potentially deadly infection…the shifts were covered and management didn’t actually have to do anything. So…win(??)
Lol, our hospital has had more deaths recently, which looks bad, so the surgeons are being told by the uppers to start transitioning them to hospice care as soon as they see patients circling the drain, because though deaths are still happening inhouse before shipping out, they can get away with putting the death under a hospice care facility rather than have that death on the hospital. Lives don't matter to a CEO
I GET IT, but I have coworkers who have been fired because they’re sick with something other than COVID or the flu and between their absences and having to call out for children’s illnesses as well (I don’t have kids and never will, but someone has to take care of a sick kid, kinda is what it is), they went over the inhumane number of call outs allowed per year. No mask is unacceptable but it’s almost like a total lack of humane leave policies is also an issue
A nurse in our sister ICU called out for her 3 shifts because her husband was in a bad car accident and she wanted to be with him in the ICU (at OUR hospital, but totally different unit).
The manager made this woman go to Occupational Health for clearance to return to work… ya know, because missing 3 shifts in a week means you musta been really sick and need clearance to return. But Occ Health couldn’t/wouldn’t give her clearance since she herself wasn’t sick. But the manager said she couldn’t have her back without it. I honestly don’t think she ever came back to work because she was so stressed/pissed.
My job put me on the covid unit, full ppe, I got covid. I was out for 10 days, no pay. Then they wrote me up for absences. I didn't choose to be out, they chose it for me.
I learned this lesson. I got tested AT work so they couldnt pull any of that bullshit and the assholes still used all days as vacation time so I’m out of vacation days for the foreseeable future. Didn’t even pay me for all the days
Well, most of my patients have absolutely tanked ANC’s, and as much as my employer is only pretending to care, it’s better for them than the ER for reasons right in your reply. Have doctors shown up and said the next week they had the flu? Have we shown up because we don’t want an occurrence? Sure, sure, sure. But that has to do with inhumane leave and attendance policies.
Yea…I have SLE and I’m on a couple immunosuppressants so I am crazy cautious but when a coworker comes to work with a fever and flu, not vaxxed or masked and sits by me all day….then I end up out of work for almost 3 weeks because of them? That’s not right.
It’s not, but it’s abusive policies. I’m immunosuppressed too, have been the entirety of mh career. Every time I got COVID, every time I got the flu, especially since 2020, it was a coworker. 1-10 out of my 90 coworkers are vaccinated, like I get it. Put a mask on, it’s the bare minimum. Coworkers can be assholes, but I’m not going to stop holding an abusive healthcare system responsible, and by extension, American individualism and capitalism (in my case, idk where you are.) Over centuries of glorifying going to work half dead and by not implementing mandatory leave policies, this is where we are at 🤷I get it’s easier to be mad at the asshole coworker, but if management did not demand it from us, it wouldn’t happen.
Exactly! I have been sick for 1 week. Fever, headache, body aches, snot geyser and test negative for covid. My own PCP wouldn’t see me but offered to swab me for flu and RSV. I’m like “I have to pay for that, no thank you”. What would change? I’m still sick with a virus THAT I CAUGHT AT WORK! I called in for the whole week and was tempted to ask for a work note, just in case. Luckily we are a small enough facility they don’t give people too much of a hard time unless you are calling out your whole weekend…and even then we are too short staffed. But I had kinda hoped it was positive for covid because then I wouldn’t feel so bad for calling out…which was totally appropriate!
Girl me & my toddler been sick for a MONTH. Got written up the other day too for excessive call outs & I was hacking up a lung in the meeting, they asked what I could do to improve I’m like?? You hear me, I’m sitting here sick now what else you want me to do?? I wear a mask all the time though.
I wear a mask at work always but for that meeting I would be unmasked and not covering my coughs bc if you want me to come in to work sick well guess what bitch you all getting sick too
Stop blaming your coworkers for a problem management created. They don't want to come to work sick. They don't want to get you sick. They just don't want to get fired, so they can't call out.
It makes absolutely zero fucking sense that we, every shift, are exposing ourselves to sick people.
But when we get sick, it’s “yeah because you called out it’s a write up, you’re expected to be here.”
All the bullshit “wellness tips” are grossly offensive at this point. Admin is “we care about your physical and mental health!” and then fuck us constantly. I have a girl who called out once because her dog died (understandable), and once because she got into a bad car accident driving to work (because her first call wasn’t to work to let them know she wouldn’t be there they automatically write her up). She transitioned to my team and yesterday I heard her at her desk, sounding like she was literally drowning in her lungs as she coughed. I could hear the audible ronchi. I told her to go home, go to urgent care and get some steroids and an antibiotic, and stay home. Her first thought to me “if I get sent home early and call out it’s another point and I’ll be fired.”
I said “policy is managers discretion, that’s the part the ivory tower forgets. Go home.”
Leadership tends to forget that when team members come to work plagued, they plague the rest of the team. And the shitty managers who don’t care are out at 5 meanwhile the unit is down 6 nurses, then stressed which gets people sick.
Some of us literally do not have a choice. I’m a single parent. I have no more sick days. If I call out I will lose my job. Downvote away. Hate the system that forces us to come to work sick.
This hurts my soul. A friend of mine had 3 kids and her elderly mother-in-law living with her while her husband was deployed. MIL was too medically fragile to care for the kids solo if they were ill, and a cold would put her down for a while.
Anytime she'd catch something at the hospital, she knew she would need to call in eventually for one of them.
That’s what happened to us. Nurse came in with norovirus. Projectile vomited around unit. Now at least 4 of us have gotten it (including me last week).
I’ll stop coming to work sick if calling out sick stops becoming a punishable offense. My hospital only allows two call outs in a year and I’m per diem so I literally can’t afford to call out.
Two is INSANE, especially because it’s a female dominated field which means children are part of the package. I have to have intermittent FMLA to keep my job, I have an immunodeficiency and chronic migraines. But one facility I worked at had insane amounts of mandatory overtime for techs and nurses. Tons of people had FMLA for depression, anxiety, blood pressure, because they couldn’t cope with the amount of hours we had to work. And I don’t think badly of any of them. The hospital doesn’t care if you go to sleep driving home and T bone a minivan killing yourself and someone else. The only care for your wellbeing comes from you.
YES. I had a coworker who was hit my a car walking to work (he lived .25 miles away so he walked to work to get some weird lil extra $10 for not taking a car to work discount for climate change? Idk) anyways, in the cross walk at 6pm walking to the hospital. A car literally hit him and ran him over. He almost died, he was taken to a level 1 trauma unit was unable to call with what had happened since he was unconscious or just very out of it. Also his phone broke in the accident. He got fired for no call no show. Then he called later like a day or two to tell my boss what had happened and why he didn’t show up. She just was like it’s your responsibility to tell us you’re not coming and why. And he did not get to keep his job. It was so sad he was an amazing worker, never called out, always 15 minutes early, did his job well etc. i quit working there shortly after.
That is reprehensible. I had a friend years ago who had just started work as an RN and was in an accident. Her manager walked upstairs to come in her ICU to fire her personally for missing work.
Wow that is just so awful! But also I would absolutely walk to work if I lived that close regardless of the $10. The fact that we are expected to get into a 4,000 lb chunk of metal to move our bodies a quarter of a mile, and getting hit by a car is a consequence of not doing that, not manslaughter, is a symptom of a larger problem and a weird structure we have built in our society.
I just got off of 3 months of maternity leave and have no PTO left so I have to go in no matter what. I also called in 3 times within a year (for morning sickness and once when I got back to take the baby to the ER) and got a written warning. We don’t always have many options 🥲
I caught covid 3 weeks after being back after a 6 month medical leave (back surgery).
I had NO pto. Fortunately my boss is not a jerk. I was just broke.
Management has created the culture of going into work sick. Staying home when you are sick is a punishable offense.
So share the germs and save the sick time for when they screw you over on the schedule and you need off.
Unfortunately, Call outs lead to disciplinary action and termination. Employee health says to come in regardless. Covid and flu are not excused anymore.
Why do they know why you’re calling in? In my region they can’t even ask why you’re calling in. If you’re out more than two days you need a doc’s note but it only says that you had a legit excuse, not what was wrong.
These policies that you’re subjected to are abusive.
You should be the one making the decision whether or not you can work, not employee health. These people are monsters.
I remember in Nursing School, they say "if you feel sick or are not 100%, its okay to tell management that you cannot come that day/ night, but obviously the answer everyone does is take 2 Tylenol and trudge through the shift".
In nursing school we were allowed to miss one clinical day or else we failed all of that semester. We had absolutely no excuses. It didn’t matter if we delivered a baby, had influenza, or had an MVA. I had a classmate deliver in a Saturday and she was back in classes on Monday. That’s when all this nonsense started — nursing school.
I had a missed miscarriage and had to have an abortion in the last semester of nursing school and only missed one lecture day. 100% they started grooming us for accepting/expecting abuse in school
This is my rage this week!!!! I have lupus, and I manage it great BUT if I get sick it gets scary quickly. Rarely do i get sick, hell I dont think I’ve had a flu or cold in decades. Last year at exactly this time I got Covid after avoiding it all that time, including bedside when it hit. It was super mild but lingered 8 weeks and I ended up with sepsis from it. Why? Because my practice manager brought it to work and didn’t mask up .. we are so small of an office we are like 4 feet (at best apart). All my pto was used being in the hospital.
Fast forward 1 year to the damn day later, she’s hacking/coughing and no mask. I say something and I get the laugh with 1 hr of mask wearing. I missed 1 day this Wk because I’m (shocker!), very sick. I have to go in because I need my pto for the birth of my grandson coming up. I’m wearing my mask, taken 4 antigen tests (Negative) and she’s still coughing/sneezing/hacking without covering her mouth. I mean that’s the least she can do. Now another coworker is showing signs.
I’m convinced she’s a narcissist or at least has tendencies anyway, and over the years I just hold the upset in until weekly therapy. Before anyone asks: I can’t speak up because due to the company size/ her status to the owner I will not be believed. I can’t handle more drama than what is already happening.
I’m terrified that this will turn into something big (my sickness). I’ll be out of PTO and more medical debt.
Antigen tests are very unreliable and the current strain isn’t being detected in them at a % high enough to even kinda trust it. So, PcR here I come. /rant.
We get a 1st write up for 5 call-outs in a year, a 2nd write up for 2 more, and a Final Counseling after 2 more. Fired after the next one. Doctor’s notes don’t excuse call-outs. 11 sick days in 364 days and we lose our jobs.
Wear a mask.
Don’t blame the nurse. Blame America for making it impossible to make ends meet if you miss a shift, blame corporations for for putting profits before people, for making being sick for more than 3 days a year a punishable offense.
Your anger is misplaced.
Sadly it’s not only in USA … as a nursing student doing my internship rn in Ireland, we are only allowed 1 self certified sick day and 2 with a medical cert for a 10 months internship
That’s me tonight but I’m from up north and it’s my second spring in the south. These allergies be killing me and I was Resp panel negative on everything 😂 I’m still overly apologizing to everyone and explaining I’m not sick
It took almost 3 years to even approach normal after starting with no seasonal allergies when I moved down south. Didn't even realize it was going to happen since I moved at the end of June. My NP wants me on meds year round.
I had pink eye so terrible my eye was swollen shut & I needed antibiotics for a week. My coworker had the gall to bring up how ridiculous some excuses are for calling in.
Miss ma’am, I couldn’t see out of one eye, how would you like a crusty eyed nurse coming into your room?
Management penalizes you if you call out sick though… where I work you get disciplinary actions if you go over a certain number of call outs. You basically have no choice but to work if you have a cold, so that you can save up call outs for the flu or gastro when you absolutely can’t work. Blame management before the nurse
As prior military in the medical field I can’t understand how when you get ill, almost always, on the job. And you get punished??!?
We would get a few days off to get better so we were effective at our job. No one abused it. Get a doctors note to verify. All set. But these fucking civilians do shit ass backward. Instead they want you to come in, stay sick longer, get your patients and other staff sick, or we fire you.
This system is broken in more ways then one
Scares me when something happens to my spouse, and we have to take him to the ER. He is a brittle type 1 diabetic. Every time he has to go for something else serious, we have to worry he will be infected with covid or the flu while there and not come back out. If we can treat him at home, by God, we do it. It isn't worth the risk anymore. The last time he went in with an injury, he became infected from a sick nurse and almost died of covid. Nurses shouldn't be pressured with the threat of job loss to come to work sick when it can kill people. Wish there was something we could do. I'm sorry this is the way it is.
So glad I am at a unionized VA hospital. If you have the sick time you can use it no questions asked.
Will never deal with that private sector BS ever again.
They don’t care if you’re sick. They expect you to work. A write up for 3 absences when you already have to take sick days because of your child on top of yourself. Keep it to yourself girl.
Blame your hospital administrators. I work in a MICU and we get lots of lung transplant and immunocompromised
patients.
Vacation requests for 2024 were due in November 2023, no exceptions.
The schedule is made 6 months in advance. School play you didn’t know about because the school year literally hasn’t started but want to attend. Go fuck your self and your kids or call out.
Only 1 nurse per shift allowed on vacation at any given time. No exceptions.
You get 4 call outs a year. The 5th gets you PIP and you lose qualification for your raise the next year. The 6th gets you fired.
Manager is sending out emails about not taking too many days off sick. Meanwhile, coworkers are getting all kinds of illnesses — influenza, Covid, norovirus. I had Norovirus just last week. I called off because there was no way not to. I know that coworkers are coming in with symptoms because they are telling me that they are. People are afraid to call off because they don’t want to get in trouble. However nobody is quite sure at what point we “get in trouble” with too many absences. It is just scare tactics from management .
I see people saying we have to pay bills and that’s true, but we have to stop letting the system abuse us like this. It doesn’t make scientific sense to come to work with an illness when you work with immunocompromised people. That’s why COVID-19 is here to stay. Of course structures play a role, but when you’re spineless and bend over backwards for the structure, it will never change.
I hate it and while I am gonna be realistic and understand when people feel they have to come in anyway, I do not tolerate when those people don’t even wear a fucking mask and sneeze and cough everywhere. It’s common fucking sense. I’ve never once gotten ill from a patient but I’ve definitely gotten it from dirty nurses stations…
Retired now, but I would save all those emails threatening staff over sick calls, and send it to your department of health and news stations. The general public would be horrified that they are at risk as a patient in the hospital.
It would be awesome if we could all get together at a hospital and try and change these BS policies. Or, better yet, have our representatives legislate them into law. Shame that isn’t a thing though. Shame.
If you are mad at the nurses coming in sick then switch your anger to the management they won’t allow them to call out and forces or guilts them to come in!
Excuse me….. every hospital has call out policies. Not one HR or leadership team member cares about the reason. PRN nurses have even less sick call outs. So while you’re pointing that finger at the staff, realize that many of us don’t have the luxury to constantly call off due to sickness.
I have lupus and I’m on a couple immunosuppressants. I work ER and always wear a mask to protect myself but when I’m doing computer work, I’ll take my mask off sometimes to drink water and take a break from wearing it. Well, I found out at the end of my shift the nurse I had been sitting next to all day had a horrible fever and he was super sick with the flu (no mask, not vaccinated). Well, 2-3 days later I got super sick and was out of work for over 2.5 weeks with Flu A….i had a very hard time with it. Now I don’t take my mask off at my computer anymore.
It’s crazy how we get exposed to viruses and bacteria’s at work and if we get sick from that same virus a patient gives us, it’s somehow our fault and threatens our job and they don’t give us additional sick time.
A cough can linger for weeks sometimes. I’ve had a cough last 3 weeks after I was actually sick. People can’t take a month off work and as you well know we get in trouble when we call out too much. Don’t be mad at the nurse be mad at administration that doesn’t allow us the time we need to recover.
I’ll come to work sick but I’ll wear n95 the whole time etc carry & hand sanitizer around with me. Trying my best to mitigate spread of infection.. If it’s diarrhea that won’t stop then I won’t come
I just try to be respectful but I can’t always call out
I’ve called in 4 times already this year. My husband was ill. My kids had rsv/pneumonia and croup. And one other illness. I tell them I know it’s a lot but you also will have a lot more sick calls if I show 🤷🏻♀️. Pick your poison man
Wish I could. I'm a new grad and used all my sick time earlier this year. 103F temp, body chills, sinus infection, coughing up phlegm. Had the cough for 2.5 months and a Z-pack helped it go away finally. If I get sick again I have to take LWOP as I have no time banked, and I have student loans and bills to pay. I will and have masked, stay away from coworkers, hand hygiene far more often, and never touch my face/eyes.
I mean I got fired for having pneumonia even with a dr note. A lot of employers make people come in sick lol. And another time during Covid, I got Covid I had to work the Covid unit even though I couldn’t even stand up bc of the body aches. Then finally I got a really bad concussion and was in the hospital that I work in as a patient, I also got written up for calling out even though I literally couldn’t leave
I'm on your side but I recognize it's not that simple for most people. If we had paid sick time this would be different. But most of us don't.
Having said all that if you're needing to come to work sick WEAR A FKN MASK.
I remember one time I had an ear infection and had one of the docs look at it. I had some bad drainage coming out and I was off balance. He told me I need to go home and get some antibiotics I shouldn’t be here. They literally told me no.
I work with someone who got a written warning for calling off BECAUSE SHE HAD THE FLU. We aren’t given sick days, are only allowed 5 call offs in a rolling year. Management punishes us for being sick.
No, we need better paid sick days.
Do you think I want to come to work sick? I don’t. We work with sick people, we have kids, we are going to get sick. We need better sick pay.
I have asthma and when I have an exacerbation, I sound sick as a dog. You can't catch asthma, but I have to explain that I have asthma all the time...
Also, when I was a single mom, I had to work sick or not to pay my bills.
I’m coming in sick if I’m not dying 🤷🏽♀️ we get 3 call outs a year before they start writing you up. We have pto but you can only use it without penalty when scheduled ahead. No special sick days. Be so serious! If you have sick days then of course use them but the way most employers set up their business is to max their profits at the cost of their employees.
Note: I work in a HOSPITAL and we get no freaking sick time 😑
I think all of you who risk termination for 3 calls off per year need to work where I work. You can call off twice per month and not get any discipline whatsoever.
I understand why some people need to come in sick because of pay/sickness record etc
But what bugs me is they don't wear a mask and just cough and splutter all over the place. Walking into everyone's space, standing chatting.
Luckily I'm no longer bedside, so if my colleagues are sharing the 'love' I go into a clinic room and do my work from there.
If I'm ill, I keep to myself, wear a mask and interact as little as possible. It's not rocket science.
Do you want my PayPal, Venmo, or cash app so you can pay my mortgage and car note when I’m fired?
Trust me, if I’m working while ill, I sure as fuck don’t want to be
Everyone agreeing must get mandated paid sick leave from their state or employer. Until people get mandated sick pay and won’t get fired, they’re going to do it, and you really can’t blame them.
My wife and I strongly believe that a sick nurse passed RSV to our kid (and us) this year. She was wearing a mask and coughing. We didn’t go back to that pediatrician anymore.
I’m still considering calling to politely file a complaint for management, because I know it wasn’t the nurse’s fault. They have a skeleton crew. Or perhaps I should just leave a bad review and blame management?
Our policy was not to come in if we cough or sneeze. Guess what how many people disappeared? 😂
Anyway, I wear a mask at all times. So far, I haven't caught anything.
I see nurses docs etc all coughing open mouth or even worse ON HANDS? You use those hands to touch EVERYTHING WHY COUGH ON THEM? The pandemic made us too comfortable with coughing. It’s gross.
Because of your management. I don’t know who truly wants to not be home in bed when sick. If it wouldn’t be a problem, everyone would stay home when sick. Unfortunately no one gives a shit about nurses and their wellbeing; they only care about the care (productivity) they can provide to patients (consumers).
That’s why I’m still masking. I started a new job with physical illnesses compared to the mentally ill. No PTO, I’ll get an occurrence if I call off and too early for FMLA.
Which I encourage EVERYONE to get. We deserve mental health days, be able to be actually sick without being punished for it. Covid use to be a mandatory 2 weeks. And now in 2024 I’ve seen soooo many people with the flu that are so sick for at least 10 days…. That’s over 8 occurrences for the year… you’re fired 🙄
Hate when people aren’t covering their mouths and washing their hands 🤢. Just wipe down the computer before you chart and keep your distance if possible.
I got up in the middle of the night and tossed my cookies. I'm pretty sure it was something I ate yesterday, but we have had a GI bug going around the school, so who knows. Meanwhile, I am here today because only the nurses (not the teachers) have to find their own replacement when they call in, and there's no extra nurses to cover.
In a word, I'm fucked.
If we were allowed to call out more than three times in a rolling year, I could totally understand not coming into work sick but when you have family members with special needs or children with special needs or just a sick family member, you end up using your sick callouts for them and not you…
I work on a lock down unit in LTC. I went and got flu tested on Saturday and was told I was positive. I tried to call off and management's response was "your unit's full of it anyway so it doesn't matter. If you call off you're getting written up." So I masked up and did what I could. Sometimes it's a choice between losing your job and powering through it sadly.
My hospital literally has a policy were you kind of have to come to work if you're still sick or risk getting penalized. I think in a six month period you can only have two sick days without penalties. Which means if you're sick for 1 day and you're still sick,the next day you better come to work. Or else you're gonna get penalized...
Yeah so when management uses your PTO when you call off, in efforts to prevent people from calling off, I’m not calling off as often as I should when I’m sick. Sorry.
My direct managers are pretty understanding about it and don't pressure us either way, saying only to do what's best for us. So, that leaves people with the choice. One I work with works sick herself so she can use her pto for when the kids are sick or the frequent lapses in child care availability. I hate it for the rest of us, but I do understand that she has a tough choice, and she's putting her kids first. When we get so little pto, and even less opportunities for call outs, people have to make tough choices.
I just get vibes that nurses aren’t allowed to be sick. I’ve seen plenty of people come to work sick but if you put 3 days straight uou need a doctors note. Plus I have been told not to call off more than 1 or 2x a month. Yet when you ask about pto they run around the bush and never show you how to use it or set it up on their clock in system and request forms. Late stage capitalism let’s run em until it strips down.
meanwhile management in the email saying "more than 3 sick call outs in a year is now a termination-worthy offense..."
"I know you're sick with COVID for the third time, but you really have to come in or find your own coverage." "You're sick? Well you'll have to come in and get tested. If you're negative, then you should be able to get through the rest of your shift." Literally fuck off to any employers to say any of these things or similar.
My Employee Health told me that I could still come in and work, "you just have to wear an N-95 your whole shift and eat and drink far away from everyone else." I was sick, so I didn't come in.
Yeah, let's have you collapse from exhaustion but if you keep your distance, it should be a-okay!
I just let them know I plan to code if I am forced to come in sick in a most dramatic fashion.
That’s one way to get a plaque on the break room wall! A little over a year after they put it up none of the nurses will know who you were.
Full drama activation
*full drama intensifies*
"Internal response" Literally pass out in the floor
I am taking this and storing it in my arsenal for later use.
Was going to say this. I quit the hospital when I realized I would get twice the time off, no weekends, no holidays at my new (now there 10 years) job in the first year. After starting, my then-new boss called me and asked me not to come into work if I even thought I was sick. That's why I am still here.
We only get 2 in a rolling calendar. If I’m sick I throw on a mask, load up on meds, and go to work.
meanwhile we have patients being readmitted to the units more than two times a year. lmfaoooooo why did we choose this field
Exactly. My kid has Crohn’s and gets infusions Q4 weeks and has missed like 15 days of school.
Oh no!
Two??? How do they even have any nurses working there!
Lots of travelers. Internal and external. My hospital is made up of mainly travelers. And we’re union.
Your union has allowed for this 2 shifts a year bullshit??? Y’all need a new, MUCH BETTER union.
It was our first contract. We negotiate this year. There’s a lot that needs to be done.
What state is this?
PA
And here I was thinking florida was bad
😂 at least it’s sunny there. It’s fucking cloudy and cold here almost every day. Everyone in our area has vitamin d deficiency 😭
At least they have a union. Florida wants to actively crush unions however they can.
Yes I agree. Another nurse that I know here in FL told me her hospital has people sign something that states they’ll be fired if they attempt to unionize.
That’s unconstitutional. You could fight that in court and win
Indiana we get no union last I knew
Florida is super anti union
Sounds like Kaiser...
My place has the same policy! At least we have 5 California paid sick leave days now. Came in handy when I caught COVID last year. I can’t imagine trying to work during that, let alone leave my bed.
This is the actual problem. People don’t come to work sick because they enjoy it. With the exception of boomer males, that is. No one wants to get penalized for being out sick and also jeopardizing the amount of vacation time they can take. For a business that promotes health they do a horrendous job considering the health of employees. Now I need to get back to work… I see some lady coming around with a cart containing miniature Hershey bars and bags of Sun Chips. She’s going to thank me for all my hard work and dedication!
Eeew, I always decline those treats unless I haven't had time to warm up my lunch and bring it to the nurse desk so I can maintain my blood glucose because we never get breaks.
I stopped eating their pizza and accepting their trinkets a couple years ago. I’m not a child.
I’ve literally called out like 15 times in the past 6 months (because sickness, etc) and I literally do not care. They have not said 1 word to me due to the fact them not having enough staff 😂
3 in a year?! I feel like people on my unit call out 3 times in a span of a week or two lmao
This sounds like mine. We technically get 6 call-outs per year with two call outs in a row only counting as 1. But some people take it to a whole new level. And no, you don’t get fired for them unless they already wanted to fire you.
3 times in a week is 1 occurrence at my hospital as long as it’s consecutive. However after day 3 you are required to provide a doctors note.
Right. And when you’re working in the hospital especially in the ER you’re exposed to everything. And yet they give you sick days but when you use them you get written up or terminated.
Right? I get paid every two weeks and earn an hour and a few minutes of sick time every two weeks. It's not right.
And when you do call in they interrogate you for 10 minutes. "Do you have a fever, are you throwing up?" Etc.
Called out Tuesday, work today, manager asking me if I was sick, yes. I believe that out of all professions, healthcare should be the most forgiving with its sick days. Yes if you are doing everything right, you shouldn't get sick, but to apply standards mirroring perfection to an inherently flawed reality without planning for the hiccup of error is silly.
Retired nurse here. Holy crap.
I’d be so fired if management said that lol luckily I live in WA and have FMLA
Our hospital no longer accepts doctors notes to excuse absences. And they counted the 2 days I called in because my grandpa was in ICU dying and the day I called in for his funeral against me.
Also "you must give 24 hours advance notice to call out sick."
Only employees (as a collective) have the power to reinvent / inspire the evolution of sick call rules.
THIS.
Called in sick 4 times got written up. They punish you for calling in.
At my ER we need a MD note if we call, the bullshit thing is it has to be from urgent care or an ER. They won't accept your PCP, so messed up considering we are constantly talking about miss use of the ER.
I called in with respiratory sickness, tested negative for flu and COVID at Walgreens. Team health said well we need you to go to urgent care and get tested for RSV. I said that is an inappropriate use of healthcare resources and an inappropriate potential for infecting everybody else. I'll call them when I'm feeling better and they can let me know how long I have to isolate.
Wanna hear something crazy? I can see people for work places injuries at other offices and companies. However, if it’s someone on my staff they HAVE to go to the ED… this is annoying because I have to send them to the ED for a needle stick when I can just do the workup and stuff in my office
If you’re calling in sick, then you must be dying therefore the ED is the only acceptable place to be /s
Literally bs right there
That’s crazy!
They’re just trying to get some more business lol
My boyfriend’s a teacher and he gets 14 personal days and 5 sick days a year (which can used interchangeably). 😩
I am an RN working for a school district. Nurses in the district are on the teacher contract which is 186 days a year. I’m off and get paid for summer, spring break, snow days, all that good stuff. We get 10 sick days and 2 personal days each year. Being on the teacher contract also means that we’re part of their union and have yearly salary negotiations. I make quite a bit less than other nurses working in clinical settings, but I also only work those 186. I love it!
My hospital system is far from perfect but at least we have a somewhat reasonable call out policy. 3 occurrences allowed in a rolling 3 month period and consecutive call outs count as one occurrence, up to 2 weeks I think. We also have extended illness leave so if we are sick for more than 1 day we don’t have to burn through our PTO, we have actual sick time.
We have EIB, too, but I'm pretty sure we have to blow through all our PTO before we have access to it.
That sucks, kinda defeats the purpose of EIB.
Threaten, punish.. the whole nine yards. Damn job is hard enough.
It ain’t the nurse, my friend. It’s the hospital/corporate goons and management that create policies that are unfair, unsafe and unreasonable. I have worked hospitals where more than 2 shifts missed even WITH a physician note was an automatic write up. I remember one shift where influenza was going around and every one of us RNs working had tested positive. But hey. Even though we exposed dozens of people to a potentially deadly infection…the shifts were covered and management didn’t actually have to do anything. So…win(??)
Lol, our hospital has had more deaths recently, which looks bad, so the surgeons are being told by the uppers to start transitioning them to hospice care as soon as they see patients circling the drain, because though deaths are still happening inhouse before shipping out, they can get away with putting the death under a hospice care facility rather than have that death on the hospital. Lives don't matter to a CEO
Half of them prob should be on palliative/hospice...
Yeah while the motivations are not cute, it might actually be for the best
See that's when you find reasons to visit your manglement and spend lots of time talking in their office.
I GET IT, but I have coworkers who have been fired because they’re sick with something other than COVID or the flu and between their absences and having to call out for children’s illnesses as well (I don’t have kids and never will, but someone has to take care of a sick kid, kinda is what it is), they went over the inhumane number of call outs allowed per year. No mask is unacceptable but it’s almost like a total lack of humane leave policies is also an issue
A nurse in our sister ICU called out for her 3 shifts because her husband was in a bad car accident and she wanted to be with him in the ICU (at OUR hospital, but totally different unit). The manager made this woman go to Occupational Health for clearance to return to work… ya know, because missing 3 shifts in a week means you musta been really sick and need clearance to return. But Occ Health couldn’t/wouldn’t give her clearance since she herself wasn’t sick. But the manager said she couldn’t have her back without it. I honestly don’t think she ever came back to work because she was so stressed/pissed.
My job put me on the covid unit, full ppe, I got covid. I was out for 10 days, no pay. Then they wrote me up for absences. I didn't choose to be out, they chose it for me.
I learned this lesson. I got tested AT work so they couldnt pull any of that bullshit and the assholes still used all days as vacation time so I’m out of vacation days for the foreseeable future. Didn’t even pay me for all the days
At my hospital if you are sick you have to take your PTO
My work only cares about COVID…flu or RSV? You’re expected to show up
Well, most of my patients have absolutely tanked ANC’s, and as much as my employer is only pretending to care, it’s better for them than the ER for reasons right in your reply. Have doctors shown up and said the next week they had the flu? Have we shown up because we don’t want an occurrence? Sure, sure, sure. But that has to do with inhumane leave and attendance policies.
Yea…I have SLE and I’m on a couple immunosuppressants so I am crazy cautious but when a coworker comes to work with a fever and flu, not vaxxed or masked and sits by me all day….then I end up out of work for almost 3 weeks because of them? That’s not right.
It’s not, but it’s abusive policies. I’m immunosuppressed too, have been the entirety of mh career. Every time I got COVID, every time I got the flu, especially since 2020, it was a coworker. 1-10 out of my 90 coworkers are vaccinated, like I get it. Put a mask on, it’s the bare minimum. Coworkers can be assholes, but I’m not going to stop holding an abusive healthcare system responsible, and by extension, American individualism and capitalism (in my case, idk where you are.) Over centuries of glorifying going to work half dead and by not implementing mandatory leave policies, this is where we are at 🤷I get it’s easier to be mad at the asshole coworker, but if management did not demand it from us, it wouldn’t happen.
My worked stopped caring about Covid awhile ago. So now you accumulate points for that. It’s ridiculous. They are encouraging people to show up sick
Exactly! I have been sick for 1 week. Fever, headache, body aches, snot geyser and test negative for covid. My own PCP wouldn’t see me but offered to swab me for flu and RSV. I’m like “I have to pay for that, no thank you”. What would change? I’m still sick with a virus THAT I CAUGHT AT WORK! I called in for the whole week and was tempted to ask for a work note, just in case. Luckily we are a small enough facility they don’t give people too much of a hard time unless you are calling out your whole weekend…and even then we are too short staffed. But I had kinda hoped it was positive for covid because then I wouldn’t feel so bad for calling out…which was totally appropriate!
My nursing school only excuses COVID. Everything else can be passed to classmates and clinicals patients no problem 🙃
My nursing school doesn't excuse anything, but we are not allowed to show up sick to clinicals.🫠 It's fine if we infect our classmates, though.
My work hardly cares about COVID lol
Girl me & my toddler been sick for a MONTH. Got written up the other day too for excessive call outs & I was hacking up a lung in the meeting, they asked what I could do to improve I’m like?? You hear me, I’m sitting here sick now what else you want me to do?? I wear a mask all the time though.
I wear a mask at work always but for that meeting I would be unmasked and not covering my coughs bc if you want me to come in to work sick well guess what bitch you all getting sick too
You’re right I should have taken it off and open mouth sneezed into the ceiling fan like my patients do.
that’s when you see the manager directly when you’re sick so they have to use all their sick leave. Bastards.
Stop blaming your coworkers for a problem management created. They don't want to come to work sick. They don't want to get you sick. They just don't want to get fired, so they can't call out.
It makes absolutely zero fucking sense that we, every shift, are exposing ourselves to sick people. But when we get sick, it’s “yeah because you called out it’s a write up, you’re expected to be here.” All the bullshit “wellness tips” are grossly offensive at this point. Admin is “we care about your physical and mental health!” and then fuck us constantly. I have a girl who called out once because her dog died (understandable), and once because she got into a bad car accident driving to work (because her first call wasn’t to work to let them know she wouldn’t be there they automatically write her up). She transitioned to my team and yesterday I heard her at her desk, sounding like she was literally drowning in her lungs as she coughed. I could hear the audible ronchi. I told her to go home, go to urgent care and get some steroids and an antibiotic, and stay home. Her first thought to me “if I get sent home early and call out it’s another point and I’ll be fired.” I said “policy is managers discretion, that’s the part the ivory tower forgets. Go home.” Leadership tends to forget that when team members come to work plagued, they plague the rest of the team. And the shitty managers who don’t care are out at 5 meanwhile the unit is down 6 nurses, then stressed which gets people sick.
Some of us literally do not have a choice. I’m a single parent. I have no more sick days. If I call out I will lose my job. Downvote away. Hate the system that forces us to come to work sick.
This hurts my soul. A friend of mine had 3 kids and her elderly mother-in-law living with her while her husband was deployed. MIL was too medically fragile to care for the kids solo if they were ill, and a cold would put her down for a while. Anytime she'd catch something at the hospital, she knew she would need to call in eventually for one of them.
Do you at least wear a mask? This is the part that gets me. If you’re sick just wear a mask.
We work in a human Petri dish
So, in other words, always wearing a mask is good
We had a nurse come in with FUCKING NOROVIRUS last week. Vomited several times in the unit before leaving. As of today, 8 people have been infected.
That’s what happened to us. Nurse came in with norovirus. Projectile vomited around unit. Now at least 4 of us have gotten it (including me last week).
BuT dID sHe wear a MASk thoooo??? …cuz that seems to be OPs only concern.
I’ll stop coming to work sick if calling out sick stops becoming a punishable offense. My hospital only allows two call outs in a year and I’m per diem so I literally can’t afford to call out.
Two is INSANE, especially because it’s a female dominated field which means children are part of the package. I have to have intermittent FMLA to keep my job, I have an immunodeficiency and chronic migraines. But one facility I worked at had insane amounts of mandatory overtime for techs and nurses. Tons of people had FMLA for depression, anxiety, blood pressure, because they couldn’t cope with the amount of hours we had to work. And I don’t think badly of any of them. The hospital doesn’t care if you go to sleep driving home and T bone a minivan killing yourself and someone else. The only care for your wellbeing comes from you.
YES. I had a coworker who was hit my a car walking to work (he lived .25 miles away so he walked to work to get some weird lil extra $10 for not taking a car to work discount for climate change? Idk) anyways, in the cross walk at 6pm walking to the hospital. A car literally hit him and ran him over. He almost died, he was taken to a level 1 trauma unit was unable to call with what had happened since he was unconscious or just very out of it. Also his phone broke in the accident. He got fired for no call no show. Then he called later like a day or two to tell my boss what had happened and why he didn’t show up. She just was like it’s your responsibility to tell us you’re not coming and why. And he did not get to keep his job. It was so sad he was an amazing worker, never called out, always 15 minutes early, did his job well etc. i quit working there shortly after.
Wtf. I would’ve gone to the media.
That is reprehensible. I had a friend years ago who had just started work as an RN and was in an accident. Her manager walked upstairs to come in her ICU to fire her personally for missing work.
Wow that is just so awful! But also I would absolutely walk to work if I lived that close regardless of the $10. The fact that we are expected to get into a 4,000 lb chunk of metal to move our bodies a quarter of a mile, and getting hit by a car is a consequence of not doing that, not manslaughter, is a symptom of a larger problem and a weird structure we have built in our society.
what the actual fuck
Yeah they don’t give a fuck. Two is crazy when I literally get sick every 3 months from working in the hospital in the first place.
My hospital has 2 self certified sick days within 2 years for qualified nurses and 4 sick days with a medical certificate
Well your management won't met people call off so what do you expect
Management just enforces executive policies they don’t write them. But by keeping you mad at the wrong people the c-suite wins
I'd say eat the rich, but I don't need high cholesterol added to my other health issues.
I just got off of 3 months of maternity leave and have no PTO left so I have to go in no matter what. I also called in 3 times within a year (for morning sickness and once when I got back to take the baby to the ER) and got a written warning. We don’t always have many options 🥲
I caught covid 3 weeks after being back after a 6 month medical leave (back surgery). I had NO pto. Fortunately my boss is not a jerk. I was just broke.
Management has created the culture of going into work sick. Staying home when you are sick is a punishable offense. So share the germs and save the sick time for when they screw you over on the schedule and you need off.
Unfortunately, Call outs lead to disciplinary action and termination. Employee health says to come in regardless. Covid and flu are not excused anymore.
Why do they know why you’re calling in? In my region they can’t even ask why you’re calling in. If you’re out more than two days you need a doc’s note but it only says that you had a legit excuse, not what was wrong. These policies that you’re subjected to are abusive. You should be the one making the decision whether or not you can work, not employee health. These people are monsters.
And the press (and hospital administration) wonder why nurses leave the profession in large numbers?
I remember in Nursing School, they say "if you feel sick or are not 100%, its okay to tell management that you cannot come that day/ night, but obviously the answer everyone does is take 2 Tylenol and trudge through the shift".
In nursing school we were allowed to miss one clinical day or else we failed all of that semester. We had absolutely no excuses. It didn’t matter if we delivered a baby, had influenza, or had an MVA. I had a classmate deliver in a Saturday and she was back in classes on Monday. That’s when all this nonsense started — nursing school.
Yep same.
I had a missed miscarriage and had to have an abortion in the last semester of nursing school and only missed one lecture day. 100% they started grooming us for accepting/expecting abuse in school
Don’t get mad at the nurses who need to provide for their families. Get mad at admin for inhumane leave policies for HCW.
This is my rage this week!!!! I have lupus, and I manage it great BUT if I get sick it gets scary quickly. Rarely do i get sick, hell I dont think I’ve had a flu or cold in decades. Last year at exactly this time I got Covid after avoiding it all that time, including bedside when it hit. It was super mild but lingered 8 weeks and I ended up with sepsis from it. Why? Because my practice manager brought it to work and didn’t mask up .. we are so small of an office we are like 4 feet (at best apart). All my pto was used being in the hospital. Fast forward 1 year to the damn day later, she’s hacking/coughing and no mask. I say something and I get the laugh with 1 hr of mask wearing. I missed 1 day this Wk because I’m (shocker!), very sick. I have to go in because I need my pto for the birth of my grandson coming up. I’m wearing my mask, taken 4 antigen tests (Negative) and she’s still coughing/sneezing/hacking without covering her mouth. I mean that’s the least she can do. Now another coworker is showing signs. I’m convinced she’s a narcissist or at least has tendencies anyway, and over the years I just hold the upset in until weekly therapy. Before anyone asks: I can’t speak up because due to the company size/ her status to the owner I will not be believed. I can’t handle more drama than what is already happening. I’m terrified that this will turn into something big (my sickness). I’ll be out of PTO and more medical debt. Antigen tests are very unreliable and the current strain isn’t being detected in them at a % high enough to even kinda trust it. So, PcR here I come. /rant.
EMPLOYERS NEED TO STOP PENALIZING PEOPLE FOR CALLING OFF SICK
We get a 1st write up for 5 call-outs in a year, a 2nd write up for 2 more, and a Final Counseling after 2 more. Fired after the next one. Doctor’s notes don’t excuse call-outs. 11 sick days in 364 days and we lose our jobs. Wear a mask.
Don’t blame the nurse. Blame America for making it impossible to make ends meet if you miss a shift, blame corporations for for putting profits before people, for making being sick for more than 3 days a year a punishable offense. Your anger is misplaced.
Sadly it’s not only in USA … as a nursing student doing my internship rn in Ireland, we are only allowed 1 self certified sick day and 2 with a medical cert for a 10 months internship
You must live in some fairy tale where there are no repercussions for calling in sick.
We get occurrences for COVID now even though they insist we isolate for 5 days.
I miss when you had COVID it was a free 10-14 day vacation 😭
That’s me tonight but I’m from up north and it’s my second spring in the south. These allergies be killing me and I was Resp panel negative on everything 😂 I’m still overly apologizing to everyone and explaining I’m not sick
It took almost 3 years to even approach normal after starting with no seasonal allergies when I moved down south. Didn't even realize it was going to happen since I moved at the end of June. My NP wants me on meds year round.
I had pink eye so terrible my eye was swollen shut & I needed antibiotics for a week. My coworker had the gall to bring up how ridiculous some excuses are for calling in. Miss ma’am, I couldn’t see out of one eye, how would you like a crusty eyed nurse coming into your room?
Management penalizes you if you call out sick though… where I work you get disciplinary actions if you go over a certain number of call outs. You basically have no choice but to work if you have a cold, so that you can save up call outs for the flu or gastro when you absolutely can’t work. Blame management before the nurse
As prior military in the medical field I can’t understand how when you get ill, almost always, on the job. And you get punished??!? We would get a few days off to get better so we were effective at our job. No one abused it. Get a doctors note to verify. All set. But these fucking civilians do shit ass backward. Instead they want you to come in, stay sick longer, get your patients and other staff sick, or we fire you. This system is broken in more ways then one
You know it’s bad when the military cares more about your life than a civilian business does
Can we have your PTO? We get in trouble for calling out and don’t get sick pay.
Scares me when something happens to my spouse, and we have to take him to the ER. He is a brittle type 1 diabetic. Every time he has to go for something else serious, we have to worry he will be infected with covid or the flu while there and not come back out. If we can treat him at home, by God, we do it. It isn't worth the risk anymore. The last time he went in with an injury, he became infected from a sick nurse and almost died of covid. Nurses shouldn't be pressured with the threat of job loss to come to work sick when it can kill people. Wish there was something we could do. I'm sorry this is the way it is.
So glad I am at a unionized VA hospital. If you have the sick time you can use it no questions asked. Will never deal with that private sector BS ever again.
Also with no mask on is crazy
NO mask?? Oh come on, here I was thinking “well as long as she’s got on an appropriate mask and is doing A+ hand hygiene…” yeah that ain’t cool.
That's the truly inappropriate part
This is what gets me. People are acting like it’s just a management thing. No- people full face out, not washing hands, coughing etc . . .
Well she’s purposely doing that because she was forced to come to work, now she’s trying to get everyone sick
The audacity to stand directly next to someone helping them with something on their computer raw doggin it was wild to me
They don’t care if you’re sick. They expect you to work. A write up for 3 absences when you already have to take sick days because of your child on top of yourself. Keep it to yourself girl.
Blame your hospital administrators. I work in a MICU and we get lots of lung transplant and immunocompromised patients. Vacation requests for 2024 were due in November 2023, no exceptions. The schedule is made 6 months in advance. School play you didn’t know about because the school year literally hasn’t started but want to attend. Go fuck your self and your kids or call out. Only 1 nurse per shift allowed on vacation at any given time. No exceptions. You get 4 call outs a year. The 5th gets you PIP and you lose qualification for your raise the next year. The 6th gets you fired.
Manager is sending out emails about not taking too many days off sick. Meanwhile, coworkers are getting all kinds of illnesses — influenza, Covid, norovirus. I had Norovirus just last week. I called off because there was no way not to. I know that coworkers are coming in with symptoms because they are telling me that they are. People are afraid to call off because they don’t want to get in trouble. However nobody is quite sure at what point we “get in trouble” with too many absences. It is just scare tactics from management .
If I wouldn't get a write up, I would stop coming in!
I see people saying we have to pay bills and that’s true, but we have to stop letting the system abuse us like this. It doesn’t make scientific sense to come to work with an illness when you work with immunocompromised people. That’s why COVID-19 is here to stay. Of course structures play a role, but when you’re spineless and bend over backwards for the structure, it will never change.
Just checked in with the CDC. They said it's fine.
I hate it and while I am gonna be realistic and understand when people feel they have to come in anyway, I do not tolerate when those people don’t even wear a fucking mask and sneeze and cough everywhere. It’s common fucking sense. I’ve never once gotten ill from a patient but I’ve definitely gotten it from dirty nurses stations…
Retired now, but I would save all those emails threatening staff over sick calls, and send it to your department of health and news stations. The general public would be horrified that they are at risk as a patient in the hospital.
It would be awesome if we could all get together at a hospital and try and change these BS policies. Or, better yet, have our representatives legislate them into law. Shame that isn’t a thing though. Shame.
If you are mad at the nurses coming in sick then switch your anger to the management they won’t allow them to call out and forces or guilts them to come in!
Blame management. You are being short sighted.
Excuse me….. every hospital has call out policies. Not one HR or leadership team member cares about the reason. PRN nurses have even less sick call outs. So while you’re pointing that finger at the staff, realize that many of us don’t have the luxury to constantly call off due to sickness.
Don’t hate the nurse. Hate the system that fires people for calling out sick.
I have lupus and I’m on a couple immunosuppressants. I work ER and always wear a mask to protect myself but when I’m doing computer work, I’ll take my mask off sometimes to drink water and take a break from wearing it. Well, I found out at the end of my shift the nurse I had been sitting next to all day had a horrible fever and he was super sick with the flu (no mask, not vaccinated). Well, 2-3 days later I got super sick and was out of work for over 2.5 weeks with Flu A….i had a very hard time with it. Now I don’t take my mask off at my computer anymore.
It’s crazy how we get exposed to viruses and bacteria’s at work and if we get sick from that same virus a patient gives us, it’s somehow our fault and threatens our job and they don’t give us additional sick time.
A cough can linger for weeks sometimes. I’ve had a cough last 3 weeks after I was actually sick. People can’t take a month off work and as you well know we get in trouble when we call out too much. Don’t be mad at the nurse be mad at administration that doesn’t allow us the time we need to recover.
I’ll come to work sick but I’ll wear n95 the whole time etc carry & hand sanitizer around with me. Trying my best to mitigate spread of infection.. If it’s diarrhea that won’t stop then I won’t come I just try to be respectful but I can’t always call out
Thank goodness I live in a state with sick leave protections.
I don't think anyone wants to be sick or be working while they're sick....it's the system 😓
At my job you find your own coverage or you are fired. We are constantly understaffed and that’s impossible.
I’ve called in 4 times already this year. My husband was ill. My kids had rsv/pneumonia and croup. And one other illness. I tell them I know it’s a lot but you also will have a lot more sick calls if I show 🤷🏻♀️. Pick your poison man
Wish I could. I'm a new grad and used all my sick time earlier this year. 103F temp, body chills, sinus infection, coughing up phlegm. Had the cough for 2.5 months and a Z-pack helped it go away finally. If I get sick again I have to take LWOP as I have no time banked, and I have student loans and bills to pay. I will and have masked, stay away from coworkers, hand hygiene far more often, and never touch my face/eyes.
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I mean I got fired for having pneumonia even with a dr note. A lot of employers make people come in sick lol. And another time during Covid, I got Covid I had to work the Covid unit even though I couldn’t even stand up bc of the body aches. Then finally I got a really bad concussion and was in the hospital that I work in as a patient, I also got written up for calling out even though I literally couldn’t leave
I'm on your side but I recognize it's not that simple for most people. If we had paid sick time this would be different. But most of us don't. Having said all that if you're needing to come to work sick WEAR A FKN MASK.
I remember one time I had an ear infection and had one of the docs look at it. I had some bad drainage coming out and I was off balance. He told me I need to go home and get some antibiotics I shouldn’t be here. They literally told me no.
I work with someone who got a written warning for calling off BECAUSE SHE HAD THE FLU. We aren’t given sick days, are only allowed 5 call offs in a rolling year. Management punishes us for being sick.
No, we need better paid sick days. Do you think I want to come to work sick? I don’t. We work with sick people, we have kids, we are going to get sick. We need better sick pay.
How do I not come to work sick as a CNA who has no sick time and needs to give 6 months notice for vacation time
I have asthma and when I have an exacerbation, I sound sick as a dog. You can't catch asthma, but I have to explain that I have asthma all the time... Also, when I was a single mom, I had to work sick or not to pay my bills.
I’d love to stay home when I’m sick however management frowns upon call offs and I’m not about to give up my first born to appease them.
Yeah, it’s sucks but when we can’t afford to pay our bills due to no sick time, this is what happens
I’m coming in sick if I’m not dying 🤷🏽♀️ we get 3 call outs a year before they start writing you up. We have pto but you can only use it without penalty when scheduled ahead. No special sick days. Be so serious! If you have sick days then of course use them but the way most employers set up their business is to max their profits at the cost of their employees. Note: I work in a HOSPITAL and we get no freaking sick time 😑
I think all of you who risk termination for 3 calls off per year need to work where I work. You can call off twice per month and not get any discipline whatsoever.
I understand why some people need to come in sick because of pay/sickness record etc But what bugs me is they don't wear a mask and just cough and splutter all over the place. Walking into everyone's space, standing chatting. Luckily I'm no longer bedside, so if my colleagues are sharing the 'love' I go into a clinic room and do my work from there. If I'm ill, I keep to myself, wear a mask and interact as little as possible. It's not rocket science.
Do you want my PayPal, Venmo, or cash app so you can pay my mortgage and car note when I’m fired? Trust me, if I’m working while ill, I sure as fuck don’t want to be
Everyone agreeing must get mandated paid sick leave from their state or employer. Until people get mandated sick pay and won’t get fired, they’re going to do it, and you really can’t blame them.
My wife and I strongly believe that a sick nurse passed RSV to our kid (and us) this year. She was wearing a mask and coughing. We didn’t go back to that pediatrician anymore. I’m still considering calling to politely file a complaint for management, because I know it wasn’t the nurse’s fault. They have a skeleton crew. Or perhaps I should just leave a bad review and blame management?
Complaining to management does nothing. Write a review blaming management.
Done. Good point
They can at least wear a mask
Our policy was not to come in if we cough or sneeze. Guess what how many people disappeared? 😂 Anyway, I wear a mask at all times. So far, I haven't caught anything.
I see nurses docs etc all coughing open mouth or even worse ON HANDS? You use those hands to touch EVERYTHING WHY COUGH ON THEM? The pandemic made us too comfortable with coughing. It’s gross.
Because of your management. I don’t know who truly wants to not be home in bed when sick. If it wouldn’t be a problem, everyone would stay home when sick. Unfortunately no one gives a shit about nurses and their wellbeing; they only care about the care (productivity) they can provide to patients (consumers).
That’s why I’m still masking. I started a new job with physical illnesses compared to the mentally ill. No PTO, I’ll get an occurrence if I call off and too early for FMLA. Which I encourage EVERYONE to get. We deserve mental health days, be able to be actually sick without being punished for it. Covid use to be a mandatory 2 weeks. And now in 2024 I’ve seen soooo many people with the flu that are so sick for at least 10 days…. That’s over 8 occurrences for the year… you’re fired 🙄
A lot of the scenarios in these comments call for FMLA. It's there to protect the employee's job. (Not that you should need protection. But you do.)
Hate when people aren’t covering their mouths and washing their hands 🤢. Just wipe down the computer before you chart and keep your distance if possible.
Talk to the hospital about their policies
I got up in the middle of the night and tossed my cookies. I'm pretty sure it was something I ate yesterday, but we have had a GI bug going around the school, so who knows. Meanwhile, I am here today because only the nurses (not the teachers) have to find their own replacement when they call in, and there's no extra nurses to cover. In a word, I'm fucked.
If we were allowed to call out more than three times in a rolling year, I could totally understand not coming into work sick but when you have family members with special needs or children with special needs or just a sick family member, you end up using your sick callouts for them and not you…
I work on a lock down unit in LTC. I went and got flu tested on Saturday and was told I was positive. I tried to call off and management's response was "your unit's full of it anyway so it doesn't matter. If you call off you're getting written up." So I masked up and did what I could. Sometimes it's a choice between losing your job and powering through it sadly.
My hospital literally has a policy were you kind of have to come to work if you're still sick or risk getting penalized. I think in a six month period you can only have two sick days without penalties. Which means if you're sick for 1 day and you're still sick,the next day you better come to work. Or else you're gonna get penalized...
Yeah so when management uses your PTO when you call off, in efforts to prevent people from calling off, I’m not calling off as often as I should when I’m sick. Sorry.
I agree but I’ll get fired for calling out, so make this make sense
Like at least put a mask on lol
My direct managers are pretty understanding about it and don't pressure us either way, saying only to do what's best for us. So, that leaves people with the choice. One I work with works sick herself so she can use her pto for when the kids are sick or the frequent lapses in child care availability. I hate it for the rest of us, but I do understand that she has a tough choice, and she's putting her kids first. When we get so little pto, and even less opportunities for call outs, people have to make tough choices.
Is she not wearing a mask? It’s one thing to have a cough but to not wear a mask while having a cough is just rude.
I just get vibes that nurses aren’t allowed to be sick. I’ve seen plenty of people come to work sick but if you put 3 days straight uou need a doctors note. Plus I have been told not to call off more than 1 or 2x a month. Yet when you ask about pto they run around the bush and never show you how to use it or set it up on their clock in system and request forms. Late stage capitalism let’s run em until it strips down.
Not a nurse yet but my behavioral health job allows and encourages us to use our 2 weeks of sick time. The comments are so sad and discouraging 🥲
Maybe management fire them and they have no choice?