Sickies :)
 

Right, well this being Australia and all, and myself being totally assimilated I've decided that today is a nice day to pull one.

So I'm wondering how many others out there in expat land have taken on this iconic Australian cultural custom and given themselves a long weekend every now and then. The trigger for me today was a bit of a sniffle, having to take my quite Ill daughter to the local quacks and taking advantage of the location and ease of getting a cert.

Two 4 day weeks in a row, nice one.

So what excuses do you use, at our place, you just phone or message in stating "I'm orf sick tonight"

Re: Sickies :)
 

You make me sick. Mind the pun

I never take any sickies. I never get sick.

However, I do balance my job well enough to enjoy a long weekend every now and then without dipping into my holiday balance.

If I am up at 6am, on calls with the US, then I do Asia during working hours, then calls again in the evening to Europe, I am going to balance that every now and again.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Sickies only when sick.

My last workplace allowed employees to carry over their unused sick leave each year. By only taking a sick day on the rare occasion it was needed, I'd accumulated enough to receive my full pay for 6 months after a motor vehicle accident. Made a difficult time much easier.

On the other side, one of my direct reports took every sick day as soon as it became due. When she had surgery and was unable to work for 6 weeks, she only had 2 weeks annual leave due, having used every single day of her sick and LSL. She then wondered why she 'missed out' on 4 weeks pay, and got behind with her bills. Tough luck princess.

Re: Sickies :)
 

I've said it before...everywhere I've worked in Aus has far more restrictive polices on sickies than anywhere I worked in the UK. Medical certificate for two consecutive days, any day adjacent to a weekend or public holiday. That has been the policy...may not always be enforced, but in my experience is when people start to take the p.

Meanwhile, at my last job in the UK we could self certify SEVEN consecutive business days.

I think it's a bit of folklore that Aussies are somehow great at sickies! I was talking to someone at one of my customers the other day and she told me she hasn't had one in seven years.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Got people at our place that have years and years worth of sick leave up their sleeves. Those people employed in the 60's and early 70's tended not to take them as easily. We've got one bloke employed by Apost for 54 years, he hardly takes any. 69 years old, won't leave because he figures he'll be dead within a year due to his habit of spending all his spare time in a pub.... sad really.


I know of people in Torquay UK working in personal care who have been sacked for taking genuine sick leave. Everyone that works in caring for Autistic people at a certain facility in Torquay has to report to the manager every time they take sick leave. Not sure of the employer name, but my 63 YO mate works for them. Even with his cancers and early onset glaucoma he has to report to the manager every time he takes genuine sick leave.

Re: Sickies :)
 

I'm a contractor (staff jobs are for the weak and the snowflakes who live under the bizarre idea that it gives them some kind of job security :rofl:), so no work no pay so don't take them

Contractors go to work when others would be in hospital - rock f**king hard (double the staffie pay does that)

Re: Sickies :)
 

Cheers and Good luck to yah :thumbsup:

https://us.123rf.com/450wm/wavebreak...pool.jpg?ver=6

Re: Sickies :)
 

He's probably a piper (piping designer)

Wankers

Re: Sickies :)
 

Depends. Staff jobs are good if they pay you big bonuses based on the amount of money you can make for them.

Or there's contracting.

Or there's starting a government job 30 years ago and hanging out for a further 10 years waiting for that elusive redundancy. Not sure I could hang in there for the 30 years waiting on for a further 10 of unknown. But the pay day is good.

Re: Sickies :)
 

My husband doesn't do sick leave. Even when he was going through Chemo, he was at work every day. His Oncologist was dumbstruck when it came up in conversation but the husband would only take sick leave if he were strapped to a hospital bed. :lol:

Everyone he works with seems to be of the mindset that as soon as they've built up enough hours to take a sick day, they take it. Very weird concept to get our heads around.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Mood based ... I have a mere 2 hours of accumulated personal leave left, got to keep on top of that sucker, it doesn't get refunded.

It helps that my boss is also a Brit who currently couldn't give a monkeys about his current organisation (if it can be so called, stretching the definition a bit).

Together we will take the piss as far as we can before we inevitably move on.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Can't wait to clock over my 7.25 hours and take whatever day I fancy.

This Monday was the first one I've worked in 2 months, the five day week has nigh on killed me. :(

Might spend my next "sick" day on the coast with ice cream and chips.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Contractors get bonuses too - I got really (and I mean really good) good ones from Rio Tinto and FMG.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Methinks you are poking a wasps' nest with a stick to see what reaction you get <g>.

Insurance only works when the premiums exceed the claims: sick leave is just like insurance - there are so many days in a company aggregated to give genuinely sick employees days off, not to allow everyone to take their allocation. In most industrialised countries, anyway.

Re: Sickies :)
 

I've never been asked for a certificate and have always been surprised when a staff member gave one to me : like I care: if the work gets done...

I occassionally take a sick day and am stupid enough to not use them or indeed the personal days I could use.

Re: Sickies :)
 

I've worked for myself since I finished my apprenticeship so I can honestly say I've never had a day of paid sick leave. Have I failed to turn up for work? HELL YEAH!

Re: Sickies :)
 

Now retired but when I was working I didn't take them unless I was really really sick. It used to irritate me beyond belief when some of my colleagues took regular "Mental Health" days then whinged like crazy when faced with a long stint of sick leave because of some hospital procedure because they didn't have enough SL in the bank. Tough cheddar!

Re: Sickies :)
 

7 days until I accrue another one, can’t wait. ;)

Re: Sickies :)
 

LOL, I'm going here on Friday, so I figured stuff Thursday night / Friday Morning.

https://melbourneleisurefest.com.au/Home

Should have given me my Package eh ;)

Re: Sickies :)
 

To use a local phrase, “That’s The Way!”

Milk ‘em for all they’re worth. :thumbsup:

Re: Sickies :)
 

Glorious day at home ... might be a 24 hour bug ...

Re: Sickies :)
 

@#$%$#@

Re: Sickies :)
 

Down to around 0.02 hours of personal leave left now.

Should get another in before a well earned Christmas break. ;)

Re: Sickies :)
 

I've got a pwoper cold right now, going in tonight though, must be bloody Karma or something, very rarely get them. Who wants to be sick mid bloody week dammit.

Doctors tomorrow for another reason, so lets see what happens overnight. Could be a two or three dayer this one If I take it.

Still got at least 600 hours of sickies in the bank, which gives me 75 days or thereabouts uptil retirement age. Circa 5 weeks a year for the next 3 years if I'm under the weather ;) (more actually because you accrue sick leave even when your off sick)

Feel pretty crap right now though.

If it's quiet I may even come home mid shift. Wife managed to get real Sudafed from the pharmacy at the RMH where she works, the license number stuff. So lets see if that actually works.

Sleep tight you lot, someones working whilst your all bludging in bed. :starsmile: :p

Re: Sickies :)
 

Ahh to be fair I had a bit of nasty Mondayitis this morning, so the OH & I headed down to the smoke to buy ourselves a canopy to fit out as a camper. I'll need to work 8 days a week to pay for what she wants, just the bloody fridge slide is $850 bucks! For a few bits of metal and a gas strut :eek:

Re: Sickies :)
 

There are people at my work who regularly take a one day sicky, so regularly that on a wall planner it's plainly obvious - but they get away with it. I didn't take a sicky for four years and then was signed off for three weeks due to a fairly serious illness. Not a problem as I had accrued enough sick days, but the company were ringing up every other day to find out when I was coming back and then gave me a hard time when I went back to work.

Surprisingly my GP stepped in when she heard about this, and gave the HR manager at work a very hard time. She pointed out that a Doctors Certificate would stand up in a court of law and the company backed off.

It does get mentioned from time to time, even though it was a couple of years ago - the General Manager here brings it up every now and again as if I had done something very wrong and got away with it. Meanwhile the Aussie contingent carry on taking 9 days a year as extra holidays and nobody seems to care. Who's stupid, me or them ? Maybe I should start using my sick days up one day at a time before I l tell them to shove their job where the sun doesn't shine.

Re: Sickies :)
 

I actually had a similar experience way back when, I had a hernia op, whilst working with post and had over 3 weeks off. The boss, by that I mean manager of the facility, came around to make sure I was "Getting on OK" They tend to do this with long-term sickies. It's not to make sure you are getting on OK though, it's to make sure you are where you say you are and in the condition, you say you are.. It wasn't a work related problem either.

Single days, not a problem.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Bugger that, not sure what work your wife does, but if it were mine, I'd be suggesting that means a couple of Sunday Shifts.

Buying extras forour Toyota Hi ace pop top camper as well, new battery may as well get an inverter and solar panel to boot, plus bloody thing needs a new fridge, that's circa 1500 bucks just for the fridge and fitting. Which means I'm not that keen on losing shift penalties at present. I may even try and go in tonight as well, see how I wake up in a few hours.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Ouch, we threw $600 at an ancient Nissan Pulsar the other week to fix the ECU. It’s probably not worth more than that but it’s otherwise super reliable.

In other news, my sick day has had to be taken as Annual Leave as although I have a full day now, I didn’t on Monday.

The upside of this is that I get my sick day back, woo hoo! I suspect I’m coming down with something that will peak about ... Monday.

Let us not forget that you don’t have to be physically sick to justify this, good mental health is also worth maintaining.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Just tell the Doctor you're stressed, that's generally enough, GP's don't like to pry too deeply into Mental health usually. You've probably got a GP that does the right thing by you already though.


I was genuinely off sick last night, bit peed of about that, waste of a good day off. Going back tonight, still coughing and spluttering, like the ad.... "Soldier on"

Re: Sickies :)
 

Well whatdoya know. It looks like Bill Shorten was wrong after all and penalties rates can just be removed all together.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Try that one on the Nurses, Police and Firefighters ;)

Re: Sickies :)
 

Bummer to waste a day actually being unfit to work, I hope you recover soon.

I’ve got big plans for Monday weather permitting.

If I can avoid getting Trenchfoot watching Midnight Oil at The Big Pineapple on Saturday ... Sunshine State My Arse.

Re: Sickies :)
 

Happy to. People need to be responsible for their own choices.