Why do employers say they want you to stay home when you're sick, yet their policies say otherwise?

[Anonymous]

My employer doesn't give sick time. You get 3 personal days a year. If you call in sick, they take those. After that, it's an unexcused absence and can lead to disciplinary action. One illness can kill your personal time. Does that sound like an employer that wants you to stay home when you're sick?

[jshm2]

Depends on job and reasons.

Legally, every job needs to comply and allow for sick leave. There are grounds for legal action if it doesn't. But you need to be proactive with the manager and ensure they are aware of your situation to comply.

[Anonymous]

Could be worse. You could have a boss who basically tells you if you want to keep your job you have to kill your unborn baby or you should take marijuana because according to them marijuana will cure a medical condition that has the potential to kill you and they are saying this knowing full well marijuana is illegal. It's so ridiculous how employers don't care about people's health and they force you to work when you are sick. It should seriously be illegal.

[exitseven]

You are right about that. When people come into work sick they spread it around but 3 personal days really is not much. I worked at a college and got 10 sick days and you really needed them because the students would come back in September and I would get sick a couple of weeks after that and stay sick until after Christmas. You really needed all the sick time.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[OfDeath]

They have to send out those public statements about being serious about health to cover their arses.

My boss sent me an email today about R U OK day right before assigning me a day of impossible KPIs for tomorrow. They're snakes.

[OfDeath]

I meant to add that the statements let them get away with working their staff into the ground and then saying it is the staff's fault if they burn out and get seriously ill so they don't have to pay compensation. They say "we said you should stay home if you're I'll, here is the email we sent you on this date". And then if you actually do take days off they can also fire you for excessive absence leading to a lack of productivity. They win either way. This is why society needs unions.

[OfDeath]

*stay home if you're ill. The last was the result of predictive text.

[TroyDT]

If you lived in California then you'd, by law, get one sick hour for every 30 worked, or more than 8 full days per year for 50 weeks of 40 hours.

[joeldalton]

It does not. In fact, allowing employees to stay home when sick should have been the only thing about society changed during covid, but yet it's the only thing that didn't, lol.

[maximumpower]

Nobody else wants your funk.
That's why they have SICK DAYS.
Come on now - it's not that difficult to figure out.

[Asker]

But they DON'T have sick days. That's the point. They say they don't want you to come to work sick, but their policies kind of force you to come to work sick. Can't you read?

[maximumpower]

OK - fair enough. That's why they have personal days.
If you don't like it, then recommend you find a different job.

[Guy13]

Cover their butt.

[Guy13]

Especially with all the "cold and viruses" floating around. COVID-19 took this approach off the charts. Lots of standards corporate companies "let/force" nonessential employees to work from home!!! Are you seeing that too?

[Danny_dan92]

Because they don’t want you to get them sick

[jimmy2]

COVID on the rise again

[Anonymous]

Policies aren't always right.