Taking Sick Days
You wake up feeling awful. It may hurt to move or talk, you might feel nauseous, or maybe you’re having a bad flare-up of a chronic condition. You know that you should phone in sick, but what goes through your mind? How do you imagine the person on the other end will react to your call? Do you just go in anyway?
I have a track record of pretending that everything is okay - I’m used to just dealing with it, or I want to ensure that others don’t feel uncomfortable on my behalf. I also have a turbulent relationship with guilt, which takes a toll on my mental health. Understandably, this menagerie of anxieties bleeds into my attitude about phoning in sick. My body will start to shake, I go over what I want to say repeatedly, and I find it hard to retaliate if someone asks me to come in anyway. Unfortunately, I’m not alone.
From feeling pressure from management or colleagues to being stressed about workload, too many people feel awkward about phoning in sick. I’m always on the defensive before my manager picks up the phone because I’ve been so used to people making me come in anyway, saying that they’d struggle too much without me, or maintaining that I sound fine.
When someone plays an issue down or denies something that the affected person knows is true, we call it gaslighting and acknowledge how damaging it is. Why should this be treated any differently?
The number of times I’ve come into work whilst feeling sick, ill, or too stressed or depressed to make important decisions are countless, which has resulted in me feeling worse compared to if I just stayed home. This phenomenon has a name: presenteeism, and it costs the UK economy billions per year.
I would drag myself in coughing or sneezing everywhere, safe in the knowledge that I care so much about my job that I’m willing to see my illness as just another hurdle to overcome. Screw that. We wouldn’t carry on running if our knee gave out, would we? According to HR Review, ‘79% of Brits have forced themselves to go into work whilst feeling under the weather’ and if they do muster up the courage to phone in ‘67% said they feel guilty’ doing so. I know that that doesn’t account for the rest of the world, but the stats are still shocking.
In my previous role, I didn’t take any time off for a year and got a congratulatory letter from the company. I felt good, accomplished, proud, all the things that the author of the letter wanted me to feel, but why? There’s nothing inherently good about not taking time off, even if you haven’t been sick. Are we praising someone’s immune system, selfishness (when contagious), or their unwillingness to rest despite feeling horrible? What about the people who insist that they need time off, so they didn’t get worse or infect others, where are their congratulations?
Don’t get me wrong, I know that people pretend to be sick, but we shouldn’t all be assumed guilty before we’re proven innocent. None of us should be required to get a doctor’s note for every ailment, or come in to prove we’re definitely not able to work (so that we’re either pushed beyond our limits or sent home anyway), what we say should be taken at face value.
If someone has a track record of doing next to nothing and asking for lots of time off, or it’s clear that they just want to get out of doing something, companies should look into that further. However, for those of us who need to miss a day or two for our wellbeing, that should be respected.
On that note, someone is not a worse employee for taking more time off. To say otherwise would be ableist at worst and insensitive at best. If someone has chronic pain and physically can’t get out of bed some days, or suffers so badly with a mental health condition that their brain and/or body can’t function every day, would you feel right telling them that they have to suck it up? Some people need to rest a lot more than others for the sake of their long-term health.
According to Sat Sindhar, Managing Director at People HR, ‘In our experience, companies who encourage people to rest when they are physically or mentally unwell, benefit from lower staff turnover and better productivity’, which I believe wholeheartedly. Suppose a manager tells me to take care of myself and rest at home. In that case, that doesn’t make me want to take unnecessary time off, it makes me relax and recuperate faster because I’m not feeling embarrassed or uncomfortable.
Conversely, when I was made to feel guilty, my productivity was lower, and I respected the company much less. It’s laughable that I’ve felt unreasonable or rude when asking for the bare minimum: to look after myself.
I started taking what I call ‘mental health days’ last year – these happen when I feel suicidal, extremely self-destructive, or I am in no fit state to do much of anything. Before 2019, I would never have admitted things like that to managers as a reason for time off, mainly because I haven’t been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Instead, I would work through it and try to limit my breakdowns to the bathroom stalls.
According to the article in Ladders, ‘Despite the growing education around mental health and burnout, just 29% believe poor mental health warrants time off, and even less (22%) say burnout constitutes a sick day.’ That means that 71% of people wouldn’t consider poor mental health a reason to take a day off, which is appalling since they’re just as serious as countless physical ailments.
If you want to drive somewhere but your car tyres are flat, you might get there eventually, although it will be slow and arduous. But if you sort it out as soon you notice the problem, you’ll have a much faster, smoother journey.
I’ll end with another quote from Sat Sindhar: ‘It concerns me to see how many employees across the UK are hesitant to call in sick due to guilt and pressure from their employer. We need to break the taboo of sick days, and be seen encouraging employees to make that decision about their health, knowing they will be supported if and when they do.’
Written by Shanade McConney
My name is Shanade and I’ve been passionate about writing for as long as I can remember. I've been known to play Fortnite for an obscene amount of time, I love putting a good outfit together, and I process life insurance applications near Bristol, where I’ve been based for 2 years. I’m trying to live my best life, whatever that might look like, and hope I never lose sight of the things that bring me joy.