Sick at work

[NPO]

If you're sick, and I don't mean debilitatingly, but with cold/flu like symptoms, do you stay home or work around it at?

I've heard this debated and I'm not sure how I feel.

I just had strep, clearly can't be at work with that.

 

[NomadicMedic]

I have lots of sick time. I stay home.

 

[Tigger]

My sick time re-accrues if I use it. 4 hours per check up to 72 hours. Use it or lose it, so if I'm sick I'm taking it.

 

[Medic Tim]

When I worked 911 we earned 1 sick day a month to a total of 25-30 days. We were only asked for a doctors note after 7 sick calls a year or 3 consecutive shifts.
Whenever I was sick I stayed home. I would also take the occasional "personal" or "mental health" day.

At my current clinic I am the only ALS provider. I work 12hour days and on call nights for 2 week shifts. If I am unwell I have to suck it up . I usually take it easy and stay in my room. I will only see pts the BLS medics refer to me instead of taking my " share". We all work together

 

[Handsome Robb]

Our vacation and sick time are one in the same, just called PTO. You can take 3 sick days per quarter however if you really do need more you can take them but you'll generally get an administrative write up and a "don't do it again". We gain a certain amount of PTO for every hour worked. Every year you work that number of PTO gained per hour worked goes up. I believe with two years of full time employment I earn 0.08 hours of PTO for every hour worked or somewhere around there. The more years of service you have the higher your max PTO hours get. Once you max out they don't take them away but you can't gain anymore so most will either cash a bunch out or take some time off to get below their max.

If you're sick, stay home. We deal with immunocompromised patients all the time, pretty poor patient care if you give your cancer patient with no immune system a cold or the flu or something like that. Also, we spend long hours in close proximity in a mostly enclosed space with our partners. Out of respect for them don't come to work when you're sick.

During flu season if you look or sound like you have flu like symptoms a supervisor can and will talk to you, generally check your temperature and if you're running a temp they'll send you home with directions not to return to work until your fever has broken.

 

[ZombieEMT]

When I get sick, I always go to the local urgent center for assessment. Whether or not I work, is dependent on what my doctor dictates. Also, I have sick time, but I do try to reserve it if I can. If I am not contagous and can tolerate being at work, I tend to push myself through. At one job, we can take additional days off, but nonpaid.

 

[mycrofft]

We had a good sick leave plan until it got stretched, and when certain people were in charge.

Some supervisors would call you at a random time during the day to see if you were at home.

One director decided unilaterally to make it mandatory for any absence longer than three workdays be justified at that point by a doctor's note. You had to get out of bed, go to the MD's, get a note and either bring it in then or fax it…and when you returned you brought the original with you. After that, just bring a note whenever you came back.

And if you ran out of sick time? You could burn the three other earned time offs, but after that, you were on your own. (Interestingly, after one of us staff people was dx with cancer burned off all her leaves and was then on unpaid leave, we were asked to donate our paid leave times to help a supervisor who was very sick and obviously not going to be back to work in time. While we were refused the ability to do the same for fellow staffers).

Union fixed those.

 

[johnrsemt]

We get 4 hours of Sick Leave every 2 week paycheck, unlimited max. Also Sick leave will cash out at retirement or if we quit or get fired



We get Annual leave (4.8hrs for 0-3 years time; 7.2hrs for 3 to 14 years and 9.6 hrs for 14+ years) maxed out at 288hrs (we can go over that but it has to be at that or lower by the end of the year or we lose it). Annual leave cashs out when we retire, but not when we quit or get fired

We also get comp time; which is when we don't take all of our overtime right away. We can store comp time for up to a year and either use it for extra leave (cashed out at straight time, even though we earn it as overtime) or at the end of it's 1 year anniversary it cashes out as overtime (at the rate that we earned it).
Some people take all there OT as comp time, then let it cash out as it comes up to. But it is there in case we need it as extra leave.

When I need leave I just take Annual, because it keeps me below the use or lose cap.

Right now I am sitting on about 600 hours total leave.

Don't use alot of leave since we work 48 hrs straight and off 5 days; on a 4 week rotation. So worst case you alway have 3 week days off, and usually 1 or both weekend days off

 

[johnrsemt]

If someone gets sick or needs surgery and uses all of their leave, they can pull leave from future leave and if that isn't enough they can request leave to be donated to them from coworkers.

 

[mycrofft]

beauty!!

 

[GoldcrossEMTbasic]

Now If we had severe stomach flu issues N/V the "RUNS":rofl: Do we want to be taking care of that patient? Absolutely Not !Especially when there is no toilet close by. You sure don't want to be embarrassed if you soil yourself. There are nights when EMTs or Medics never have time to use a restroom especially one call after another. Only time is at the hospital. And you better do your duty quick and run!:rofl: My suggestion is stay home and stay in bed. And use the PTO if protocols allow.

 

[GoldcrossEMTbasic]

Now If we had severe stomach flu issues N/V the "RUNS":rofl: Do we want to be taking care of that patient? Absolutely Not !Especially when there is no toilet close by. You sure don't want to be embarrassed if you soil yourself. There are nights when EMTs or Medics never have time to use a restroom especially one call after another. Only time is at the hospital. And you better do your duty quick and run!:rofl: My suggestion is stay home and stay in bed. And use the PTO if protocols allow.

"Go Big Or Go Home!"

 

[chriscemt]

If someone gets sick or needs surgery and uses all of their leave, they can pull leave from future leave and if that isn't enough they can request leave to be donated to them from coworkers.

I'm amazed that sharing sick time isn't more encouraged. It's totally teamwork based, and helps those that have those awful surgeries that put them out for a month.

 

[Tigger]

I'm amazed that sharing sick time isn't more encouraged. It's totally teamwork based, and helps those that have those awful surgeries that put them out for a month.

My boss is extremely lenient regarding what constitutes light duty. If you want to proofread grants in bed after knee surgery, that's fine and you'll be paid for it. For the most part this negates the need to share leave and according to those that are laid up it helps them too since they have something productive to do.