Taking a paid sick leave is not something that isn’t frequent among employees. Sometimes an employee might not feel well enough to attend work and so they might take a leave for that. Taking such leaves is essential to protect the overall health of that employee. Here is the question- Can You Call In Sick Before You Get Fired?
But you would wonder if there is a limit to taking such leaves at your firm? And yes, usually, employees could only take several days off of their working time in the form of sick leave. If you take too many sick leaves in a year, it would affect your progress and work at the firm.
How Can You Call In Sick While Working At A Firm?
Imagine that you wake up in the morning to go to work but feel drowsy. You get up and notice that your forehead is burning up and your throat feels dry. When you try to get on your feet, you feel further nausea and dizziness.
Then, you might not be able to visit or do work in such a condition. And if you have a cold, you might even spread it to your co-workers, which is worse. What you can do in such a situation is inform your employer about it.
You can describe your condition and ask them if you could stay out of work for that day. Once they give you the green light, you can take some medicine and relax at home. Or you can opt to work from home if you are in the condition to do so.
What Is The Term For Sick Leaves?
Up until a few years ago, sick leaves were termed as paid sick days for employees. But now, with the Paid Time Off Policy, all these leaves come under personal days for employees. They are an added employee benefit that employers provide.
In the Paid Time Off Policy, the employees can take paid sick leaves, paid vacations, and paid personal time to tend to their events. Your firm might even have separate slots for each. Nevertheless, these are the paid leaves that an employee can avail of when they require it.
The employees would still receive their wages for the day since it is paid time off. So they do not have to worry about being financially strained even when they miss work. But they could still misuse a benefit made just for them.
Is There A Limit To Calling In Sick As An Employee?
Yes, there is usually a limit to taking personal days or paid sick leaves from work. It is present so that the employees do not misuse the sick leaves as an excuse to remain at home and not work. Sometimes the employee might have developed a disease or problem during their working time at the firm.
In such a case, they must discuss it immediately with their employer and work their way to a solution. But the ratio of people merely staying off work is far more than those who do develop such an illness.
So your company might have set the limit for taking personal days for all employees. Of course, the limit might be different for different employees according to their seniority levels. But they would get such leaves nevertheless, within a limit.
How Can You Know About The Sick Leave Limit For Your Firm?
If you would like to find out about the limit of sick leaves you can take in a year, you must refer to your contract. Most employee contracts include information regarding personal days and information related to them.
If you do not find the information in your contract then you can go to the firm’s policies and check there. You might find an article about the personal days allotted to certain employees each year.
If you are still unsure, then you could contact your HR manager and ask them directly. You could also ask a superior who mentors you to get the information about the paid sick leaves you can get in a year.
How Does An Employee’s Sick Leave Affect The Firm?
An employee might not think much of the five-ten days they get off in a year, but to the firm, it matters a lot. Lots of effort and money goes into giving such leaves to employees from the firm’s side.
It is why the firm can’t afford to keep an employee who is missing work all too frequently. They would not take such an extreme decision if they didn’t need to. Here are a few ways that an employee’s sick leave may affect the firm:
- Financial Pressure On The Firm– The first and most frequent issue that a firm might face in the frequent absence of employees is a financial issue. Since the sick leaves or personal days get counted in paid time off, the firm must pay the absent employee wages.
And the expense is especially harmful to the firms since they do not receive any work worth that amount of money. So they have to give out money to the employee and consequently face a loss, and it gets worse if the leaves become too frequent.
- Insufficient Workforce– Even if we remove the aspect of money, we can say that the work aspect is just as serious as the financial work. A firm works as an organization with every employee contributing to the work as much as they can.
With the absence of even one employee, the work pace would slow down. The workload on other employees would also increase, so it is not ideal. Hence, to ensure that work ensues smoothly in the firm, the presence of such employees is essential.
- Violation Of Workplace Ethics– Violating workplace ethics is another result of missing work for too many days. If you have a serious illness that you didn’t have before, then it is understandable to miss work.
But if one misses work only to chill out at home, then it would violate the punctuality and work ethic of the person. Other employees would also see this behavioral pattern and start believing that it is right for them to do the same.
Could You Get Fired For Taking Too Many Sick Leaves?
Yes, you might get fired if you take way too many sick leaves in a year. The first step would not be firing you, of course, but after they have tried the last resort, they might fire you from your job.
So you must not take unnecessary sick leaves and talk to your employer about them as soon as you can. Here is a general procedure that most firms follow if an employee keeps missing work too frequently:
- The first step an employer would take is to deny the employee the request for their leave. If they have crossed their limit of paid sick leaves, they would straight up deny any requests for further leaves.
- Furthermore, if the employer sees that an employee has been taking too many leaves and have crossed the limit, they would stop giving the employee their wage on the missed days. They would not pay the employee for the days that they have not attended work at the firm.
- If the employee persists to take leaves, the employer would issue a warning to them. It would be to notify that they would not bear with such behavior any longer and strict action would follow.
- After a few warnings, the employer would then proceed to fire the employee since they would have violated the contract. The employer would not have to pay the employee anything since it is a case of contract violation and the employee would lose their job.
Conclusion
While sick leaves are an ideal employee benefit that most firms provide, they could turn out to be troublesome for the firms. Some employees might abuse such sick leaves frequently use them to stay out of work.
It isn’t a common phenomenon but it does happen to some firms anyway. In such a case, the firm might take action against such an employee and might even fire them for it. So, to steer clear of such actions being taken against you, you must know what the limit is for you to stay out of work due to sickness.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is there a limit to taking personal days in all firms?
Yes, there is usually a limit to taking personal days in the firm since they include sick leaves too. You could only take a few days off every year to tend to sickness and cannot go beyond that limit.
- What to do if employers take action against me for taking too many leaves?
The first step would be to communicate to the employers and apologize for your actions. Then you can tell them the reason you are doing so and try to reason with them about your job.
- What if I have a pre-existing medical condition that needs constant attention?
If you do have a pre-existing medical condition, then you need to mention it during the job acquisition process. The employer needs to be aware of such medical conditions so that they know if you can work efficiently or not.
