Calling in sick can put you in a pretty uncomfortable situation at times. We can all agree it is an intimidating task. You are not just anxious about the work that will get piled up when you are on leave; you are also not sure if your boss will grant you your leave. Today’s topic- How early should I call in sick?
Now, the point is, there can be two scenarios. One, where you are sick and your health is not allowing you to go to work, and the second situation is where you are lying about being sick just because you don’t particularly feel like going to work on that specific day. We are not judging you over here. However, it is essential to realize that you could get into serious trouble in the second case scenario, and it is always better not to put yourself in that kind of position if you can avoid it. In this article, we shall discuss ideas along the same lines.
How to call in sick?
- Don’t Lie: The most important call for you to make is to not lie about being sick. As mentioned previously, you could get into serious trouble for lying, and if you do not manage to do that in a calculative manner, you will mess it up even further for yourself.
- Moreover, if this goes on for very long, people will eventually catch on and won’t particularly fancy such behavior. It is you, being the traitor amongst your colleagues. And think about the work that you would be piling up for your peers when you are not around; that’s not just morally wrong and irrational, but disrespectful too.
- Make sure to put all of these things into consideration before you lie about your sickness.
- In time: While you’re considering taking sick leave, try to inform your company, manager, or boss as soon as possible. The more you delay, the more things start to become complex and inadvertent. You need to make this as believable as you can. However, you can always attach your hospital papers in your application or email if you are not lying.
- In case you are feeling unwell right one day before your workday, you might want to give a call to the company or inform your boss that you are not in a condition to show up to your office the following day and that you’ve covered your entire job the day before or that you will cover it up when you are better.
- When you give this information in, your company gets a heads-up that it is pretty unlikely that you’ll show for a couple of days or if it’s a one-day thing and would segregate the work accordingly. This helps the company work productively, but you don’t have to worry about not showing to work.
- Brief: Keep your application or the email that you will be sending short enough that it looks legit. If it’s a major problem you face with your health, you might want to elaborate on the issue. Otherwise, a brief note is good to go.
- Attaching medical notes is always advisable. They make things look more genuine unless, of course, you are lying about being sick.
- Team: Another important thing that you need to keep in mind is to let your teammates know that you won’t be coming for a day or a couple of days. This you must do not just out of respect but also because if you have a lot of group projects or tasks, it becomes easier for them to evaluate the situation and thus act on the distribution of ideas and tasks in accordance.
- Cover up: As previously mentioned, you must inform the crew and the company that you would cover your tasks as soon as you are better or that you already have covered all your tasks and that they have nothing to worry about.
- Follow up: The last and final step is to follow up. It is important to know if they’ve granted you your permission or that they want you to elaborate on the issue. Either way, you must stay informed regarding the matter at hand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Is it worth it calling in sick?
A1. Yes, it is worth it calling in sick, it is not just important to inform your company that you’re sick, but it also spares your colleagues from getting affected if you potentially get to know that you are down with some sort of contagious disease.
- Often, employees don’t call in sick just because they think that their sick leave would not be granted or that the amount of work that is going to get piled will be pretty difficult to handle. So they turn up to work even if they are metaphorically or quite literally dying.
- They fail to understand that their health is what matters more than the amount of work that they will be piling up and that they need to think about their peer group’s health in this situation. Precaution in this case or any is always better than cure.
Q2. How long before I call in sick?
A2. If you are genuinely sick and late informing your company that you are sick, it would be good to inform the company at least four to five hours before the official timing. This is because even the company needs time to fix a replacement, and that cannot happen if you give them a heads up just an hour before. It is not just inconvenient but generously wrong. If the company is too strict, they might not even acknowledge your sick leave or simply fire you for inappropriate decision-making or late calls, which ruins your career in the process.
Also, make sure you have a valid reason to call in sick, don’t do it just because you don’t feel like going to work on some specific day.
