Show nested quote +On March 12 2010 04:03 Asjo wrote:
I'm sorry to hear about the attitude in this thread. They way I see it, if people are sick, they should stay home. If they are just feeling bad, they can evaluate whether they feel it's necessary to stay home, and if they do, you should respect that. People should take care of themselves, and if they do, I'm sure it will be the better for everyone in the end.
I think it's terrible if there is such distrust from an employer that you have to show a doctor's note after just one sick day. I believe it's normal practive in Denmark (with many variations, of course) that if you are sick for around four days in a row, you show your employer a doctor's note, just so that they know they are not being yanked around. If people have to bother about getting a doctor's note (instead of resting at home), I'm sure it won't be benificial to their recovery process, so it wouldn't really be in the interest of the employer.
I think it shows a lack of respect for your employees if you do not allow people to be sick. And yes, depending on the work, sick days can be quite detrimental to the work place, but really, two days in a month a lot - it simply requires that you get sick once a twice, which is not inconceivable. That said, given the words of Osmoses, I don't think the sick days did it, like many other said. I think that you have a realize a lot of things lie in non-verbal communication. No one likes working with someone who doesn't seem invested or gives off a bad vibe. Often your exterior will show much more than you think, even things you're not consciously feeling. I think it's important to try to be positive about work and make the best of it. When you have just started in a new work place, you are still being evualuated. Therefore, if they make judgements about your character, they will not provide you with "negative feedback", but simply take not of this. Once they decide to keep you, I'm sure they would be much more open to feedback, but first they need to see who you are. In Denmark I believe there is a legal three-month evaluation period at the end of which the employer can decide whether to hire you. After that, it gets much more difficult to fire you and also they have to pay for your loss of salary if they fire you immediately (otherwise you would get to work for whenever length the notice for firing someone would be). So, with this in mind, employers are much more careful while people are still in their evaluation period. You shouldn't lose all confidence because of this incident, but keep in mind that they might be insecure and have a tough time of knowing whether to keep you.
In my old working place, a guy displayed some signs of chronical sickness within the first three months. So, even though he was doing decently and was appreciated at the work place, they did not dare to keep him. From what I understood of what people were saying afterwards, this had apparantly happened to him in other jobs before, and it unfortunately seemed unlikely that he would be able to keep down a regular job. Another guy had worked with us for over a year, but then suddenly stayed away for a longer period of time. He might have been generally sick, but because he didn't seem to care to stay in contact and didn't emphasise about the situation, both my boss and his colleague grow more and more disillutioned over him, and in the end he was let got (on a technicality; fired in absense or failure to comply with some request, I believe). Another guy was sick quite frequently in periods, legitimately, and people had been moaning about this as well, but he was quite talented and had a good work spirit. Even though eventually my boss was demanding more documentation and explanation, he was kept on board and is a crucial part of the team. The doctors eventually got it right, and I believe he's doing much better today, even if his sickday average might still be slightly higher than most others.
Edit: All of the above said, I personally have quite high work morals, and in my five years of work experience, I have only had a single sick day. I have certainly been to work a few times where I was barely standing (didn't feel at any risk of contaminating others). Still, I guess generally I have just been quite healthy and I have loved whatever work I did. I never felt forced to come to work agianst my will, which I guess also increased my sense of responsibility.
I think what he said is really good.
You should either avoid being sick, or have extremely good work-ethics / experiences / abilities to make up for it.
EPT
