What's an Acceptable amount of sick days?

[Slartibartfast]

Some people get sick more than others, or from specific triggers (like stress, which might be more present in your life right now than usual).  If there is a supervisor whom you know personally, you could mention that you're feeling guilty for taking yet another sick day off and this isn't typical for you - he or she would probably know whether there are raised eyebrows at your absences or not.  If there's nobody who would know you on a personal level, I'd just keep my mouth shut and hope nobody has noticed or drawn conclusions.

[wildtao]

I know exactly how you feel. I just started a new job, within the same company but in a private doctors office instead of the hospital. I just finished my three months probation, am about to hit my fourth month, and I've had seven sick days since I've started. Horrible, I know. But I lost my voice at one point, was throwing up and trying to work at another, and my boss made me go home. I've apologized several times and offered to make it up as I can. I have my review this week and am so worried my absences will really affect it, however I have to accept that with everything going on in my life at the moment and moving from answering phones to dealing with sick patients in the middle of winter it was inevitable to some degree. I just buckle down and work hard so I can show that when I am at work I work hard and get the job done and remind them why they hired me.

Lyndsey

[Wildrose]

Thank you all for the input!  I've e-mailed my manager about it, although she's actually an acting manager... that makes it a bit hard, because she's leaving tomorrow! But she said it was fine, she has the same thing right now. It's probably a bug going around work.

I really love my job... the only stress is purely physical because my shifts and sleeping schedules change every week. On the other hand, it might just be the open air office environment. A lady who was leaving our department once referred to it as a "loving petri-dish." The company actually got us all flu shots. (which I got... figures I catch everything BUT the flu!)

I can't work Saturdays and Sundays to make up for it, unfortunately. This is a strictly unionized work environment, so working overtime after being sick strikes me as a bit insulting. If I was on salary, that would be different. ^^

I was lucky with the shingles! I got the anti-virals just in time, so I really only suffered pain for a week, most of it on a long weekend.  I suppose I'm mostly worried because my parents are onto me about taking too many sick days. They say I'll get a reputation for being 'sickly' and never get promoted. But I feel better now... thank you all for the input!

[Adah]

Slight thread drift: A recent study by HR managers nationwide found that somelike 56 percent consider presenteeism -- coming to work sick -- a major and growing problem in America. By coming to work sick, you risk infecting others. The article stated some astronomical number (in the multimillions) that assessed the amount of actual loss by companies because of this. We got to talking about this at work after my boss encouraged one of our employees who had a cold to go home and not infect us. She didn't. I am just getting over her cold and another woman in our office was out two days recouperating from it. Food for thought.

[JeanFromBNA]

We give our longtime employees 120 hours of paid time off (PTO) per year.  First-year employees get 80 hours PTO.  To encourage them to take time off and use it wisely, we will only reimburse them for 40 hours of unused PTO at the end of the year. 

I have a formerly salaried employee that took a week off work for illness two weeks after starting.  That week was during the holidays, so she had a total of about 10 paid days off right off the bat.  I wanted and still want to believe that most people are honest, but it started a landslide of more days off, coming in up to three hours late, and other related behaviors.

This was the beginning of my journey to the Land of Stupid Policy Memos from which I would desperately like to escape.