She’s not a doctor, but she plays one in the office

Bad bosses holding sick days hostage

I once had a manager who insisted that when you call in sick, you speak to a live supervisor. Leaving a voicemail was not an option, ever.  Easier said than done in a hectic office where supervisors often didn’t return to their desks until well after the start of the workday.  I think she felt that she would be able to differentiate the fakers versus the legitimately sick.  We secretly wondered if she had some kind of voice activated lie detector in her office.  I’m sure she also felt that having to speak to a manager would deter the fakers.  

On the occasions when I had to call in sick, my frustration level would escalate as I made call after call trying to reach someone in management.  Its the kind of  micro-managing you expect in elementary school, not as an adult in the workforce.  Remember the Reprobate? Once, one of our PR guys was out of the office for several days with walking pneumonia.  He insisted the guy send him a copy of his x-rays so he could take a look at it himself.   PR guy actually sent the x-rays and we all witnessed the Reprobate parading around the office, squinting at the x-rays like a bad episode of Grey’s Anatomy. 

I understand that there are slackers out there that plan sick days like the rest of us plan our vacations, but there’s got to be a better way to manage the problem.  Policies like those  mentioned above have long term effects on all employees, especially the ones trying to do the right thing.  They say loudly and clearly to everyone, we don’t trust you. George Munchus, professor and chair of the department of management at the University of Alabama at Birmingham suggests managers set specific policies and action plans to deal with workplace illness.  According to Chest Magazine, a publication for respiratory physicians, chest colds alone cost employers $112 billion annually.  And employees who drag their sick, contagious selves to work, add to that costs and make everyone around them miserable.  In an office where people feel they’ve got to come to work no matter how sick they are, office morale is low and so is motivation.  At the first sign of freedom, anyone worth their salt is getting out of dodge, and fast.

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