Bosses should stop asking for sick notes

[maryjane48]

Bosses should stop asking their employees for sick notes from doctors because it could have a "discouraging effect" on workers who are ill and should stay at home, says the head of the Ontario Medical Association.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/o ... -1.2489885

[Dizzy1]

I haven't used a doctors note since grade 2, just about the same time I stopped raising my hand and asking permission to go pee pee.

[rvrepairnut]

Bosses should stop asking their employees for sick notes from doctors because it could have a "discouraging effect" on workers who are ill and should stay at home, says the head of the Ontario Medical Association.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/o ... -1.2489885

If they book off sick and don't exspect to be paid ok but if they exspect to be paid then medical proof should be provided
If the school districts required this the tax payers would save many million per school year because 90% of school teachers
are never sick just want a free ride

[maryjane48]

i could live if they dnt expect to get paid as long as its not in a collective agreement, but the docs are right in why have sick people making other people sick?

[Bleach]

My boss used to ask for sick notes. I said "If I am well enough to go to the doctor, I am well enough to work." Never ask for one since.

[samsquench07]

I think the problem becomes that to many employees call wolf. The reality is their are employees that ruin it for the good ones, and it creates a sense of "who really knows whos sick anymore"

The best thing an employer can do, is higher more staff, so the ones that have that pattern can get weened out.

[samsquench07]

Funny thing about this topic, I hear this story the other day from a business owner.

His manager was on the phone with an employee who was calling in sick. The manager decided to call the owner to let them know. At the same time, the owner was in the bar, and the employee that was calling in sick was in the same bar.... but just didn't see the owner in there. Classic.

Half the time people are not really sick, and that's the problem. They just want a day off on their time.

[the truth]

I think the problem becomes that to many employees call wolf. The reality is their are employees that ruin it for the good ones, and it creates a sense of "who really knows whos sick anymore"

The best thing an employer can do, is higher more staff, so the ones that have that pattern can get weened out.

bingo,we have a winner

[dogspoiler]

One of my crew would call in sick every 3 weeks or so. He would say "I've got trouble with my guts, I've got to see my doctor. I thought it strange that he did not display any symptoms at work. I asked him for a note from the doctor. He brought one that said he should not need one for a one time event. I pointed out to the employee that his doctor must have forgotten all those other times. End of problem.

[Beerhunter341]

I just wish that no one would come to work sick. I don't want to catch what you have. Doctors notes seems quite lame for a single day off but if a person is off for more than 3 days in a row I can see why an employer would want to see one.

[Atomoa]

Mental Illness costs Canadians 6 billion a year in lost productivity. Only 1 out of 4 people who actually are mentally ill admit to it or try to do something about it.

Maybe if there wasn't such a stigma attached to mental illness, people wouldn't have to lie and say "I'm sick" when really it was "I feel like committing suicide and cant even get out of bed/deeply depressed". Then again - is it really any specific business of your employer to know exactly why you missed work?

Also - is "sick" the only valid reason to miss work? What are they paying a person to not have a life outside of work? I have had financial, family and friendship emergencies that all took precedent over my "employment responsibilities" and there is no reason I should have to go into a 3 paragraph explanation and give up the privacy of the details of my life in order to justify why I wasn't at work. I am fully ok (so is my employer) with just using "sick" as a general term of "absent".

Unless I am aware of some random companies very prohibitive policy for management, most of these "bring a note when your sick" policies only apply to the lowest end workers. It would more direct for a company to post a sign saying "Only the under-educated and poor are capable of lying" above the HR office door. Interestingly enough there are many studies saying the higher a persons salary is, the more frequently they lie and cheat.

Excessive absenteeism is a whole other topic. This note policy is just management games and a employer trust issue.

6 billion dollar a year loss. I doubt that is 6 billion worth of "I'm feeling mentally ill and cant come in today, boss". Until mental illness is as sympathy/understanding inducing as Cancer is, what do they expect people to say?

[coffeeFreak]

I happened to be in the walk-in on New Years eve. I was sitting beside a girl about 18 who needed a Dr's note for her employer so her job would not be in jeopardy. She had to be driven into Vernon from Armstrong and waited for almost three hours...the idiotic part of all this is her employer sent her home early the day before because she was too sick to work.

[Dizzy1]

I can understand both sides of the argument - one side abuses sick days making it difficult for others to get a job done just because someone has a constant case of Mondayitis - on the other side one does need a day off here and there ( not to be confused with here and there and here and there and here and there) and having to provide a note from mother is just downright childish. Glad I don't have to put up with it - I'd probably have a few words to say lol

[fvkasm2x]

I only asked for sick notes as an employer when I suspected someone of lying or when it became repetitive. If someone wants to jerk me around and short staff me because they are irresponsible, I will make it a bit more difficult for them.

[hobbyguy]

Doctor's notes are part of pretty much every absenteeism program.

Generally though, a well thought out and administered program does not ask for doctor's notes all the time.

A general idea of when is:

When the employee is in the bottom quintile of attendance problem frequency stats for the previous year.

If the company has an EAP, that qualification may be changed on the advice of the EAP provider. I have seen cases where the EAP provider advises that attendance problems may occur for a period of time, and there is no point in harassing an employee for a short term situation (medical or otherwise).

Many short-term disability programs (whether employer funded or done through an insurance company) require that employees provide medical certification for prolonged illness, and the general cut off for "prolonged" illness that I have seen is 3 days.

And yes, there are a fair number of physicians who will do some of these things:

- charge high fees for a note
- be reluctant to give out notes

It gets interesting sometimes. I had a chronic offender in terms of absenteeism who "shopped" for a doctor who would give him a note "at the drop of a hat". Coincidentally that doctor also charged a pretty hefty fee.

I also had a doctor phone me and chew me out for having the temerity to ask for a doctors note in the first place. That was a fun conversation - don't know if he was just having a bad day, but he was also coincidentally the doctor for three chronic absenteeism employees... the jist of the conversation was that it was none of my business, was an infringement on doctor-patient confidentiality and the civil rights of the employee - and that I should not "harass" employees causing them stress and making them ill...and on and on. Eventually, he agreed to use some of his precious time to provide the required medical certification for the insurance to kick in.

The bottom line is that asking for medical certification is not something that employers want to do, but are often forced into because of the costs of uncontrolled absenteeism.

And yes, I had the situation where an afternoon shift employee called in sick on a Friday, only to be spotted by my daughter at the concert she went to that night. It was fun talking to him about that.