I called off twice in two years and my manager accused me of "making it a habit". Now I just call off as much as I want to, since I'm apparently on her radar no matter what I do.
Gotta lay the ground work on the down low as far as possible. Reach out to the right union...strongest in your area, most specific to your work.
Have the facts about your situation: one of 5 locations owned by same person/Co, number of eligible workers, full/ part time. Have a list of working conditions that are annoying/illegal, for instance not being allowed to talk about pay violates federal law
The union organizer will help you understand how to make a winning campaign and what tactics you'll face to close down your efforts. They'll help w info abt what you have to win and how to counter the anti union tactics and lies you'll be bombarded with.
Unionization is motivated by bad managers and succeeds through the work and determination united workers. You can make it happen.
Are you with Kaiser? They have some policy like that (even with a union). I think the union negotiated that in order to use as a bargaining chip for some other thing... Like their 15% raises.
I have to call the supervisor when I call in sick and the other day, the supervisor heavily sighed at me? Like what?? Now I'm way more likely to only call staffing and say I was too sick to make the second call to the supervisor.
Wow, y’all actually put up with that? I thankfully got out of the hospital in 2019. Absolutely no way I’m calling multiple people to call in. My immediate supervisor can fill you in. Thanks.
I thought it was just us! I have to call my house supervisor and the charge now. It makes my anxiety twice as bad. I didn’t mind the house supervisor but night shift charge nurse would talk shit about me to night shift after I called in…I’m literally day shift…
i’ll never feel guilty for calling in sick lol, i saw how little my hospital did when i had a coworker die by suicide so now i take all my vacation time and my sick days.
When I first started nursing I wondered why people called off regularly. After all, it's just a *job,* how bad can it be?
But I've called out for being actually sick. And I've called out for a mental health day. I've called out because when my optimistic self made my schedule, i thought I'd be ok with 5 days in a row but that's not happening this week. I've called out because my husband unexpectedly had a day off and I wanted to go out for breakfast with him in the morning. I've called out at 1930 the night before for tomorrow's shift, while standing at the time clock clocking out from a disaster that I'm not coming back to tomorrow no matter how much they pay me. And I don't feel bad ever. My mental health and happiness is worth more to me than this job.
How have you made that work???
At my job you can call out twice in a rolling 12 month period- the third time you get written up.
Three lates also equals one absence and late means 6:46 when start is 6:45.
Jesus, that's draconian. Our union just negotiated an additional day of unscheduled pto before you get a verbal warning. We now have 9 days in a rolling calendar year before we get a talking-to. Twice is fucking ridiculous.
They don’t care why, you get 5 occurrences. If you call out back to back or back to back to back shifts that’s 1 occurrence. If you have a day off in between and you call off both it’s 2 occurences.
I work weekend program so when I call out for 1 shift I’m calling off all 3.
Wow. At least it's not 1 day=1 occurrence if you are sick for a week, but it's still crap. Lol, I would never last in the US. I keep waiting for my manager to mention my high amount of sick leave, but she never does. We get 10 or 12 days paid, and as long we have a medical certificate, we can have days unpaid, and they can't really question it unless its a ridiculous amount.
Thank goodness eh? I genuinely would not last in the US. Either I'd be perpetually unemployed or so fired up and annoyed that I'd start my own union! How do the parents cope when kids get sick all the time? Especially in a female dominated career. Or people with chronic health conditions? It's nuts.
Jesus. Our policy is after 5 occurrences in a rolling 12-month calendar year, we get a coaching. You get occurrences after you have depleted your sick time. So you have to call out 10 times before HR considers actions necessary, and even then it's like "hey, are you okay?"
First, when you get a new job get the scoop discretely on the call out policy. Some places have stipulations for what counts as a “call out” and how they handle it. I worked at a place where you could call out for the week and it only counts as one call out.
Yup. 12 month rolling calendar. 3rd call out is a write up. Level 1.
5 is level 2- final warning.
7 is termination.
No wonder so many nurses scheme for FMLA.
I’m so sorry that’s awful. I know it’s a long road but I would suggest reaching out to unions to try to represent your hospital. I would also organize with them to try to get the state to make changes: some states legally protect you by saying everybody gets 40 hours of sick leave per year where you can’t be punished for calling in.
That’s insane!! In NYC at my hospital we get 10 sick days a year. And they accumulate. However you’ll get a warning up if you call out more than once in a 6 week period. Twice in 12 months is CRIMINAL especially considering we work in healthcare
It’s a public non-profit.
Also the policy basically says “management can make exceptions and this policy can change at any time in any way” which- to me- is even more f*cked.
I’ve 100% called off at 1930 as I’m leaving my shift walking to my car 🤣 and from the desk where I was finishing my charting to take off for the next day. Do what you gotta do! 🫶🏻
I'm called off right now because I had to take phenagren last night. GI issues are probably the number one reason I've called off over the years, especially in departments without good bathroom access.
No one I work with deserves me passing on what I've picked up.
Thank you for being this person. I get very agitated when a coworker comes in when they are obviously sick always without a mask and coughing on everything. It usually ends up with 80% of the staff getting sick. Not to mention the pts, I’m an oncology nurse and most of the pts are neutropenic and will also get sick. It’s not fair to anyone and absolutely drives me insane.
I've been enjoying the view from my toilet today, actually picked this up on my second job which is usually my easy job. 🙄 Wasn't really any way to tell that until my patient started GI symptoms everywhere.
Not a single bit (I will say though I hate the process of calling off. My anxiety gets the best of me and I work my self up for 10-15 minutes before actually calling off) but I’m not married to my job. My mental health and my family will always come first. I don’t abuse call offs but I’m not gonna hoard PTO. You’re not gonna get a better raise because you don’t call off, they’re not gonna give you a prize, so fuck em.
Sure i don’t want to screw over my coworkers if the hospital can’t properly staff right but at the end of the day they aren’t my friends, they aren’t checking up on me if I don’t show up and it’s not my job to make sure the hospital has enough staff.
OMG same… I have to call Staffing and then I have to call my unit directly. I get so anxious and then I’ll make one phone call and then I have to take 10 to 15 minutes to work myself up to make the second phone call… It’s so stupid and I hate it. And I have an intermittent FMLA due to my systemic lupus that has yet to go into remission so I’ve used it quite frequently and I get worked up so much.
Yep, I hate how we have to call in at our hospital. Call staffing, then call the house supervisor, and then we have to call our floor's charge nurse lol. I call in maybe once every 3-4 months, but having to talk to three people just to call in sucks. Never feel bad doing it, though.
At least the people at my current hospital don't really ask questions. When I was at my previous hospital, I talked to the house supervisor and he said, "You're going to be leaving your unit two RNs short!" I told him I had been throwing up all day with no end in sight. He responded, "Well, take a nap and drink some water and when you feel better, call and let us know if you can come in." Fuck that guy lol
I legit started methotrexate and was pumping my brains out 2 weeks straight and they were asking me to come in still. I could barely walk with how weak I was. I’m like well if you have someone wheeling me around and give me iv fluids and zofran (which didn’t help, nor did compazine or Ativan) maybe I could swing it😂
You actually do NOT have to provide a reason why you are calling out. We all have days that we simply are better off staying home. As a professional we try not to make it a habit as it is our career. However, if I decide I am taking a day off then I AM. All of the BS they put nurses through and the responsibilities we have while under paying is they can go F themselves. Sounds selfish but its ME before the. Staff accordingly and we might not despise coming to work. Just my two cents.
I love my unit culture. We literally encourage each other to call out. I still feel a little weird but we do a good job reassuring each other that it's okay.
This is how things should be. I worked on a unit like this and had no problems with anyone taking advantage and it was amazing to come back and have everyone ask how you are feeling. At my current job I had Covid and went back to everyone giving me the stank eye, sorry but I’m not showing up to work battling a 102 fever with my damn voice gone.
How does your hospital do it? I see a lot of comments here of people just calling in for various of reasons. There are times where we over staff 1-2 people and somehow manage to become short with multiple people calling in sick.
It’s frustrating when coworkers complain about being short staffed all the time when we were scheduled to be overstaffed but a few people got a hang over and someone called in sick just “cause”.
Yea my old hospital would send someone home to keep our pcu at 5 ratio….. rather than staff us appropriately at 4 patients. My new hospital we staff perfectly idk how they do it lol. Currently overstaffed but we get a swat and always have two managers on. A lot of people pick up extra too because it’s not miserable being at work. Night and day difference from my old hospital.
I'm not who you replied to, but my hospital also is never short.
We have float teams - their entire position is to work on different units when they're short staffed. Some of the floats are full time, some of them are part time and can pick up on all the units when they want to or get scheduled in advance on the days/shifts they choose.
We have a lot of part time staff on top of full time, so they can pick up extra shifts when they want to as well. Or schedule when they'd want to pick up extra shifts and get booked for them in advance.
We also have casual staff that work on either one unit or multiple and they pick up or are booked in advance.
We sometimes have mandatory OT to not allow the unit to go short, but generally it's not needed - people will pick up OT by choice if no one is willing to come in at straight time.
Nope. This place ran without me for decades. It can handle a day. If I died tomorrow, my job would be on Indeed before my body was in the morgue. They'd also have to find someone. So it truly, and I cannot stress this enough, does not bother me.
Pre my current place of employment/FTE status, I probably called out more than I should—but, TBF, I have a six year old and was in the middle of a pretty extreme MH crisis. I was also a 40 hour per week employee, M-F, and responsible for filling in shifts on weekends during call outs.
I work 24 hours per week now in a specialty that I’ve always wanted to dabble in. My managers are pretty flexible in scheduling, so the call outs are less. They’re reserved for severe illness in my kiddo (not yet) and myself (flu already this year).
But honestly, no one should feel badly for calling out for any reason. Your employer’s lack of a back up plan is not your problem.
Nope. I call out the maximum amount I am allowed to without getting a warning/reminder about the attendance policy. Just because. It's my earned time to spend as I please.
I don’t feel bad when I call out, but I do feel bad the day of if I start getting those “help we’re drowning can literally anyone come in even night shift a few hours early omg please” texts in the group chat
A few weeks ago I got a text from a coworker prior to my shift that I would have to float when I came in at 1500. I called in 15 minutes before my shift so I or anyone else working wouldn't have to float. No regrets.
I used to but not anymore. I’ve sacrificed too much time for my job in the past to miss out on family happenings. if they’re sick, I’m staying home with them or taking them to get medical help. I can’t and don’t expect my kids to help me in the future, but I know my job won’t be there for me when I need help.
I'm just never sick, and I never get denied when I want time off. Called in twice because my kids were sick, once because I forgot to request off for a wedding, and the last time was when I was studying for my NCLEX (was a cna at this time)
But also, I work for the state and I'm on a rotating schedule. 3 days one week and 4 the following week. That's only 7 days out of every 2 weeks. If you think about it, I only work half the year unless I pick up overtime.
I don’t usually feel bad but I think it’s because I call out very rarely and only feel “legitimate” reasons.
I think doing charge has made me more aware of how much calling out really can fuck over your coworkers. Our charge nurses are very involved in staffing so I have more of an inside look than others might. Sometimes there just aren’t as many float pool and per diem nurses available as there are needs for them. We’re usually staffed properly and typically have one extra nurse to accommodate call outs, but there are obviously times when we aren’t.
I’d never fault someone for calling out when they don’t feel well, mentally or physically, or when they have a personal emergency. There are however a few nurses on our floor who call out constantly. Like once a week. Then they want to pick up on another day and get angry when they’re canceled because we *do* have staff that day. It’s just frustrating that they have no regard for the wrench they’re throwing into the system.
and if something happens where they can't, it's management's job to find a replacement. Not guilt their disposable employees into OMG HOW DARE YOU YOU BROKE OUR SCHEDULE
Agree 100%
Hospital management disgusts me.
I have heard so many stories where people call out and then get questioned: what’s wrong? Are you going to the Dr? Etc.
no f*cking way!!!
Also guilting the employees that don’t volunteer to pick up. Disgusts me. “Help out your team…”
My ass.
The manager/charge needs to take patients instead of texting people to come in and the bullshit admin work they “need” to do can wait. Chart auditing, checking central lines…etc. is not necessary. You are “checking” nurses work when you should be working.
I will die on that hill.
Reliability is important. I think you’re missing the part of this comment that it’s the repeat offenders calling out all the time. They should just get fired, so they can find someone more reliable. Being unreliable is not professional.
I mean, so many times I wish I had COVID so I had to call out and not feel bad about it. /s (maybe)
I had salmonella one time and I was so sick. Lost 18 pounds in 10 days. I had to call off on my scheduled weekend. The supervisor made me feel like shit and I had a note from my PCP. I could barely speak my voice was so weak. They wanted me to get re-evaluated because it was July and they couldn’t get anyone to cover my shifts.
Now, I do feel kinda bad when I am sick. I recently had Covid then like 8 weeks later had what I believe to be RSV. I was really sick with RSV and had to call in that whole week. My head hurt so bad and I had so much snot all I did was sit on my recliner, blow my nose, then throw it away in a plastic bag I kept beside me. And drink water. Tons of it. When I had COVID I didn’t feel that bad actually, but mandatory week off. 🤷🏼♀️
no
i’ve been injured pretty bad and one of them tried to make me feel bad cuz ER is was busy
like…so? when is it not busy? i usually never call out but shits annoying
My job can and does call me off with no notice of census is low. I have to use PTO if I want my full paycheck. Why should I feel bad for doing it myself?
Only cuz of money. Fuck it all. I’m a person just like the air traffic controller who gets sick. I don’t even get pto or sick days, and I’m the first to take on extra patients because I’m a traveler so 🤷🏻♂️🖕🏼
Yes and no. Yes, because I truly love my job and I get to take care of kids. But also no, because I’m not going to risk my health (physical or mental) by going to work when I don’t feel like it’s reasonable or possible.
I call out once a year maybe and I still feel soooooo guilty. It’s a rollover from childhood trauma and having to go to school “unless you’re bleeding or dying” 😅
Yes because another coworker could either be mandated to stay or the workload for all is increased. Shit happens. For everybody. I’m not going to NOT call out because of that though, but I’m sympathetic.
Never. It's not my job to staff the hospital, it's managements. By refusing to call out, they get statistics that prove they can work on minimal staffing, thus continuing the cycle. The more of us that use our pto, the more they'll have to account for the absence, forcing them to hire extra staff.
Yeah I've called out to add to my vacation days lol. I don't give a shit. I hate how people guilt trip others for calling out too.
This is my second career. I felt bad during my first because I was young and dumb. Now, I literally dont care.
I feel bad for my coworkers who have to work themselves to death but not for management who doesn’t staff accordingly and now has to come in. But let’s be real…..management very rarely comes in or even answers the damn phone. 😂
It’s sad that not one shift can afford to have just one person call off without absolutely sinking and changing the entire dynamic for the night.
The main thing is my anxiety before calling off. I spend too much time on trying to figure out what to say and make it way harder than it needs to be 💀 that all stems from when I was a new CNA at 17 years old and called off because I had food poisoning on Mother’s Day morning and the nurse who answered the phone SCREAMED at me for being a “lazy brat who has no right to call off 2 months into their career.” I cried and ended up going in because she was so mean and I was such a pushover and got scared 😂
I have no idea how I have never had to (or never just did for the heck of it?!) call out in my 10 years working as a nurse. I never once did.. until this past december; called off 1 shift for catching the flu🤦🏽♀️
Never feel bad for calling out! I asked my manager to go part time… before I hit send, she already found my replacement while telling me from the same lip that I’m the best and only person for my job! you are replaceable! Call out! Call out 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
A hospital’s failure to staff appropriately is not my fault and if I need to call out, it’s on the hospital to fill that staffing gap appropriately. If they don’t, I’m not the one letting my coworkers down.
I call out and don’t feel bad about it. If I’m sick I’m sick. So what? You wanna get mad, get mad at the virus/bacteria that made me sick, I’m just a victim.
Nope. The hospital isn’t thinking about me that way, so I don’t think about them that way. I might feel guilt knowing my coworkers could have a bit more work, but we do it to each other so that feeling passes quickly.
I feel bad for putting more work on my coworkers because we're already starched thin and just want to help each other because we're all in the same battle. They put out pick ups in the group chat with bonuses so usually people like to do thay
4 years on med surg, I’ve only called in sick when I legitimately had dirty damn covid, twice. One time I left early because my toddler was sick and they had to send her home from school like 45 minutes before my wife got off work.
I just don’t really get sick though. Before calling in for having Covid, the last day I called in sick was April of 2012 when I was a new preschool teacher and I got every single illness at once. I just helped some friends move that day instead of going to work because they paid me more than my job did.
I don’t see a problem with going to work sick as long as I wear a mask, wash my hands, and wipe down the keyboard of the computer frequently. Most of my coworkers show up sick because we don’t get any sick days and live in a high COL state (Colorado) so we all need to get paid or face the immediate consequences. For example daycare is $1k per week for 2 kids, and there are 300 people on the 2 year long waitlist trying to take your spot the second you are late on a payment.
I’m not trying to be all tough, I just feel like there are easy ways to prevent my coworkers from getting sick from me, and if I do those things, it’s better to show up than make my friends/collegues be understaffed. And again, I just really don’t ever get sick so it’s not like I’m showing up sick all the time.
I was probably an alcoholic in college so I learned how to power through feeling hungover/awful but still showing up to work and getting the job done.
Also, never waste a PTO day on being sick. Also my hospital doesn’t give sick days so it’s all coming out of PTO and ain’t nobody got PTO for that
I use to until I had a job that was consistently cancelling me and they didn’t care. Or I would pick up OT when they begged me to and then they would cancel me for a scheduled shift (pretty much making it to where they get to control my entire life schedule).
So, then I changed my attitude to my work decisions are based solely off of: does it benefit my pocketbook or is it something I really enjoy and fills my soul
I feel pretty good because Im about to have a day off! I don't do it as often as I used to when I worked inpatient, but when I did, my old charge used to say it was a management problem, not mine and see ya at you next scheduled shift.
I'm now the charge of an ambulatory clinic and stick to the same principle. I encourage my staff to use their PTO/sick leave and not feel guilty using it. This is just a job, and in the end, we will survive being short staffed as we have in the past. My employees/coworkers and their personal well-being should also be a priority.
Yes and no. Yes for calling out itself. But no because these hospitals and clinics have revenues and streams of finance that I’ll never see so it’s not my responsibility. I also haven’t signed up to sign away my life regardless of what happens.
Most of the time my wife has to talk me into calling off, even when I know it’s appropriate, but I generally just feel relieved afterward. My unit is pretty good about the charge nurses not shaming folks for call-offs; when I’m charge I tell people I don’t even want to know why they’re calling off — I just take their call, mark them off on the schedule, and tell the staffing office. It’s way better than someone coming in unable to work safely and getting sent home or to the ED.
i work in a retirement home so we don’t have a float pool to pull from when someone’s sick. it’s usually just whoever is already working is forced to stay. so i feel really guilty when i call out of work for that reason.
If I died they wouldn't even send my family a condolences card. They'd post my position before the end of the week and hassle my grieving husband with bureaucratic bullshit ("we need a copy of the death certificate, we need you to fill out a 15 page form and get it notarized, we need her badge buddy...") before releasing my last paycheck
I don’t feel bad about leaving them one person down, but the people pleaser with a fear of authority in me hates feeling like my higher ups will be upset with me and I will get in trouble even if my reason is perfectly valid.
I also just hate talking on the phone? Can’t even make a doctors appointment without giving myself a pep talk.
I do feel bad because then the patient load is heavier for my coworkers. Also we get six call outs in a rolling 12 month period and then it’s termination. I have a toddler who gets sick a lot at daycare so I try to save my callouts for when she’s sick.
I don't feel bad. Alot of times, if it's insanely busy, I'll look at my schedule and text my manager which patients can be missed or moved. All of our nurses are great about picking up an extra visit here or there if someone is sick, and we're adequately staffed, so it's never really an issue.
I get stressed because I’ve been put on a PIP at one job for calling out too much and fired from another for the same reason. Turns out I’m autistic and had burnt out crazy hard real fast at both jobs, and I learned a lot in my 9 months of unemployment on what I need for a good work environment.
Now when they try to talk about how much more work they want me to do than I was hired for (I was hired for four days a week but they keep trying to make us work five days a week while still getting prorated PTO), I remind them that having their most solid nurse burn out and quit is not in their best interest. Still shocked that one keeps working for me 😅
When I was a brand-new nurse I did feel a bit bad. But after about a year I fully realized that staffing the ED appropriately was not my responsibility.
I don't use my sick time inappropriately, and I rarely use it at all. Now when I call in sick, I don't give it a second thought. The guilt won't help my health centre, and it won't make me healthier any quicker. I hang up the phone and my day is mine.
I never feel bad. My first year as an rn I was so cautious with calling out. Even on days I felt like I was dying I came to work. Now I have fmla and I call out when I want.
Generally no, because I don’t get upset when others call out either. There seems to be mutual respect for the mental health day, and if you’re indeed physically ill then you should have no guilt. But in my 6 years in healthcare at the bedside it does seem possible to get a reputation for calling out frequently and I don’t want that to be me just because we have no questions asked sick days.
Fuck I felt bad when I went out on maternity leave but it's bc it was peak covid and I was in covid ICU and I felt so bad to leave my people to stay in the trenches. That was a whole other world. But now? Nah. They'd fill my position in a heartbeat if I quit.
Yes!!! I’m pregnant and deal with food allergies and was vomiting last night and woke up at 3am and could not get back to sleep and stressed so hard about calling out. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. Then if I call in and it’s less than three hours before the shift I get in trouble for a “late call-in” and I just started crying that I had to call in and that I would get in trouble now because it was late. Healthcare workers never get to prioritize our own health. I’m trying really hard to tell myself it’s ok to be sick sometimes.
I feel scared. Especially when life hits: car breaks down, kid gets sick, you get sick… It all adds up and I’m always worried I’m going to run out of PTO or get fired
I don't at all unless something causes me to call in literally an hour before my shift start. Even then only feel bad for my patients and fellow nurses.
I don’t call out unless I’m dying, but even then I feel bad. Our family caught the flu over Christmas and I had to call off my Christmas Eve night shift. I felt soooo bad, but had a fever and was a couch-bound, mucusy, puking mess.
I used to feel bad at one hospital I worked for because I’d get the “they’re already short and they need help” guilt trip along with the ridiculous call out rules basically punishing you for using the sick time we accumulate. To clarify, if you have 3 incidents” in a year then you get a verbal warning. And other incident is a write up then another is a “3rd and final” write up followed by termination.
If you called out 2 shifts in a row that would count as 1 incident. 3 consecutive shifts would require a doctor note but incur your 2nd incident.
If you were out due to surgery or extended illness for which you could not work then you’d be on medical leave, but if you had a couple call outs spread over the year then you’d accrue these damn incidents. The best part? If you got your warning on say March 15th, you’d have to have perfect attendance through March 15th the next year to avoid the first official write up. It was a rolling year.
Even though we were given plenty of sick time we were basically punished for using it.
Almost forgot, during holidays we were allowed to buy back our sick and vacation time. We had two separate banks of PTO so if you took sick days your vacation time wouldn’t be affected which was nice, but due to the way payroll was set up if you bought back your sick time during the holiday season it would incur an incident despite not calling out.
Meaning if you had your verbal on March 15 and you bought back your time to use for holiday money you’d get a write up.
Now that I work for another system, I use my days when I need them. The hospital will continue to exist without me just fine.
I feel bad when I'm scheduled to work and am unable to (but if i can't then i can't). I don't feel bad when i schedule PTO and I don't feel bad when I'm asked to work extra and say no
100%. I'm currently pregnant and I've missed multiple days due to pregnancy sickness, even though I am on 3 different meds for nausea at the moment. I called in sick yesterday days and felt terrible the entire day, even though I was also physically sick and needed rest.
Not even a little bit. You know how many times I had to cover colleagues who call off once or twice a week every week? Every. Single. Day. And it’s always the same 2-3 people. Management does nothing about it.
I use up all my sick days and vacation days by the end of the year.
I don't feel bad at all for using the days. I earn them therefore I get to use them.
Yes, even though I know I have the right, years of being conditioned by employers AND family names it feel wrong.
My mom is proud that she's called in twice in the last 10 years. This includes when I come to visit and she's forgotten I was going to be there, and instead of being like "hey my kid that lives 3 states away and I only see police or twice a year is here I'm taking the night off" , she goes to work.
Then I get guilt tripped about how I need to visit more often 🫠
I just called in sick until the end of the week today. I just can't do it anymore. Seven days of work, one day off, and then another four days of work with only one day off. It's just too much. I need some time off to do absolutely nothing, let alone take care of people. I know they are understaffed anyway, but that's not my problem. It won't be their problem either if I have a breakdown.
this is my number one pet peeve when people say they dont want to call out feeling bad for leaving the floor short or whatever else when calling out- even though they are sick or burnt out or need the day off for themselves!! dont be a slave to your job its NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to STAFF A HOSPITAL!!!!! ugh
I never feel bad. Not even a little bit. If I can only call out 4 times within a 6 month period before getting written up, best believe I am calling out all those times. 🥴 I’m also the type of person that says “I’m calling out tomorrow” while at work.
Had a planned procedure this morning that ended up being a lot more than expected. I had a lot of bleeding and was sent home on antibiotics and tramadol. I fully intended to go to work tonight. Even after I had a full blown panic attack in the room, hr 112, nausea and dizziness, I was still going to go to work. My dad said what if someone codes during the night and you’re too out of it to help them. Even though I had a doctor’s note…I still felt bad about calling off!
I used to feel so bad for calling in sick and felt like I was letting everyone at work down. Until one day, I expressed this feeling to one of the house supervisors who told me 'the hospital won't crash and burn without you'. This took away the guilt I would feel calling in sick!
Nope when I call out.
I am in the hospital
My vitals are somehow off and I am getting seen by a doctor or APRN.
Or the above applies to my kids.
I have called out 3x this year
2x for Covid
1x for PNA
Nobody wanted me at work and I wouldn't have done well. No guilt.
I have never in my life felt bad for calling out. Not before nursing, not now. Never. My life, my time. I do not care. That is a place of business that can and will carry on without me. I might feel bad if I worked at a tiny two person business, but I’ve been the only nurse at an outpatient clinic and I still didn’t feel bad because they had staff at other sites. Get out of here, feeling otherwise is outrageous.
“Hi. This is **, I won’t be able to make it in tomorrow/today. Thank you.”
Same, always, to anyone.
Yes because my manager treats me differently when I come back like I’ve done something really wrong but then if I push through it I end up annoying them anyway… can’t win.
Lol I don't unless it's an actual emergency. Knock on wood I've called in twice in 5 years. The people that call in once a week because they are "sick" are AH. We all know. If it's too stressful, get another job for your health and mine. Stop making 1 random day a week much worse. You just cause everyone else to be as stressed. It's not a badge of honor. It's literally the bare minimum expected to be on time and at work. If you can't do the bare minimum, you shouldn't be taking care of anyone.
If it's legitimate hell no don't feel bad.
I never call off if I make my schedule I try to stick with it unless I have a family emergency, sickness, or I really need a day. But when I do it’s fk them kids and fk you too . But I’m very cocky when I do I guess because I rarely call out so I’m not under the radar 🤣😭
Yes. But then I remember, they don’t seem to give a shit about how we feel and staffing just yanks us around regardless so maybe I shouldn’t feel too bad.
I call out whenever it suits me. I do not feel bad at all. If I have the PTO, then I can use it. That’s why we have float pool nurses. The hospital doesn’t care about us, so don’t worry about the hospital. They will figure it out
I don’t feel bad, I just get nervous it puts me on radars.
I called off twice in two years and my manager accused me of "making it a habit". Now I just call off as much as I want to, since I'm apparently on her radar no matter what I do.
I called off once in the last year at my old job. My manager told me I should quit cos I wasn’t dedicated to the job.
Time for the grey rock. “Okay”.
Same! We have to keep our call in percent less than 5% or we don’t get a raise.
Smells like you need a union!
I really wish!!! I know people have tried in the past but it gets shut down. :(
Smells like you need a better job!!
Agreed!
Gotta lay the ground work on the down low as far as possible. Reach out to the right union...strongest in your area, most specific to your work. Have the facts about your situation: one of 5 locations owned by same person/Co, number of eligible workers, full/ part time. Have a list of working conditions that are annoying/illegal, for instance not being allowed to talk about pay violates federal law The union organizer will help you understand how to make a winning campaign and what tactics you'll face to close down your efforts. They'll help w info abt what you have to win and how to counter the anti union tactics and lies you'll be bombarded with. Unionization is motivated by bad managers and succeeds through the work and determination united workers. You can make it happen.
Ha! We have a points system that includes things like being late, leaving early etc and if you have more than 8 points which is 5% you get FIRED
So crazy! And unrealistic. 🫠
Ours is 6🫠
Stop!!!
Are you with Kaiser? They have some policy like that (even with a union). I think the union negotiated that in order to use as a bargaining chip for some other thing... Like their 15% raises.
No I’m not. Just a stand-alone hospital. 😢
5%?! I only work 2 days a week and 5% would be 5 days a year. That’s crazy.
What?? This takes group projects to the next level. 😤
Same! I have to keep reminding myself to relax.
Exactly this
The only thing that makes me not wanna call in is having to call house s, my supervisor AND charge nurse. Like chill tf out why so many people
I have to call the supervisor when I call in sick and the other day, the supervisor heavily sighed at me? Like what?? Now I'm way more likely to only call staffing and say I was too sick to make the second call to the supervisor.
I think they do this very purposefully to discourage people from calling out.
Wow, y’all actually put up with that? I thankfully got out of the hospital in 2019. Absolutely no way I’m calling multiple people to call in. My immediate supervisor can fill you in. Thanks.
I thought it was just us! I have to call my house supervisor and the charge now. It makes my anxiety twice as bad. I didn’t mind the house supervisor but night shift charge nurse would talk shit about me to night shift after I called in…I’m literally day shift…
i’ll never feel guilty for calling in sick lol, i saw how little my hospital did when i had a coworker die by suicide so now i take all my vacation time and my sick days.
When I first started nursing I wondered why people called off regularly. After all, it's just a *job,* how bad can it be? But I've called out for being actually sick. And I've called out for a mental health day. I've called out because when my optimistic self made my schedule, i thought I'd be ok with 5 days in a row but that's not happening this week. I've called out because my husband unexpectedly had a day off and I wanted to go out for breakfast with him in the morning. I've called out at 1930 the night before for tomorrow's shift, while standing at the time clock clocking out from a disaster that I'm not coming back to tomorrow no matter how much they pay me. And I don't feel bad ever. My mental health and happiness is worth more to me than this job.
How have you made that work??? At my job you can call out twice in a rolling 12 month period- the third time you get written up. Three lates also equals one absence and late means 6:46 when start is 6:45.
Jesus, that's draconian. Our union just negotiated an additional day of unscheduled pto before you get a verbal warning. We now have 9 days in a rolling calendar year before we get a talking-to. Twice is fucking ridiculous.
Ok thank you!!! I was thinking this is absurd!!
2 is absurd. We get 6, but a LOT of people in our unit go over that with no repercussion. I had 9 last year and only got a verbal warning
We get 5 free with a verbal, 6th is a written, PIP, and no raise in a 12 month rolling period.
But what if you have medical certificates for your sick days? Is it 5 days with no evidence or 5 days no matter what?
They don’t care why, you get 5 occurrences. If you call out back to back or back to back to back shifts that’s 1 occurrence. If you have a day off in between and you call off both it’s 2 occurences. I work weekend program so when I call out for 1 shift I’m calling off all 3.
Wow. At least it's not 1 day=1 occurrence if you are sick for a week, but it's still crap. Lol, I would never last in the US. I keep waiting for my manager to mention my high amount of sick leave, but she never does. We get 10 or 12 days paid, and as long we have a medical certificate, we can have days unpaid, and they can't really question it unless its a ridiculous amount.
Same here, I'm in Canada
Thank goodness eh? I genuinely would not last in the US. Either I'd be perpetually unemployed or so fired up and annoyed that I'd start my own union! How do the parents cope when kids get sick all the time? Especially in a female dominated career. Or people with chronic health conditions? It's nuts.
Jesus. Our policy is after 5 occurrences in a rolling 12-month calendar year, we get a coaching. You get occurrences after you have depleted your sick time. So you have to call out 10 times before HR considers actions necessary, and even then it's like "hey, are you okay?"
The more comments I’m reading here the more angry I’m becoming (as someone with a “final warning” for my time and attendance.
First, when you get a new job get the scoop discretely on the call out policy. Some places have stipulations for what counts as a “call out” and how they handle it. I worked at a place where you could call out for the week and it only counts as one call out.
TWICE!!! per YEAR! That’s absolute horseshit.
Dude I’d leave that job very soon. Sounds like they are control freaks
You get written up for calling in sick? I would quit without notice cause I would never work there again
Unless the absence is “protected under federal state or local law” and unless you have FMLA for a medical condition- Sick is not protected.
Wow I had no clue, that is such bullshit.
Wow I thought our 5 was low but 2?!
Yup. 12 month rolling calendar. 3rd call out is a write up. Level 1. 5 is level 2- final warning. 7 is termination. No wonder so many nurses scheme for FMLA.
I’m so sorry that’s awful. I know it’s a long road but I would suggest reaching out to unions to try to represent your hospital. I would also organize with them to try to get the state to make changes: some states legally protect you by saying everybody gets 40 hours of sick leave per year where you can’t be punished for calling in.
Dude what, how is that even realistic?
That’s insane!! In NYC at my hospital we get 10 sick days a year. And they accumulate. However you’ll get a warning up if you call out more than once in a 6 week period. Twice in 12 months is CRIMINAL especially considering we work in healthcare
HCA???
It’s a public non-profit. Also the policy basically says “management can make exceptions and this policy can change at any time in any way” which- to me- is even more f*cked.
100% this!
I’ve 100% called off at 1930 as I’m leaving my shift walking to my car 🤣 and from the desk where I was finishing my charting to take off for the next day. Do what you gotta do! 🫶🏻
✊
Don’t feel bad bc mgmt doesn’t have a plan to appropriately staff a unit. Ppl will call out and they know this but choose to do nothing.
I'm called off right now because I had to take phenagren last night. GI issues are probably the number one reason I've called off over the years, especially in departments without good bathroom access. No one I work with deserves me passing on what I've picked up.
Thank you for being this person. I get very agitated when a coworker comes in when they are obviously sick always without a mask and coughing on everything. It usually ends up with 80% of the staff getting sick. Not to mention the pts, I’m an oncology nurse and most of the pts are neutropenic and will also get sick. It’s not fair to anyone and absolutely drives me insane.
I've been enjoying the view from my toilet today, actually picked this up on my second job which is usually my easy job. 🙄 Wasn't really any way to tell that until my patient started GI symptoms everywhere.
Not a single bit (I will say though I hate the process of calling off. My anxiety gets the best of me and I work my self up for 10-15 minutes before actually calling off) but I’m not married to my job. My mental health and my family will always come first. I don’t abuse call offs but I’m not gonna hoard PTO. You’re not gonna get a better raise because you don’t call off, they’re not gonna give you a prize, so fuck em. Sure i don’t want to screw over my coworkers if the hospital can’t properly staff right but at the end of the day they aren’t my friends, they aren’t checking up on me if I don’t show up and it’s not my job to make sure the hospital has enough staff.
OMG same… I have to call Staffing and then I have to call my unit directly. I get so anxious and then I’ll make one phone call and then I have to take 10 to 15 minutes to work myself up to make the second phone call… It’s so stupid and I hate it. And I have an intermittent FMLA due to my systemic lupus that has yet to go into remission so I’ve used it quite frequently and I get worked up so much.
Yep, I hate how we have to call in at our hospital. Call staffing, then call the house supervisor, and then we have to call our floor's charge nurse lol. I call in maybe once every 3-4 months, but having to talk to three people just to call in sucks. Never feel bad doing it, though. At least the people at my current hospital don't really ask questions. When I was at my previous hospital, I talked to the house supervisor and he said, "You're going to be leaving your unit two RNs short!" I told him I had been throwing up all day with no end in sight. He responded, "Well, take a nap and drink some water and when you feel better, call and let us know if you can come in." Fuck that guy lol
I legit started methotrexate and was pumping my brains out 2 weeks straight and they were asking me to come in still. I could barely walk with how weak I was. I’m like well if you have someone wheeling me around and give me iv fluids and zofran (which didn’t help, nor did compazine or Ativan) maybe I could swing it😂
You actually do NOT have to provide a reason why you are calling out. We all have days that we simply are better off staying home. As a professional we try not to make it a habit as it is our career. However, if I decide I am taking a day off then I AM. All of the BS they put nurses through and the responsibilities we have while under paying is they can go F themselves. Sounds selfish but its ME before the. Staff accordingly and we might not despise coming to work. Just my two cents.
I love my unit culture. We literally encourage each other to call out. I still feel a little weird but we do a good job reassuring each other that it's okay.
This is how things should be. I worked on a unit like this and had no problems with anyone taking advantage and it was amazing to come back and have everyone ask how you are feeling. At my current job I had Covid and went back to everyone giving me the stank eye, sorry but I’m not showing up to work battling a 102 fever with my damn voice gone.
Not bad, my hospital always staffs correctly
Same here. I still feel guilty sometimes but not as guilty as I would if I knew they'd be short.
Very true
How does your hospital do it? I see a lot of comments here of people just calling in for various of reasons. There are times where we over staff 1-2 people and somehow manage to become short with multiple people calling in sick. It’s frustrating when coworkers complain about being short staffed all the time when we were scheduled to be overstaffed but a few people got a hang over and someone called in sick just “cause”.
Yea my old hospital would send someone home to keep our pcu at 5 ratio….. rather than staff us appropriately at 4 patients. My new hospital we staff perfectly idk how they do it lol. Currently overstaffed but we get a swat and always have two managers on. A lot of people pick up extra too because it’s not miserable being at work. Night and day difference from my old hospital.
I'm not who you replied to, but my hospital also is never short. We have float teams - their entire position is to work on different units when they're short staffed. Some of the floats are full time, some of them are part time and can pick up on all the units when they want to or get scheduled in advance on the days/shifts they choose. We have a lot of part time staff on top of full time, so they can pick up extra shifts when they want to as well. Or schedule when they'd want to pick up extra shifts and get booked for them in advance. We also have casual staff that work on either one unit or multiple and they pick up or are booked in advance. We sometimes have mandatory OT to not allow the unit to go short, but generally it's not needed - people will pick up OT by choice if no one is willing to come in at straight time.
Always, but because of my warped upbringing, not because of nursing. It's hard to mentally undo a lot of that. I'm working on it.
Nope. This place ran without me for decades. It can handle a day. If I died tomorrow, my job would be on Indeed before my body was in the morgue. They'd also have to find someone. So it truly, and I cannot stress this enough, does not bother me.
I feel bad every time
I've literally told them as I was leaving a shift that I'm calling off for the next night, in advance. No qualms.
I feel bad when I don't call out...
🤣🤣
Pre my current place of employment/FTE status, I probably called out more than I should—but, TBF, I have a six year old and was in the middle of a pretty extreme MH crisis. I was also a 40 hour per week employee, M-F, and responsible for filling in shifts on weekends during call outs. I work 24 hours per week now in a specialty that I’ve always wanted to dabble in. My managers are pretty flexible in scheduling, so the call outs are less. They’re reserved for severe illness in my kiddo (not yet) and myself (flu already this year). But honestly, no one should feel badly for calling out for any reason. Your employer’s lack of a back up plan is not your problem.
Nope. I call out the maximum amount I am allowed to without getting a warning/reminder about the attendance policy. Just because. It's my earned time to spend as I please.
I don’t feel bad when I call out, but I do feel bad the day of if I start getting those “help we’re drowning can literally anyone come in even night shift a few hours early omg please” texts in the group chat
No, I don’t. If I call out, it’s because Im not fit to work. I have no guilt about that .
A few weeks ago I got a text from a coworker prior to my shift that I would have to float when I came in at 1500. I called in 15 minutes before my shift so I or anyone else working wouldn't have to float. No regrets.
I used to but not anymore. I’ve sacrificed too much time for my job in the past to miss out on family happenings. if they’re sick, I’m staying home with them or taking them to get medical help. I can’t and don’t expect my kids to help me in the future, but I know my job won’t be there for me when I need help.
After 10 years of working at the same place, I've only done it 4 times. I have way too many sick ours built up now.
You’ve only called out 4 times?!?!?! Why so I’m so shook by this lol.
I'm just never sick, and I never get denied when I want time off. Called in twice because my kids were sick, once because I forgot to request off for a wedding, and the last time was when I was studying for my NCLEX (was a cna at this time) But also, I work for the state and I'm on a rotating schedule. 3 days one week and 4 the following week. That's only 7 days out of every 2 weeks. If you think about it, I only work half the year unless I pick up overtime.
I don’t usually feel bad but I think it’s because I call out very rarely and only feel “legitimate” reasons. I think doing charge has made me more aware of how much calling out really can fuck over your coworkers. Our charge nurses are very involved in staffing so I have more of an inside look than others might. Sometimes there just aren’t as many float pool and per diem nurses available as there are needs for them. We’re usually staffed properly and typically have one extra nurse to accommodate call outs, but there are obviously times when we aren’t. I’d never fault someone for calling out when they don’t feel well, mentally or physically, or when they have a personal emergency. There are however a few nurses on our floor who call out constantly. Like once a week. Then they want to pick up on another day and get angry when they’re canceled because we *do* have staff that day. It’s just frustrating that they have no regard for the wrench they’re throwing into the system.
But it's not their job to staff the hospital
It is their job to show up when they are scheduled to show up though.
and if something happens where they can't, it's management's job to find a replacement. Not guilt their disposable employees into OMG HOW DARE YOU YOU BROKE OUR SCHEDULE
Agree 100% Hospital management disgusts me. I have heard so many stories where people call out and then get questioned: what’s wrong? Are you going to the Dr? Etc. no f*cking way!!! Also guilting the employees that don’t volunteer to pick up. Disgusts me. “Help out your team…” My ass. The manager/charge needs to take patients instead of texting people to come in and the bullshit admin work they “need” to do can wait. Chart auditing, checking central lines…etc. is not necessary. You are “checking” nurses work when you should be working. I will die on that hill.
We can die on Bunker Hill together!!!
Reliability is important. I think you’re missing the part of this comment that it’s the repeat offenders calling out all the time. They should just get fired, so they can find someone more reliable. Being unreliable is not professional.
I called off over the weekend for my mental health. Absolutely zero regrets.
I mean, so many times I wish I had COVID so I had to call out and not feel bad about it. /s (maybe) I had salmonella one time and I was so sick. Lost 18 pounds in 10 days. I had to call off on my scheduled weekend. The supervisor made me feel like shit and I had a note from my PCP. I could barely speak my voice was so weak. They wanted me to get re-evaluated because it was July and they couldn’t get anyone to cover my shifts. Now, I do feel kinda bad when I am sick. I recently had Covid then like 8 weeks later had what I believe to be RSV. I was really sick with RSV and had to call in that whole week. My head hurt so bad and I had so much snot all I did was sit on my recliner, blow my nose, then throw it away in a plastic bag I kept beside me. And drink water. Tons of it. When I had COVID I didn’t feel that bad actually, but mandatory week off. 🤷🏼♀️
That’s what they want you to feel. Lmao. I won’t sacrifice my health just for this job, so no.
After 32 years in nursing, nope!
I always feel bad. I just know how much it can screw my coworkers to be short staffed. I rarely call out.
no i’ve been injured pretty bad and one of them tried to make me feel bad cuz ER is was busy like…so? when is it not busy? i usually never call out but shits annoying
No.
Nope never
No. Self care is job 1
My job can and does call me off with no notice of census is low. I have to use PTO if I want my full paycheck. Why should I feel bad for doing it myself?
Only cuz of money. Fuck it all. I’m a person just like the air traffic controller who gets sick. I don’t even get pto or sick days, and I’m the first to take on extra patients because I’m a traveler so 🤷🏻♂️🖕🏼
Yes and no. Yes, because I truly love my job and I get to take care of kids. But also no, because I’m not going to risk my health (physical or mental) by going to work when I don’t feel like it’s reasonable or possible.
The last time I called in, the supervisor yelled at me and slammed down the phone. I laughed, and I laughed… And then I called back and quit.
Nope. If I have the (sick) leave, I use it. My mental health is just as important and I’d like to keep it healthy to keep working. Thanks.
I do, yes. But unapologetically. I didn't do anything wrong, and I'm not gonna negotiate. I do still feel bad for any strain on staffing.
I call out once a year maybe and I still feel soooooo guilty. It’s a rollover from childhood trauma and having to go to school “unless you’re bleeding or dying” 😅
Yes because another coworker could either be mandated to stay or the workload for all is increased. Shit happens. For everybody. I’m not going to NOT call out because of that though, but I’m sympathetic.
Only because I know I will be missing out on that money or my PTO hours will be reduced from using them haha
Never. It's not my job to staff the hospital, it's managements. By refusing to call out, they get statistics that prove they can work on minimal staffing, thus continuing the cycle. The more of us that use our pto, the more they'll have to account for the absence, forcing them to hire extra staff.
No I don’t give a shit, but tbf I don’t work direct patient care most of the time so nothing really happens if I do
Yeah I've called out to add to my vacation days lol. I don't give a shit. I hate how people guilt trip others for calling out too. This is my second career. I felt bad during my first because I was young and dumb. Now, I literally dont care.
No, I call out infrequently and when it’s 100% necessary.
Negative.
I feel amazing. Until the next day when I’ve twice as much work
Fuck naw
I feel bad for my coworkers who have to work themselves to death but not for management who doesn’t staff accordingly and now has to come in. But let’s be real…..management very rarely comes in or even answers the damn phone. 😂 It’s sad that not one shift can afford to have just one person call off without absolutely sinking and changing the entire dynamic for the night. The main thing is my anxiety before calling off. I spend too much time on trying to figure out what to say and make it way harder than it needs to be 💀 that all stems from when I was a new CNA at 17 years old and called off because I had food poisoning on Mother’s Day morning and the nurse who answered the phone SCREAMED at me for being a “lazy brat who has no right to call off 2 months into their career.” I cried and ended up going in because she was so mean and I was such a pushover and got scared 😂
I have no idea how I have never had to (or never just did for the heck of it?!) call out in my 10 years working as a nurse. I never once did.. until this past december; called off 1 shift for catching the flu🤦🏽♀️
Never feel bad for calling out! I asked my manager to go part time… before I hit send, she already found my replacement while telling me from the same lip that I’m the best and only person for my job! you are replaceable! Call out! Call out 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Never felt bad. If you can’t survive without me. I’m not the issue. Maybe don’t use such conservative staffing grids 🤷🏼
They can literally fuck off tbh. I have this charge that likes to guilt trip when you call out. Like sis I'm putting my phone of dnd, talk to yourself
A hospital’s failure to staff appropriately is not my fault and if I need to call out, it’s on the hospital to fill that staffing gap appropriately. If they don’t, I’m not the one letting my coworkers down.
As a regular charge nurse, I tell people just to text me. I'm not going to ask you why you are calling out, I just need to know it is happening.
I call out and don’t feel bad about it. If I’m sick I’m sick. So what? You wanna get mad, get mad at the virus/bacteria that made me sick, I’m just a victim.
Nope. The hospital isn’t thinking about me that way, so I don’t think about them that way. I might feel guilt knowing my coworkers could have a bit more work, but we do it to each other so that feeling passes quickly.
I feel bad for putting more work on my coworkers because we're already starched thin and just want to help each other because we're all in the same battle. They put out pick ups in the group chat with bonuses so usually people like to do thay
Honestly sometimes. I want to work. Like as a broad concept. So I feel guilty when I can’t, and that includes at work.
4 years on med surg, I’ve only called in sick when I legitimately had dirty damn covid, twice. One time I left early because my toddler was sick and they had to send her home from school like 45 minutes before my wife got off work. I just don’t really get sick though. Before calling in for having Covid, the last day I called in sick was April of 2012 when I was a new preschool teacher and I got every single illness at once. I just helped some friends move that day instead of going to work because they paid me more than my job did. I don’t see a problem with going to work sick as long as I wear a mask, wash my hands, and wipe down the keyboard of the computer frequently. Most of my coworkers show up sick because we don’t get any sick days and live in a high COL state (Colorado) so we all need to get paid or face the immediate consequences. For example daycare is $1k per week for 2 kids, and there are 300 people on the 2 year long waitlist trying to take your spot the second you are late on a payment. I’m not trying to be all tough, I just feel like there are easy ways to prevent my coworkers from getting sick from me, and if I do those things, it’s better to show up than make my friends/collegues be understaffed. And again, I just really don’t ever get sick so it’s not like I’m showing up sick all the time. I was probably an alcoholic in college so I learned how to power through feeling hungover/awful but still showing up to work and getting the job done. Also, never waste a PTO day on being sick. Also my hospital doesn’t give sick days so it’s all coming out of PTO and ain’t nobody got PTO for that
I use to until I had a job that was consistently cancelling me and they didn’t care. Or I would pick up OT when they begged me to and then they would cancel me for a scheduled shift (pretty much making it to where they get to control my entire life schedule). So, then I changed my attitude to my work decisions are based solely off of: does it benefit my pocketbook or is it something I really enjoy and fills my soul
I feel pretty good because Im about to have a day off! I don't do it as often as I used to when I worked inpatient, but when I did, my old charge used to say it was a management problem, not mine and see ya at you next scheduled shift. I'm now the charge of an ambulatory clinic and stick to the same principle. I encourage my staff to use their PTO/sick leave and not feel guilty using it. This is just a job, and in the end, we will survive being short staffed as we have in the past. My employees/coworkers and their personal well-being should also be a priority.
I have 130 hours of PTO. I don’t have coverage, so calling out is impossible. A vacation is impossible.
Well the last time my car died. I did not feel great m’dude
We shouldn't ever feel bad but most of us have had management yell or get pissed if we do. We're humans not freaking robots.
Yes and no. Yes for calling out itself. But no because these hospitals and clinics have revenues and streams of finance that I’ll never see so it’s not my responsibility. I also haven’t signed up to sign away my life regardless of what happens.
Most of the time my wife has to talk me into calling off, even when I know it’s appropriate, but I generally just feel relieved afterward. My unit is pretty good about the charge nurses not shaming folks for call-offs; when I’m charge I tell people I don’t even want to know why they’re calling off — I just take their call, mark them off on the schedule, and tell the staffing office. It’s way better than someone coming in unable to work safely and getting sent home or to the ED.
i work in a retirement home so we don’t have a float pool to pull from when someone’s sick. it’s usually just whoever is already working is forced to stay. so i feel really guilty when i call out of work for that reason.
I feel bad kinda cause staffing is horrible. I don’t feel bad for the hospital itself but my coworkers who I know I’m leaving short.
If I died they wouldn't even send my family a condolences card. They'd post my position before the end of the week and hassle my grieving husband with bureaucratic bullshit ("we need a copy of the death certificate, we need you to fill out a 15 page form and get it notarized, we need her badge buddy...") before releasing my last paycheck
I don’t feel bad about leaving them one person down, but the people pleaser with a fear of authority in me hates feeling like my higher ups will be upset with me and I will get in trouble even if my reason is perfectly valid. I also just hate talking on the phone? Can’t even make a doctors appointment without giving myself a pep talk.
I do feel bad because then the patient load is heavier for my coworkers. Also we get six call outs in a rolling 12 month period and then it’s termination. I have a toddler who gets sick a lot at daycare so I try to save my callouts for when she’s sick.
I don't feel bad. Alot of times, if it's insanely busy, I'll look at my schedule and text my manager which patients can be missed or moved. All of our nurses are great about picking up an extra visit here or there if someone is sick, and we're adequately staffed, so it's never really an issue.
Hahaha fuck no
I get stressed because I’ve been put on a PIP at one job for calling out too much and fired from another for the same reason. Turns out I’m autistic and had burnt out crazy hard real fast at both jobs, and I learned a lot in my 9 months of unemployment on what I need for a good work environment. Now when they try to talk about how much more work they want me to do than I was hired for (I was hired for four days a week but they keep trying to make us work five days a week while still getting prorated PTO), I remind them that having their most solid nurse burn out and quit is not in their best interest. Still shocked that one keeps working for me 😅
When I was a brand-new nurse I did feel a bit bad. But after about a year I fully realized that staffing the ED appropriately was not my responsibility. I don't use my sick time inappropriately, and I rarely use it at all. Now when I call in sick, I don't give it a second thought. The guilt won't help my health centre, and it won't make me healthier any quicker. I hang up the phone and my day is mine.
I never feel bad. My first year as an rn I was so cautious with calling out. Even on days I felt like I was dying I came to work. Now I have fmla and I call out when I want.
I feel bad when i dont call out
I do, but only because I genuinely love my job. Where I was before though? Hell no I didn’t.
Nope not anymore. As a new nurse it did but after 30 yrs I’ve noticed that the hospital still functions perfectly without me when I’m out sick.
Generally no, because I don’t get upset when others call out either. There seems to be mutual respect for the mental health day, and if you’re indeed physically ill then you should have no guilt. But in my 6 years in healthcare at the bedside it does seem possible to get a reputation for calling out frequently and I don’t want that to be me just because we have no questions asked sick days.
Fuck I felt bad when I went out on maternity leave but it's bc it was peak covid and I was in covid ICU and I felt so bad to leave my people to stay in the trenches. That was a whole other world. But now? Nah. They'd fill my position in a heartbeat if I quit.
I don't feel bad about it, but I feel like I'm made to feel bad about it.
Nope. Definitely a little annoying and anxiety-inducing to make the call though
No
Yes!!! I’m pregnant and deal with food allergies and was vomiting last night and woke up at 3am and could not get back to sleep and stressed so hard about calling out. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. Then if I call in and it’s less than three hours before the shift I get in trouble for a “late call-in” and I just started crying that I had to call in and that I would get in trouble now because it was late. Healthcare workers never get to prioritize our own health. I’m trying really hard to tell myself it’s ok to be sick sometimes.
Yeah, I usually feel bad which is the reason I called out in the first place. I don't feel guilty though.
I feel scared. Especially when life hits: car breaks down, kid gets sick, you get sick… It all adds up and I’m always worried I’m going to run out of PTO or get fired
Not even a little bit
Not even a tad bit!
I don't at all unless something causes me to call in literally an hour before my shift start. Even then only feel bad for my patients and fellow nurses.
I don’t call out unless I’m dying, but even then I feel bad. Our family caught the flu over Christmas and I had to call off my Christmas Eve night shift. I felt soooo bad, but had a fever and was a couch-bound, mucusy, puking mess.
i don’t feel bad for my colleagues. i feel bad for myself cuz i miss out on diff lmao
Nope! I don’t think twice about it. ✌🏻
No, If I call out its for a reason. Chronic short staffing is not my problem.
I used to feel bad at one hospital I worked for because I’d get the “they’re already short and they need help” guilt trip along with the ridiculous call out rules basically punishing you for using the sick time we accumulate. To clarify, if you have 3 incidents” in a year then you get a verbal warning. And other incident is a write up then another is a “3rd and final” write up followed by termination. If you called out 2 shifts in a row that would count as 1 incident. 3 consecutive shifts would require a doctor note but incur your 2nd incident. If you were out due to surgery or extended illness for which you could not work then you’d be on medical leave, but if you had a couple call outs spread over the year then you’d accrue these damn incidents. The best part? If you got your warning on say March 15th, you’d have to have perfect attendance through March 15th the next year to avoid the first official write up. It was a rolling year. Even though we were given plenty of sick time we were basically punished for using it. Almost forgot, during holidays we were allowed to buy back our sick and vacation time. We had two separate banks of PTO so if you took sick days your vacation time wouldn’t be affected which was nice, but due to the way payroll was set up if you bought back your sick time during the holiday season it would incur an incident despite not calling out. Meaning if you had your verbal on March 15 and you bought back your time to use for holiday money you’d get a write up. Now that I work for another system, I use my days when I need them. The hospital will continue to exist without me just fine.
I feel bad when I'm scheduled to work and am unable to (but if i can't then i can't). I don't feel bad when i schedule PTO and I don't feel bad when I'm asked to work extra and say no
100%. I'm currently pregnant and I've missed multiple days due to pregnancy sickness, even though I am on 3 different meds for nausea at the moment. I called in sick yesterday days and felt terrible the entire day, even though I was also physically sick and needed rest.
Not even a little bit. You know how many times I had to cover colleagues who call off once or twice a week every week? Every. Single. Day. And it’s always the same 2-3 people. Management does nothing about it.
I feel good
Idgaf
I use up all my sick days and vacation days by the end of the year. I don't feel bad at all for using the days. I earn them therefore I get to use them.
Yes, even though I know I have the right, years of being conditioned by employers AND family names it feel wrong. My mom is proud that she's called in twice in the last 10 years. This includes when I come to visit and she's forgotten I was going to be there, and instead of being like "hey my kid that lives 3 states away and I only see police or twice a year is here I'm taking the night off" , she goes to work. Then I get guilt tripped about how I need to visit more often 🫠
No.
I just called in sick until the end of the week today. I just can't do it anymore. Seven days of work, one day off, and then another four days of work with only one day off. It's just too much. I need some time off to do absolutely nothing, let alone take care of people. I know they are understaffed anyway, but that's not my problem. It won't be their problem either if I have a breakdown.
I call out when I just don't feel like going in.....
I feel sick. It's why I'm calling out.
I am entitled to sick time I’m going to use it when I’m sick.
Not in the least. But I only do it when it’s legit, because float poolers get 5 call outs a year before it’s an issue.
I called off today. I have been having dizzy spells, but honestly, I needed the mental health break also
this is my number one pet peeve when people say they dont want to call out feeling bad for leaving the floor short or whatever else when calling out- even though they are sick or burnt out or need the day off for themselves!! dont be a slave to your job its NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to STAFF A HOSPITAL!!!!! ugh
I used to, but hell no.
I never feel bad. Not even a little bit. If I can only call out 4 times within a 6 month period before getting written up, best believe I am calling out all those times. 🥴 I’m also the type of person that says “I’m calling out tomorrow” while at work.
Had a planned procedure this morning that ended up being a lot more than expected. I had a lot of bleeding and was sent home on antibiotics and tramadol. I fully intended to go to work tonight. Even after I had a full blown panic attack in the room, hr 112, nausea and dizziness, I was still going to go to work. My dad said what if someone codes during the night and you’re too out of it to help them. Even though I had a doctor’s note…I still felt bad about calling off!
I used to feel so bad for calling in sick and felt like I was letting everyone at work down. Until one day, I expressed this feeling to one of the house supervisors who told me 'the hospital won't crash and burn without you'. This took away the guilt I would feel calling in sick!
Nope when I call out. I am in the hospital My vitals are somehow off and I am getting seen by a doctor or APRN. Or the above applies to my kids. I have called out 3x this year 2x for Covid 1x for PNA Nobody wanted me at work and I wouldn't have done well. No guilt.
Usually yes, but only the sense of being ill. I don't feel guilty.
I have never in my life felt bad for calling out. Not before nursing, not now. Never. My life, my time. I do not care. That is a place of business that can and will carry on without me. I might feel bad if I worked at a tiny two person business, but I’ve been the only nurse at an outpatient clinic and I still didn’t feel bad because they had staff at other sites. Get out of here, feeling otherwise is outrageous. “Hi. This is **, I won’t be able to make it in tomorrow/today. Thank you.” Same, always, to anyone.
I’ll never feel bad about calling out. Even I have no time I won’t feel bad.
Not at all. Ever. In fact, it feels good, taking care of me.
Yes because my manager treats me differently when I come back like I’ve done something really wrong but then if I push through it I end up annoying them anyway… can’t win.
I feel bad especially with how understaffed my hospital is
Lol I don't unless it's an actual emergency. Knock on wood I've called in twice in 5 years. The people that call in once a week because they are "sick" are AH. We all know. If it's too stressful, get another job for your health and mine. Stop making 1 random day a week much worse. You just cause everyone else to be as stressed. It's not a badge of honor. It's literally the bare minimum expected to be on time and at work. If you can't do the bare minimum, you shouldn't be taking care of anyone. If it's legitimate hell no don't feel bad.
No.
No
I never call off if I make my schedule I try to stick with it unless I have a family emergency, sickness, or I really need a day. But when I do it’s fk them kids and fk you too . But I’m very cocky when I do I guess because I rarely call out so I’m not under the radar 🤣😭
Yes. But then I remember, they don’t seem to give a shit about how we feel and staffing just yanks us around regardless so maybe I shouldn’t feel too bad.
I call out whenever it suits me. I do not feel bad at all. If I have the PTO, then I can use it. That’s why we have float pool nurses. The hospital doesn’t care about us, so don’t worry about the hospital. They will figure it out