Being sick might have been fun at school because you could lay in bed all day, but it is not that simple when you’re an adult as skipping work is quite a bit more complicated. Sometimes it’s not enough to ask for a day off and managers will require a doctor’s note even if it is nothing serious and you just need to lay in bed for an afternoon.
Going to the doctor isn’t a pleasant experience and as we found out, in the US it is also expensive so it is quite understandable that people don’t want to go there for a minor inconvenience that could be resolved with a day’s rest.
However, some managers don’t believe their employees and need a specialist’s proof that the person can’t work which in most cases means the employee gets even more time off. These are some of the stories people shared on Reddit when they had to go through the hassle of dealing with doctors but in the end, they proved to their managers they were right.
Sometimes managers don't want to give employees days off when they claim they are sick asking for a doctor's note which most often means getting even more time off
Image source: Pete (not the actual photo)
In the last few days, a couple of similar stories in the subreddit Malicious Compliance drew quite a lot of attention, both of them getting more than 10k upvotes. They are both related to being sick and asking for a day off at work but being asked to go to the doctor for a note.
Both of the OPs complied with the request but with malicious intent as they knew they would be getting a lot more time off with the doctor’s permission than they were asking their managers for. This was exactly what happened in both cases.
A couple of posts in the Malicious Compliance subreddit went kind of viral and they both talked about not getting a day off to recover from an illness
Image credits: yarnwonder
Which means in both cases, instead of allowing the employee to take the day or a couple of days off, they had to find another person to do their jobs for more than a week.
It could be that in some cases managers do really care about their employees and expect them to be excused from work for a longer time so they could rest and heal, but in these cases, seeing as they were posted in the malicious compliance subreddit, the managers didn’t want that.
Their managers were asking for a doctor's note and it turns out that the employees needed more than a couple of days to get better
Image credits: yarnwonder
These two stories became quite popular in the subreddit and reminded people of being in similar situations of needing a little time off but getting more of it which is actually good because if you’re sick and want to get better faster, you should rest.
There is actually a term to describe such a situation when an employee will come to work despite being sick and even when knowing they will not be able to be productive or being aware that their condition might worsen. Such a phenomenon is called presenteeism or sickness presence.
On one hand, it is a win for the employee as they can get some good rest and fully recover from their sickness
Image credits: yarnwonder
Image source: Nenad Stojkovic (not the actual photo)
The one reason why presenteeism is harmful is obvious: you are making your health worse or at least preventing a quicker recovery. But it also costs companies more money than it would if the employee just went for a checkup.
Research by the Harvard Business Review focused on seasonal allergies, asthma, migraines and other kinds of headaches, back pain, arthritis, gastrointestinal disorders, and depression, i.e. sicknesses people tend to go to work with.
On the other hand, not every country pays for the days you are not working because of medical reasons so it might be a deciding factor if you can take time off
Image credits: Nastacha
Research shows that “Illness affects both the quantity of work (people might work more slowly than usual, for instance, or have to repeat tasks) and the quality (they might make more—or more serious—mistakes).”
The American Productivity Audit calculated that presenteeism costs $150 billion per year. It actually costs companies more than illness-related absenteeism or disability. It would be cheaper for companies to pay to treat the illness than to keep a suffering and unproductive employee working.
Harvard Business Review found that various studies estimate that a person who shows up sick costs two or three times more than the medical bill would have been if the employee went to get treatment.
People's unwillingness to go to the doctor and rest when they are sick creates the issue of presenteeism which can cost companies more than it would to pay for medical care
Image credits: Nastacha
When we’re talking about other illnesses, especially a cold or the flu that doesn’t prevent a person from working but affects their health, there is another concern. These kinds of illnesses are contagious so there is a risk of making everyone feel bad which we were really aware of when the pandemic started.
It would be easier for employees to stay at home when they are sick if they had the guarantee they won’t be fired for it and they will get paid sick leave as it often comes to not affording losing days of paid work. In the US, there are no federal legal requirements to pay for sick leave and it is left to state governments to decide how it is handled.
Not providing paid sick days is a big reason for this, as well as expensive doctor visits and people not wanting to bother medical professionals for no big reason
Image credits: Nastacha
Image source: Lisa Brewster (not the actual photo)
Even though there are no federal laws, many companies will pay sick leave if a person presents a doctor’s note so it is useful to inform yourself about it and take advantage of it if there is such a requirement in your company.
We would like to hear about your experiences and if you ever asked your supervisor for days off, but they insisted on you bringing them a doctor’s note instead. Also, do you think it is acceptable to go to work while sick? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
You can tell those two stories aren't isolated events as many people in the comments shared their own experiences
