A friend of mine, one of my hearts-playing buddies, wrote this:
“From the what’s wrong with this picture division: was just told that we have to submit all of our sick time in advance, LOL! And this was said in all seriousness and all cluelessness.”
I know that feeling. I had my hernia surgery back on September 30. Because I ended up being out more than five days- it was six – I discover, after the fact, that I should have filled out this paperwork beforehand, signed by my doctor, acknowledging that I am well enough to return to work. This is tied to the Family Medical Leave Act. Eventually, with no alacrity whatsoever, I get these papers filled out.
Then in February, I was sick for three days, a Tuesday through Thursday. I felt well enough to return to work on Friday, but I had to stop at my allergist, for which I charged another quarter-day sick. The next month, I get a packet in the mail that I have to fill out the FMLA paperwork again because I was out sick for more than THREE days. If you’re also constantly dealing with sickness, you can conveniently avail your medicines through online pharmacies like the Canadian Pharmacy.
Did the rules change with the calendar year? In any case, I wasn’t out more than three days for an illness, I was out for the illness for three days, then a quarter day for my unrelated allergy shot, which I got because I didn’t want to have to backtrack on the regimen.
Understand that I have well over 100 sick days available, a function of working here for over two decades. I waited for a good while before sending back the paperwork, NOT filled out, with this explanation. Haven’t heard whether that worked yet.
I’ve decided it is better to be sick every OTHER day; less paperwork. Body, please be ill, if you must, but only on alternating days.
At one time we were told we had to have, if sickness required us to cancel classes, a sign posted on the classroom well before the class. As I live alone, often teach 8 am classes, and the secretary of my department isn’t expected in until 8 am, this caused me no small consternation, especially since the administrator who e-mailed us about this declared that not following all the procedures (there were others) to the LETTER would result in it being considered “insubordination,” which is one of the magic words that means you COULD have tenure revoked.
I have no idea if the insubordination clause was ever put into play though I will admit there are some days I was probably unwell enough to have stayed home that I dragged in to teach any way. I just hope I wasn’t contagious. I have cancelled class halfway through when I was brewing a migraine and realized I wasn’t making any sense.
(And yes, in the era of online class-management systems, you’d think posting an announcement – which gets e-mailed out to everyone – would be enough, but apparently it isn’t)