WOHM: What do you do when sick?

[Ocean]

I just logged on to post this thread and saw a similar thread about SAMPs. It's tough when anyone in the family gets sick, and I'm curious to hear about how WOHP deal with it.

I don't really get sick leave at my job. This was apparent when I had both mastitis and a cold, plus my dd had a cold and was up all night long. After being incredibly sick and getting only about two hours of sleep at night, I called in sick for two days. The people at my office were rather pissed about it. Apparently I'm never supposed to get sick. That was two months ago.

This weekend, I developed a horrible migraine, which literally kept me up all night long Saturday. I finally felt a little better Sunday afternoon, and I spent Sunday evening working from home. But after a couple hours in the office Monday, I realized I couldn't function so I finished up what I needed to that day and went home. When I came into the office the next day, it felt like all hell had broken loose.

Now I have to somehow try to make up the hours I missed on Monday to get all my projects done. Typically, I only get less than three hours after I get home before I go to bed with dd, but because she's up so much at night I typically only get four hours of sleep a night. I just don't feel like there's any time in which I can somehow make up sick time. If I work for a couple extra hours in the evening, I would literally have no time with dd, and my poor dh wouldn't get a break from watching her all day long. But because I get the "night shift" with dd, I can't work at night when she's sleeping because I just can't function on less than four hours of sleep for more than a couple days in a row.

Do other WOHMs deal with this? Do you get sick time? We have no family in the area, so we just don't have any support system in place for dealing with this kind of stuff.

[Nik's Mommy]

I am lucky as my employer and fellow employees understand what it is like to have kids. (Most of us have kids.) I work for a large multi-national company that has clear policies about sick days, so they really can't give me grief if I take them. I get 6 a year.... which I'm sure will be used up by June. : Then I can take vacation, or days without pay.
My manager is funny though..... When I tell him (I stopped "asking" a while back) I am taking a sick day for this or that, I always get this martyr-like reply. "You are sooooo lucky I'm your manager. I know what it is like to have kids, so I understand that sometimes you have to take a day here or there. There are other managers out there who aren't as great as me!" Or something to that effect. Makes me want to puke everytime he spews it off.

[Starfire]

Well, when I worked for a company that did not allow sick days because it was a retail store, and i was manager. So unless I had some one to take my place I could not leave. I took my 3 year old ds to work with me. He was puking in the back while i was waiting on people in the front, and my Regional Manager came in and was glad I had the store open . So i called mall management and asked what their policy was for sick stores, and they told him he had to let me go home or they would discontinue their lease . I was so happy to have some one one my side, but later found out people can sue (spelling?) the mall AND the stor if they get sick from my store.

Now I am at a place where there is two of use, and my boss does not mind sick kids at work. It makes her take a break and play for a minute. Plus she likes my kids and always has things for them to do here. But if i am sick she always sends me home. After three years i can now tell her to go home when she looks sick.

I think that is the only reason I have not changed jobs, even though I have been oftered more money.

[Marlena]

Ocean, dontcha know lawyers aren't supposed to get sick??

I frankly don't know how the sick policy is at my present job, as neither I nor dd have been sick since I started. I never took any sick leave at my old position, but I was WAHM then, and basically made up lost time on the weekends. I hear you, though, about not having any time, really, to make up the time - certainly not during the week, at least. Night duty is very taxing (well, these days, at least - she was up every hour last night, which is fortunately unusual), and becomes even more so if dd happens to wake up and find me not there. Eek. Then she really wakes up, and is that much more difficult to get back to sleep. I found that when I worked at a firm, it was ok to take one sick day per illness. Anything more than that was not acceptable, but a single day was. As long as you were obviously sick when you returned, you were ok. Yes, illnesses spread like a brushfire in a dry California summer at that firm.

[LiamnEmma]

Well, I get 8 days yearly (I work four days a week, 10 months a year) for sick/personal time, plus I build up comp time monthly by attending a monthly dept. meeting on a day I don't normally work. So right now I have about 9 days of sick time built up plus 2.5 days of comp time that I'm hoping to save until the end of the school year to get off early for the summer. Plus, I have a nanny, so having sick children isn't an issue any longer for me. This is the first year with her though, so previously I've used up all my time each yuear dealing with sickness in the kids. I rarely take off ime for my own personal illness, I save it for the kids at this point. But, I'm union, so.....

Just today I overheard a conversation between our supt. and his henchman. They were discussing a principal who missed two days because her INFANT is ill. They were planning on having a discussion with her about the need for her to be at work everyday. So gross!

[hulamama]

We get family sick leave and I don't fret about taking it for Sydney...the hard thing is preparing for a substitute teacher. We just can't call in....we have to prepare for the day for our class, and sometimes that makes calling in sick more of a hassle then just going into work and trudging thru the day......

The funny thing is, when I am sick or dh for that matter....we are so excited at the chance to be with dd, that we don't take her in to daycare......even if I feel terrible, it makes it go so much faster to have her with us at home....it is like an extra vacation day!

[HollyBearsMom]

Sick time is one of the biggest reason that we decided to pony up a little more money to have someone come to our house to watch ds exclusively.

I only get 8 days a year for sick or personal time combined. Doesn't matter if I am sick, the baby is sick, DR's appt etc. I only have the eight days and I work fulltime M-F. My husband I figured that we would use up those days with just the amount of days daycare is closed per year that are not our corporate holidays! In the 2 years we have had our nanny she has yet to call in sick and since she gets off any days I do it works out really well.

So now if the baby is just mildly sick, enough where they wouldn't let him into a center I can still go to work and save the days for when he is really sick. It also means that if I am sick I have someone there to help out. Just this past fall I got a viral illness and was out of work for 7 days. I ended up in in the emergency room, the works. If we didn't have our nanny my husband would have also had to miss work. He only gets paid when he is at work so that would have been a double hardship.

[Quirky]

bump

[tracymom]

bumping

This is an interesting thread. I just started my new position about 9 mos ago but have had some sick kids a couple times. If DH can get off, he stays home, but if not, then I have to. So far it's been about half and half. I've only had one crisis situation where I felt like my boss was pretty peeved but it was really more at the situation than at me because I think he understood I really had no one to keep DS that day.

[tracymom]

ooh, I'm stupid and tired

this thread was SUPPOSED to be about moms who were sick I think. I should go to bed.

Night all. I'm done bumping.

[Ruth]

My dh and I are 2/3 owners of a Firm so if we are sick and there is work to be done, we have to work. Period. If we are sick, and there is no deadline or other pressing project (rarely), we stay home. My dh has been sick for 3 days this week and has dragged himself to work every day.

When our dd is sick, we take turns working as much as we can each day.

Our personal leave is very generous. 6 days paid and 6 unpaid days the first year, 12 days paid and 12 days unpaid the next, 18 days paid and 18 days unpaid the next, 24 days paid and 24 days unpaid days the 4th year. Of course, as owners, we don't have the luxury to take what we have designated to our staff.

We do have a very stringent policy the first 90 days. NO LEAVE for whatever reason. Most people don't make it, but those that do get the benefit of the above generous leave, plus after five years of service, they get a 3-month-paid sabatical. Also one week paid per year of service (up to 4 weeks) for paternity and materinity leave.

[nuggetsmom]

The only time I was really sick was a saturday and as DH is leaving for class I told him I didn't feel well, but he didnt'e realize just how badly I felt (puking and diarea). I tried to call my friends who were all gone...
So I toughed it out with DD and the TV and a lot of crying in the hall while I was in the bathroom.

If it were a workday I would take DD to daycare and take care of myself.

[singermom]

Last month we had a two-week period in which both kids were sick--one took one week, the other took the second. I had one full day in the office over those two weeks (it was also the week of the NE blizzard, so our office was sort of working on half-power anyway that week). Both dh and I did major juggling, and we called in just about every favor we could--my parents, my good friend who is a teacher who was on break that week, you name it, we called it in. Surprisingly, I didn't get a lot of flak for it at my office.

I'm not sure what the "sick time" policy is for our company--I just generally work at home whenever I can. If I am so sick that I can't move, or once after I had a surgical procedure, I just reported it that way, and it was accepted by our electronic system.

[Indigomama]

We're lucky... both dh and i work for the same company and have
unlimited sick time! Yeah!

Downside: everyone has my home phone number and i carry a pager, so even when I'm home, I'm working whether I like it or not. I also work at home part time, so can usually keep my head above water.

DS got really sick last year a couple of months after going into day care. That was really hard. I finally called my mom, flew her out, and she took care of him for three weeks. She rocks! I wish I could have called her last time I was sick

[buttercup]

My employer offers sick leave, however, I used most of it during my maternity leave during the summer and fall of last year. In december, dd developed RSV and DH and I caught some type of flu/ stomach virus. I missed several days of work caring for all 3 of us (DH is a big baby whenhe is sick). Finally, I decided to let dd stay w/ my parents (2 hours away) for 2-3 days while DH and I recovered. I physically couldn't do it anymore. I feel for those of you w/o any relatives/ friends who could help out because I know it can be tough when all of you are sick.


Jenni and Helon 6/29/02

[Chelly2003]

I get 7 days a year, DH gets none. I'm better paid, so Dh and I take turns to stay home with DS when he's sick.
We've so far been lucky and although I'm always on the BONEs of my sick time, I've never had to take off more than I have - I could go into vacation time if that happened.

Chelly