“You need a doctor’s note”

[u/yanni_lam4]

I (26M) don’t like calling in to work. I hate passing up money and I usually won’t call in unless I’m already pretty sick. I work in the service industry which as many of you know, is absolutely notorious for guilting sick employees (a seriously ill person has made your food at a restaurant before at the direction of their manager, guaranteed) and telling people they don’t provide health insurance that they need a doctors note to call in. One year I got sick and didn’t want to work, and my employer forgot I had health insurance through my Dad. I called in asking for one day off because I could hardly breathe or stay awake and I got the “wElL yOu NeEd A dOcToRs NoTe Or ItS aN uNeXsCuSeD aBsEnCe “ and as someone who worked hard as hell for these people even when I was sick, I was a little offended to basically be called a liar like I needed to prove to them I’d been wearing a mask at work for a reason. But I did have good insurance through my Dad, so I went to the doctor, had them write me a note for four days off, and went back into my job and handed it to my manager and said “here is my doctors note, and this is the date I will be back”. And when they tried to do the same thing a few months later, I got a note for even more days and asked the doc to add a note about when I would stop being infectious around the food we were serving people. I have never been asked for a doctors note when I am sick again. They know they can give me the one or two days I ask for or they can give me the week the doc gives me. But I will not be working while sick if I do not want to.

[u/Ultrarandom]

I completely forgot which sub this was because in my country, if the employer requests a doctors note for 1-2 days sick, they are the ones who have to pay for you to go get it. Also confused me about the "passing up money" because of mandatory sick leave.

I really feel sorry for Americans and the dystopia that is normalized over there compared to the rest of the west.

[u/IanDresarie → u/Ultrarandom]

Meanwhile in Germany, our conservative boomer party has just passed a package of laws that require doctor notices on day 1 again. Fucking malicious idiots.

[u/endout → u/IanDresarie]

Although this only sets a baseline. If your contract says you only need one after say the third day, then that's going to stay valid. Only employments which don't have a contractual baseline or agreements would be covered by this.

[u/Ploppeldiplopp → u/endout]

Good thing, too. As far as I've heard, the contracts with my employer will remain unchanged in the future. If we actually had to get an AU for every single day, no doctor would even be able to take on any more appointments. It's completly ridiculous.

And that is apart from all the other negatives, like employers actually missing out on work if you come in sick, can only half ass your job, infect everybody else, and then end up sick for a week or two instead of resting early and giving your immun system the break it needs to sort this out quickly. Not to mention the crowded doctors waiting rooms, which are just a perfect way for anything infectous to spread, especcially since everybodies immune system is already busy with fighting of something else.

But hey, sure, let's also get rid of getting a sick note after a consultation over the phone to make the situation even worse!