There's nothing more maddening for a manager than getting a last minute e-mail from a subordinate “calling” in sick on a Friday. At least have the balls to call in and fake a pathetic sick voice! Sending in an e-mail last minute to say you are sick after partying it up all night is like breaking up with someone over e-mail.
Last minute notifications have managers scrambling to find your backup. Your jealous colleagues who have to pick up your slack will surely resent you as well The next problem is the law of probabilities.
Let me explain why calling in sick on a Friday or a Monday is a career-limiting move.
Why Calling In Sick Is Bad On A Friday Or Monday
* There are seven days a week, meaning there's a 15% chance (1/7) you'll get sick on any given day. Furthermore, what is the percentage chance someone is so sick they can't even come to work for a day? I say at most 50%. Take 15% X 50% and you get 7.5%. To suddenly be sick on a Friday right before your weekend is therefore an unlikely 7.5% probability!
* Whenever you call in sick on a Friday, your manager will always think in the back of her mind you're likely playing hooky and flying to Las Vegas Thursday night for a romping weekend. Yes, your manager would like to believe in the 7.5% chance you really can't get out of bed and work, but doubts will linger. Because there is doubt, you start challenging your manager's trust. Once you lose your manager's trust, IT IS ALL OVER!
* Your manager was once a subordinate. Every single game you try to play, your manager has probably played to some degree. Even better, your manager was once a student. Who doesn't remember playing fake sick during high school? Don't think for one second your manager is so naive!
* You will be labeled. Once you get labeled as a slacker, your career will get short-circuited. Your promotion and pay schedule will be lower. Eventually, you may end up as a quiet quitter who just ships it in. Not bad, if you don't get let go. But also not very motivating either.
If You Must Call In Sick And Play Hooky
Never take Friday off unless you are really dying in bed. If you are, then you must get a doctor's note. If you can't get to the doctor, call your doctor and have him/her fax to your HR or manager a doctor's note.
Even if you're just feeling bad, make an effort to come into work for half a day and then go home. This is your absolute BEST solution because it shows your dedication.
Losing your manager's trust is a sure way to never getting promoted. If you must take Friday off, just tell your manager you'd like to take a personal day or a vacation at least two days in advance.
Your manager will appreciate your honesty, and may more than likely grant you your request provided you've planned out your back up. Don't ever let the manager think you are stealing from the company. Because getting paid if you aren't sick is exactly that, stealing.
Be Smarter About Calling In Sick From Work
It's tough love, I know, but calling in sick multiple times a year is a sure sign you don't care and will highly increase your chances of getting laid off. If you're resorting to calling in sick to stay away from work, then you better find another job because there are plenty of other people who will happily take your spot!
Look, we know it's sometimes too tough to walk in the park and work 40 hours a week. With millions of people out of work, you don't really care because your mentality is that work is just a contract and you already feel underpaid.
Life is tough, I know. But, you're a smart slacker, which is why if you want an extra day to play hooky, and don't want to get fired, you're taking Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday off!
Just be honest with your manager and use a vacation day. Your career will thank you for it.
No Time To Slack Off Anymore
If you're able to work from home, then calling in sick is more suspect now. Just be careful about abusing your work flexibility.
A recession is here thanks to rising rates, rising energy prices, and slowing corporate earnings. The people who get laid off first are the ones who are the worst performers. Then the manager looks through and sees who's been constantly calling in sick and going on vacation.
The biggest concern with a recession is mass layoffs. With stocks correcting and many tech stocks firmly in bear market, cuts are coming. Now is the time to network more and work harder, not less.
It may be best to look for a new job before you get canned. But at least learn to enjoy your life in a bear market as the Fed ruins the world!
Negotiate A Severance Instead Of Quit Your Job
If you want to leave a job you no longer enjoy, I recommend negotiating a severance instead of quitting. With a severance package, you not only get a severance check, but potentially subsidized healthcare, deferred compensation, and worker training.
When you get laid off, you're also eligible for up to roughly 27 weeks of unemployment benefits. Having a financial runway is huge during your transition period.
Conversely, if you quit your job you get nothing. Check out, How To Engineer Your Layoff: Make A Small Fortune By Saying Goodbye.
It's the only book that teaches you how to negotiate a severance. In addition, it was recently updated and expanded thanks to tremendous reader feedback and successful case studies.
Recommendation To Build Wealth
n order to optimize your finances, you've first got to track your finances. I recommend signing up for Personal Capital's free financial tools so you can track your net worth, analyze your investment portfolios for excessive fees, and run your financials through their fantastic Retirement Planning Calculator.
Those who are on top of their finances build much greater wealth longer term than those who don't. I've used Personal Capital since 2012. It's the best free financial app out there to manage your money.
For more nuanced personal finance content, join 50,000+ others and sign up for the free Financial Samurai newsletter. Financial Samurai is one of the largest independently-owned personal finance sites that started in 2009. To get my posts in your inbox as soon as they are published, sign up here.
“Losing your manager’s trust is a sure way to never getting promoted.” Well this was the weirdest article ever. Then I noticed the comments were from 2009 and it all makes sense.
Being a “financial samurai” means you would never get “promoted” by a boss. You’d get promoted through a diagonal transfer aka applying for a higher position elsewhere. The early 2000s were all about the “loyalty grind”.
I switch jobs every 2 years:
1) Im ultra competitive because of all my skills/successful projects
2) Im out of there before those projects move to the resource heavy “maintenance” phase
3) None of my lies have caught up with me yet
4) Ive found those 2-3 coworkers that are worth keeping in touch with long term
The economy is fake, “producing value” doesn’t mean anything when idiots are measuring the value produced, and exploiting companies is the function of any job
Ah, you’ve stumbled upon a post I wrote back in 2010, two years before I left my job. Brings back fond memories!
Yes, switching jobs every 2-3 years will definitely increase your pay and promotion schedule.
And hopefully, you’ll eventually find a job you will enjoy for a while. Or better yet, retire early and do what you want!
There’s nothing more maddening for a normal person to read some weirdo whining on the internet about someone taking a day off, except when they call someone “subordinate”, that’s even more maddening, because it’s even more retarded.
Are you stuck in 1933, calling workers “subordinates”? Get over yourself, you’re not that important. Nobody is.
Nich, you’re fired!
@Steved
LOL, that’s great! For the math challenged:
40% of sick days are taken on Fridays or Mondays, likewise if you pick any two days in a 5-day workweek it’ll be 40% as well (like Tues & Thurs).
Those are the odds you’d expect when you are talking about purely random picking of two days.
There is only a slim 22% chance that if you miss three days of work out of a year, none will be a Friday or Monday. Nothing worse than a manager with a bad grasp of statistics, and using flawed calculations to define ‘trust’.
“Study shows that 40% of sick days are taken on a Monday or Friday!”
Just another example of real life emulating Dilbert.
thank u so much for this post.. hated when co-workers pulled this move, also hate when they pull it on mondays..
its so obvious that your being a slacker
With my team, I try to give extra personal days off to help fight the “sick of work” feeling. I personaly try to come in if I can, because it just seems like things pile up and the next day is even worse. But I much rather someone be upfront with me and tell me, I just need to be off, then to fake it, and lie to me. Breaks that bond of trust.
Miguel – Good stuff. It’s all about trust. Extra personal days off helps. I guess the key is timing or forewarning by individuals who feel like they are getting sick to notify their manager beforehand. Thnx for stopping by! Sam
I’m with Andrew. I didn’t have a single sick day when I worked for the man. Seeing other people taking the p- was one reason why I went freelance!
Obviously if someone is sick they’re sick (being sick when self-employed is no fun — you don’t get paid, and you let clients down, and it’s since happened to me) but it’s funny how the same people seem to get sick all the time… either footloose party types (who FS is calling out) or miserable grumps, in my experience.
Monevator – Some people are just “sick of work” ya now? I think we all are to some extent on a weekly basis. Some just choose to take it to the extreme and just not come in!
Whatcha do freelance now?
I’m all for it!
I’ve always found missed Mondays to be only slightly deadlier to your career ambitions than missed Fridays. Anyways, put me in the camp that takes a day when sick, no matter which day it is.
Bobby – I’m tempting to write a follow up post called “Never Call In Sick On A Monday, Sill!” :)
@MLR
I think it’s your co-workers :)
I think working in an environment where we have “unlimited” sick days actually serves to deter people from abusing any policies. As it is now, people will question if they are being too aggressive even if they have only taken a few days that year.
That may just be indicative of my co-workers, though.
@The Genius Apparently I’m not getting your drift. You said “call in sick ALL 3 times on a Friday” (emphasis mine).
Anyhow, If you miss 3 days a year, there is about a 50/50 chance that at least one of those days is a Friday (80% not Friday ^ 3rd power). Extrapolating, if you miss 9 days, there is a 50/50 chance that 3 of the 9 were Friday.
Even if someone misses 6 days, and 3 happen to be Friday — that is not so far fetched: they only missed 1 more Friday than expected (a likely outlier).
@BG Guess you’re not getting my drift. I wrote “calling in 3 times on a Friday” not just calling in 3 times sick all year.
*Sigh*
The Genius
@BG
oops, I meant to address that to “The Genius”, not Marc (sorry)
@Marc
“If you call in sick all 3 times on a Friday this year, I promise you your manager has you at the bottom of the curve. But, you’re right, so be it!”
I’d say fire the manager, because an employee who ONLY MISSES 3 DAYS a year should be set for a raise — I don’t care what 3 days he misses, he is still showing up for nearly 99% of the workdays.
Oh, and I vastly prefer Mondays off anyway. I’d rather have a long weekend followed by a short week than the other way around. Somehow it feels like more time off :-)
Sick days are part of your benefits, and they expire, so you should be taking them all even if you’re not really sick.
I’ve used them on days where I have regular doctor’s checkups, eye exams, or dental appointments so I can take the whole day off. This means that the majority of the time my sick days are planned in advance so they know it’s coming. There have been a very few other times where I left early, but where I work they aren’t going to make you report that time unless it’s going to put you behind on your work/deadlines, in which case you should report it so that you can get an extension on whatever deadline, which is easily granted.
If it’s been awhile since your last vacation, our manager will come to your office and strong-arm you into taking time off. It’s the best office culture ever.
Andrew – If I ever start a company, I’d like to interview you as a potential employee if interested!
B – The good thing is, if you are truly sick, you only have a 15% chance of being sick on a Friday, so you don’t have to worry! Once is fine, but when it starts getting in the 2, 3+ range, just get a doctor’s note and try and stay in contact and work at home. It is what it is.
Tyrone/The Genius – Glad you got my back and agree!
I understand why some employers would be skeptical, especially if someone has made a pattern of shady behavior/work ethic…but as someone who gets sick a lot, but rarely actually takes a full day off, and still gets all her work done I’d like to say that your math is bogus.
You can’t use probability to calculate when people will get sick…I know you are saying these people are NOT sick…but maybe SOMETIMES someone really is sick on a Friday. If I have a migraine, or the flu, or some really bad cold, and it happens to be a Friday I think it’s annoying to have to be concerned that my manager will no longer trust me.
Granted, if I don’t come in I don’t need to be covered for, and I can do a lot of work from home (if I feel well enough to be awake). But I have been legitimately sick on Fridays….and Saturdays and Sundays, Christmas Eve…my immune system doesn’t seem to care what day it is, and doesn’t respect your probability calculations! haha
@BG
Agreed re: US employers. I definitely have to fight with myself to use all my vacation days. Probably why no one really abuses sick days here.
I’m not trying to sound like a saint here but I never call in sick. As long as I can get up, I’ll go to work. I just hate the feeling of seeing a deduction on my paycheck for being late or absent.
I agree with this. I think anyone would be angry with you if you just called your boss late without prior notice most especially if there’s a lot of work.
But I guess this is the tactic of a lot of empoyees as the next day is Saturday, therefore no work (unless you are required to work overtime).
Marc,
7 days a week is 7 days a week, including Sat/Sun. From an employer’s point of view, you have Sat Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs to be sick so how can you always be sick on a Friday?
Even if there was magic land where there wasn’t a Sat and Sunday, 20% is still a low percentage.
If you call in sick all 3 times on a Friday this year, I promise you your manager has you at the bottom of the curve. But, you’re right, so be it!
The Genius
Your math doesnt make sense to me .. no manager cares if employees are sick on sat/sun… He only has to worry about sick employees 5 days out of the week.. so if an emplyee calls in sick the probability is 20% it is friday…
Your “50%-rule” applies to tuesdays as much as it does to fridays, and is therefor irrelevant to fridays
I think i call in sick maybe 2 or 3 days a year, if i am sick on a friday, so be it..
Interestingly the same principle applies to shift workers. The day doesn’t matter, but people often taking off the ‘last night shift’ or ‘earlies’ are viewed with the same derision, regardless of reason!