Have you ever woken up and realized you were too sick to go to work? For whatever reason, that’s often how it works.

You don’t know until you wake up if you’ll feel up to working that day or not.

In today’s story, one health care worker shares how a stupid policy at work encouraged employees to go into work sick instead of calling in sick.

That’s a big problem, and it needed to be changed!

Let’s see what happened.

Can’t call off last minute? Fine I’m going to work and then go home because I’m too sick.

I work in health care so if someone call sick, it is almost mandatory that they have to be replaced.

I work the night shift and I don’t live far from work.

It happened two time that when I woke up to get to work, I just don’t feel well and that I won’t be able to do my job properly.

I didn’t do it on purpose, I just don’t know I will call sick until I wake up, which is about 1h before the night shift start.

They tried to work while sick.

We have a policy that if someone call sick less than 2h before their shift starts, they get the code “unauthorized absence.”

It doesn’t mean anything but we can get in trouble for it and it leaves a bad note in the employee files.

Well, one day I did show up to work to not get another unauthorized absence and also I really thought I could get through my shift.

Less than one hour in my shift, a colleague says to me that I don’t look well and that I should go back home.

My temperature was 39°C.

So we called my superiors saying I’m too sick and can’t work, so they don’t have a choice, they let me go home.

It’s even more difficult to replace someone mid-shift.

FYI, If you get sick during a shift, the code on the schedule is “sick” from the time you leave work.

Now, TRY to find a replacement for me at 1 am, when the evening shift already left and most people sleeps at that time.

The floor where I work has priority for staffing, so they NEED to replace me.

So after I left, the superior had to move an employee from another department and the floor they moved her from stayed understaffed for the night.

The coworker spoke up.

My colleague knew I didn’t call sick before because I didn’t want to get an “unauthorized absence” so she told the superior how stupid that rule of calling sick 2h before the shift start, that doesn’t make any sense, as if we know in advance that we are sick while we’re sleeping.

Also, what if an accident happens while we’re on the way to work?

I guess they got a meeting or something because in the following weeks, I noticed in my schedule that the two “unauthorized absence” code from the last few months were replaced with “sick”. What a coincidence.

I guess that it’s better calling off last minute before a shift than in the beginning if it.

Especially for the graveyard shift where finding a replacement is harder.

Sometimes the only way to get the rules to change is to follow them!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person sounds like a great manager.

Here’s the perspective of a cook.

Someone who works in childcare weighs in.

A former manager shares their opinion.

What? No paid time off?

Please, don’t go to work sick!

No matter what your manager says.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.