I argued with the assistant manager at my last job when he tried to tell me I needed a doctors note to return to work even though I only missed one day, a Friday. Started getting standard food poisoning symptoms on a Thursday night, spend the night and half the next day shooting liquid out of both ends, and called out on Friday (had weekends off). Got pulled into the office on Monday asking for a note. The moron expected me to go to the ER to get a note over a weekend, after I had started to get better. The audacity of middle management will never not disgust me.
Salary position, hire this lady, she shows up first day, then sick. Cool, that's fine. Sick the rest of the week. Rough flu, feel better soon. Sick Monday.
"I'm going to need a doctor's note"
And she flipped out and quit. Been too sick to work for a full week, you probably should see a doctor.
Yeah if I’m missing 3-4 days of work I’m probably going to the doctor that’s wild that they wouldnt get one or think that it would be asked for when being new
Depends on where you live. In my country, you don't need a doctor's note and it's illegal for an employer to straight up ask what you've got. It's also very uncommon to go to the doctor for the flu here, you generally only go for injuries or, well, things you haven't seen before, honestly. I don't even know what a doctor would do for a cold or flu except tell you to rest. We don't really do cold medicine either.
See, in America, we're so great that when we get sick, we just keep going to work until we're fully incapacitated. Anything less would dishonor our families and be grounds for termination. We just keep pushing and pushing and pushing until we have nothing left, and then we die, secure in the knowledge that we bled for the enrichment of the greatest country on earth. It didn't matter that we got fat and lost our hair and fell asleep weeping every night for 10 years before becoming fully numb to life, embracing pharmaceuticals as a way to flatten the whole human experience into a flipbook animation devoid of spirit or beauty, just day after day of toil and cynical determination to keep breathing the air we've helped poison.
Whenever I catch a cold, it usually takes me about a week to recover: three days of a runny nose, followed by three days of heavy coughing.
There’s not much a doctor can do in these cases beyond recommending rest and plenty of tea. Going to the doctor feels like a waste of time, potentially slows down my recovery, and unnecessarily exposes me and others to the risk of cross-infection.
In my country if you're off for 3 days or more management can ask for a doctor's note on your dime. If they ask for less than 3 days, it's on their dime. So you can go to the most expensive urgent care or online gp, and they have to reimburse you. I've had one manager ask after 1 day of sick leave, once I asked how the reimbursement process happens, they quickly stopped.
I had a doctor give me a week when I needed a doctor’s note for a few days just because he learned I was working at a call center and had previously himself worked for one and understood how crappy they treated their people. Sometimes you just need to find a doctor with the right amount of spite
With mine it was a case of "I know you're only asking for a sick note for the week, but you say it's due to depression and anxiety. Mental health issues are unpredictable, so I'm gonna issue a note for the whole month. You can always go back to work earlier if you feel up to it."
I worked at a large hospital IT once. Back when we still had mandatory military service. A colleague one morning was looking through a five centimeters thick stack of papers.
Turned out that in the last year or so whenever he helped a doctor in some private stuff, he asked for a note for medical exemption. And the next day was when he had to go to the conscription office and he was trying to find the best one.
These were like "this guy has this congenital defect, he can't lift a rifle". "this guy is almost blind" "this guys has no legs really". Notes about permanent, debilitating issues which would exempt him from the military service. Allergies, eye problems, balance issues, asthma, etc.
And no one was actually newtified, no one had to be ducked and watered,it was all a lie. The guy, as far as I know was totally healthy, not even the fat basement dwelling geek stereotype. One of the details he was filtering the notes was how it will limit his options later. For example, if he uses one of the mental handicaps that could be a problem when he's applying for a hunting license.
A friend of my parents used to work for the military when he was young (you had to back then). After he did his mandatory time there, he went to medical school and became a doctor.
Decades later, they tried to call him back for more service: When he told them that no, he’d already done his time, they sent back a letter explaining that the previous letter was not a request but an order.
He then replied to the effect of:
"Dear [military title],
as you have undoubtedly deduced from the header of my letters, I have completed a medical education since my service. If you require me to, I can shit out doctor’s notes until you leave me alone.
telehealth has made this even easier. I had to get a sick note for my daughter for school a few years back, got on line, told the lady my kid was sick and was running a fever, needed a doc note, she asked to speak with my kid, I told her she had finally been able to sleep, and I could call her back when she woke up. Doc said don't worry about it, how many days does she need off? I said 3, she gave me a note for 3 days, and a note for 7 just in case. Also gave me both for my job, in case I needed to stay home to take care of her. It took less than 10 minutes and cost me 30 bucks.
I had a boss tell me that doctors’ notes aren’t proof of being sick. Employers really will bend over backwards if they think they can escape paying an employee.
Actually most companies send you to their medical center, where they contact your doctor and discuss it with them meaning your doctor friend's are putting their licenses up doing this.
Also almost no company allows you to accrue this much sick time, almost all let you carry over one week of scheduled PTO and sick time is not considered accruable. In fact most places don't give you a fixed amount of sick days, or if they do then if you use them up you get charged against PTO.
Not true, at least in the US. Company doctors only get involved in illnesses or injuries that happen at the workplace. They don’t get involved in personal illnesses. You aren’t required to disclose medical issues to your employer. The only thing you’re required to give your employer from a doctor is a note proving you’re under a doctor’s care, and if you have any restrictions that might prevent you from fulfilling your job duties. For your doctor to disclose anything further than this would likely be a HIPAA violation.
Oh you would be surprised how true these stories are of doctors notes. My work required me to go to Dr once to get a doctor's note. The doctor became so enraged he ended up giving me two weeks. Work never asked again asked for one. LOL
There are talks in Germany about requiring a doctors note for the first day of illness. No doubt it will have the same effect there. Otherwise the doctors waiting rooms will be absolutely swamped.
You’re still not supposed to do them for your own friends or family.
As a doctor myself why the hell would I fake a fit note for a friend?
I cannot treat people I know personally. It’s no different to asking me for a prescription. I’m not your doctor. So it wouldn’t have to be proven whether they were really sick or not, just that I wrote it and haven’t got a medical record history of me consulting with them… because I’m not their doctor.
Doctor was struck off here last year for selling them for the same reason. Wasn’t actually keeping records or assessing if the people were sick lol. You’d be mad to actually make medical records for random friends when they can just go to their own doctor and lie to their face instead and get the note anyway.
Really? When was the last time anyone ever called your office to verify a ‘doctor’s note’ beyond “yes, the doc wrote the note”?
Which employer had someone on staff with the qualifications to question a note from a doctor’s office in the first place? Nevermind asking the doc’s relation with the employee.
Friend falls out with you and reports you. Know someone who got suspended when their ex husband reported them for giving them a prescription one time.
And in the UK yes they can actually call up and confirm your clinic gave out the letter, they can even request further information with the employees consent. People have been caught faking sick notes that no doctor ever signed or knew about. Another doctor was struck for signing things for a guy she met off tinder but then to hide who she was she also lied about what clinic she worked at and hid she was a doctor. How did she get caught? They broke up and he reported her to the GMC when he found out she was a doctor lmao.
I just don’t see why people don’t get why someone 6 figures in debt and a decade of training isn’t risking a panel over your issues with your job. It’s a signed piece of paper with my literal registration on it. It’s not allowed to do this, it’s against the rules of our registration. Therefore by definition it’s risking your licence, because you’re not allowed to do it. Arguing how will they find out is like? Who fucking cares? It’s not allowed and it just takes one jilted person to end your career.
Hey, I came about mine legally. I truly wasn't feeling well when went to doctor. When he found out they were forcing a doctor's note HE decided to give me extra time to recoup. Obvious he was taking issue w employers asking for silly notes from obviously sick employees.
Let's think this logically. In order for a company to proof it's fraud, they'd need to hire a lawyer and get a second doctors opinion of something that happened in the past.
Meaning they effectively can't do shit. As long as it's an actual doctor writing the note and they don't lie about any medical procedures, they can't do shit.
Well, in reasonable countries, I guess. Just saying "Would you write me a few days off, I really am not feeling it right now" is often enough. What's the company gonna do, prove that you didn't have a massive headache or the shits? Especially if you know the doctor, they know you aren't a testing them.
8 days old account with a random generated username and hidden comment history shifts the goalpost with every comment. Should have just blocked you from the start...
But to answer your point, yes. Abso-fucking-lutely. 90% of everyone in the world who have a job don't get compensated fairly for their time. So unless you are in the top 10% of earners, you probably deserve to work less and to get paid more. So I don't feel bad when people abuse the system to fuck over companies, they are fucking over everyone else.
I have two related stories. The first is that I almost got fired for not going on a work trip when I had the literal flu with a doctor's note and positive test. The second is that the same boss who nearly fired me for that was told by another subordinate that he was going to be sick the next day wink wink and had no problems with that guy taking a three-day weekend.
I don't know where you are from, but in many countries in Europe they couldn't - you can't be fired while taking PTO or sick leave (and you also can't fired because of taking it at all).
At will means they can fire you for no reason but they still can't fire you for certain specific reasons. If you, for example, take FMLA leave because you are sick, they cannot legally fire you for it. Of course, they might try and do it anyways and trump up performance issues and you may well lose your case, but in principle they aren't allowed to.
Dude. It is not that simple. Employees have rights, even when being fired. Your employer might say otherwise (most do), but that’s just an intimidation technique.
If it was as simple as being “at-will”, then there wouldn’t be such a thing as Wrongful Termination lawyers. You might think they just work cases where racism, sexism, etc. involved, but nope. A majority of their cases are not related to legally protected classes.
A majority of their cases are not related to legally protected classes.
I'm sure they handle workplace negligence, contract breach, whistleblower, harrassment, retaliation, and discrimination civil cases, but what wrongful termination cases do they handle that don't include those topics?
My job doesn't even accept those anymore. I get 24 hours of sick leave a year, if i call off for anything else more then 12 times in a years times, I get fired. Nothing is excused, not being in the hospital, not a family member dying, nothing. We do still get vacation BUT. June, and then October thru first week of January are black out dates you cant use it for. Even travel advisories for blizzards arent an excused unpaid absence
Depending on what state you’re in, they could be breaking some laws. And if you’re in a US state that legally allows all of that, what the hell are you doing there? Leave!
I got a doctor's note for 2 days off after working at my job for a year. The supervisor acted like she was doing me a favor honoring it. She said they don't have to honor them if someone is abusing it, but because I hardly ever call out, she would with me. Then she used more PTO hours than I asked for. I had to take 20 hours off over those 2 days, but I had done overtime the week before that would be on the same check. So I only asked to use 13 hours. She put the whole 20 hours on my check and now I don't have enough for a whole week off work. When I asked her about it, she said she couldn't do anything about it. I was willing to have them take the money for those 7 hours back if I could get the pto back. But I think she didn't want to admit to the higher ups that she made a mistake.
If check your company policy - typically hours are on a per week basis and PTO is applied to get you up to 40 hours in a week if it's available regardless of if OT was worked the week prior or after (on the same pay period)
It doesn't work like that with my company. I had to take a few hours off here and there. She usually just adds what I ask her to add. And I only get 38 hours on a typical week.
Yeah, miss me with that shit. Place I work at just gives an hour per full shift worked, usable however and whenever you want. They fully expect that the majority of that time will be "I ain;t feeling like work right now"
When I managed out interns one of them was out sick for a few days. HR asked me to have him submit a sick note. I pointed out they don't get benefits, so it seems unreasonable to require they pay out of pocket for a doctor note.
My job used to "require" a doctor's note if you were off more than 3 days in a row.
Then, HR sent out a notice to inform us the policy change. Sick notes would no longer be "Required", no matter the duration of your absence.
The next time I got sick, I hadn't bothered to go to the doctors, because I was pretty sure it was just the standard flu and I didn't see any reason to torture myself and expose other people to my ailment by going to see the doctor and have them tell me "Get some rest and drink lots of water".
I get back to work, and the first thing the assistant manager asked me for was a doctor's note. I was confused, and asked about the change in policy that was announced, and told them that because of the announcement, I didn't go to the doctors while sick.
I then got a phone call from the regional manager later that day, who told me that while a sick note was no longer "required" they still had the right to ask for one regardless. Essentially, managers could pick and choose when to require one now, instead of it being a hard rule. Thankfully they said they understood my confusion and didn't pursue any action against me due to the lack of a sick note.
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u/Dry_Yam_8049 1d ago
Don’t forget to get a signed doctors note