Here’s how I handled those calls… plus the second half of this is a horror story of what happens when managers don’t believe employees when they call in sick.
As a manager and later as a Department Head – including when I was Director of Human Resources for two different companies - if one of my employees called in sick, I accepted that statement “as is”.
I would thank them for letting me know, ask them if there was anything I could do and ask if there was anything I needed to take care of or be aware of on their behalf while they were out.
I then said something along the lines of “take care of yourself”.
It’s important to treat people with respect. The person who is calling you has already assessed that they are not feeling well and they require the use of a sick day. What is the purpose of probing? I’ll answer my own question and then you’ll see why I don’t do it.
The only reason to probe for more details before accepting their statement and moving on, is so you can judge whether or not you agree with their assessment and their chosen action (taking a sick day).
It’s not up to you to judge or to agree.
They have already made that assessment and you aren’t equipped to judge it. Follow your company’s policies. If they are well-written, abusers won’t have much runway. They will also get caught in their own schemes if they use up their sick time and then don’t have any when they are really ill. And, genuine abusers of sick time may also have other patterns, such as performance issues. Don’t ignore those. Again, follow your policies.
One last point before I tell you a story that’s over the top on why not to make people feel they can’t use their own sick time…
If someone decides when they wake up that morning that they need a mental health day and they call in sick, just let it be. Again, follow your policies. Do what you can to make sure the reason they need the mental health day is not because of anything happening at work (stress, workload, unreasonable demands from you, etc.). If you note a pattern of mental health days during certain times or scenarios, you can address that in an effort to be resolve the work-related problem that’s making your employee(s) not want to come to work.
Now for the horror story…
When I was a manager in a large hospital system, I stopped by the department that (at the time) was called “Central Services”. One function of that department was to sterilize and prepare the trays for surgery. I stopped by because when I called, nobody answered the phones.
When I get there, there’s one person running around like a chicken with their head cut off. Almost everyone in the department was out with the flu. I’ll tell you the impact of this in a moment, but for now, let’s talk about the answer to the question: “How did this happen?”
It happened because the secretary – who really did have the flu – had been afraid to call in sick.
She didn’t think she would be believed plus the pressure not to miss work (pressure from the department head) was high. So, she comes to work, with her fever, germs, moist skin, cough and everything else that goes with the flu. She worked a half day before her boss told her to go home. Half a day in the Central Services department, spreading germs, just to prove to her boss that she was really sick and should be at home. Let’s not even talk about a boss who takes half a day to decide that someone with the flu should go home.
So, what happened?
Recall that Central Services, among its duties, sterilized instruments and prepared trays for surgery. Her flu germs spread to just about all the employees in the department, knocking the whole department out. This meant there were no instruments or trays for surgery or for whatever was needed in the Emergency Room or for anywhere else the department was providing services. Just imagine what that means in a hospital. The impact ricocheted everywhere. Doctors were mad, nurses were frustrated, patients and their families were upset, and the few employees who had escaped getting the flu were left to deal with an impossible situation.
So, no – don’t probe for more information when someone calls in sick; and don’t create an atmosphere where people are afraid to legitimately use their sick time.
Just don’t.