Sick Days & AMP

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I've also been lucky enough to need very few sick days. But I do know at my hospital, the AMP is pretty adversarial, as P3 comments too. Often that letter is required to return to work. So you need to wait minimum of 48 hours being fever free, vomitting free, diarrhea free etc. before returning to work. Then you must go to your doc or to a walk in clinic to get a letter - which often the patient must pay for. Present at the clinic - doc says "why are you here?" "Because I'm well" - WHAT?? "You do know you've been sitting in a waiting room full of sick people, right?" Yup ...

That being said, I think the AMPs were put in place to deal with people who may be abusing sick time; and of course as often happens what is needed to address minority infractions gets applied to the majority with poor effect.
 
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Carolla said:
I've also been lucky enough to need very few sick days. But I do know at my hospital, the AMP is pretty adversarial, as P3 comments too. Often that letter is required to return to work. So you need to wait minimum of 48 hours being fever free, vomitting free, diarrhea free etc. before returning to work. Then you must go to your doc or to a walk in clinic to get a letter - which often the patient must pay for. Present at the clinic - doc says "why are you here?" "Because I'm well" - WHAT?? "You do know you've been sitting in a waiting room full of sick people, right?" Yup ...
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Another idiosyncrasy of the AMP my employer had. The 48 symptom-free hours were not counted by the AMP because they were required by law. However, the day of actually being sick did count against you.

This made no sense to me whatsoever. I talked to an Occ Health nurse about this once . . "You wouldn't want to come to work when you are sitting on the throne, would you?" was her response. Again, I kid you not.
 
So punitive to need to go to a walk-in clinic. A doctor you don't even know has to write you a letter certifying you were sick two days ago! Even if you pay for the letter the health care system is paying for the visit. So ridiculous!
 
"Sick leave – Implementation of Attendance Awareness Program to reduce sick leave costs. xxxx sick time is approximately $190 million annually"

Isn't that lovely.... "Attendance Awareness Program"........ they try to make it sound like a good thing

 
paradox3 said:
So punitive to need to go to a walk-in clinic. A doctor you don't even know has to write you a letter certifying you were sick two days ago! Even if you pay for the letter the health care system is paying for the visit. So ridiculous!
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Agree - total waste of doctor's time ...
 
Northwind said:
"Sick leave – Implementation of Attendance Awareness Program to reduce sick leave costs. xxxx sick time is approximately $190 million annually"

Isn't that lovely.... "Attendance Awareness Program"........ they try to make it sound like a good thing
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They do claim that AMP's reduce sick time usage.
 
Remembering the form letter . . .

There was a line in it that said "In order to assist you in improving your attendance, I may require you to obtain a doctor's letter for every absence from work."

This was at the managers' discretion as I said earlier. But isn't it crazy-making to insist this is not an adversarial process?

I asked HR how requiring a doctor's note would improve my attendance if I were not cheating on my sick time. Again, the HR person had no answer other than "It's a form letter."
 
Adversarial in a democratic situation???? Could you imagine? Isn't that a title of a movie?

Could be an abstract conception .. ath'ought?
 
paradox3 said:
Who said employee - employer relationships are democratic?
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I was being a bit satirical ... not well understood in ethereal circles ... you know up there!

In some old traditions that AD ... overhead cost ... if you don't know it could cost yah ...
 
paradox3 said:
"In order to assist you in improving your attendance, I may require you to obtain a doctor's letter for every absence from work."
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Our managers have the right to do so and the employee handbook is quite clear on that point. I have no problem with that, since they rarely exercise it. I've been off for a week, back in the days before I got the flu shot and got the flu pretty much every year, and not been asked for anything. I have never asked for one since I've been managing staff (actually might have in one case but I think ST disability was involved, see next sentence). The only time it would likely be exercised is if a problem was suspected or if the absence turned into short term disability, in which case medical verification is needed by insurance for the employee to claim ST disability benefits.
 
Mendalla said:
Our managers have the right to do so and the employee handbook is quite clear on that point. I have no problem with that, since they rarely exercise it. I've been off for a week, back in the days before I got the flu shot and got the flu pretty much every year, and not been asked for anything. I have never asked for one since I've been managing staff (actually might have in one case but I think ST disability was involved, see next sentence). The only time it would likely be exercised is if a problem was suspected or if the absence turned into short term disability, in which case medical verification is needed by insurance for the employee to claim ST disability benefits.
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Some common sense required over brute non-sense ... commanding style?

Of course some say that shouldn't be the case ... thus a subtle cognizance! Hidden wisdom? The Latin term is heiros gamma ... an dark term that is obscure or occult ... given what we really know (not much)? Tis preferred if the population is stupefied by fear, anger, or frustration ... some people are educated to this degree ... piled higher and deeper ?

When old enough to rate as old fart ... you can poke at this crap ... ancient humour?
 
paradox3 said:
They do claim that AMP's reduce sick time usage.
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I'm sure they do. They are though, spreading a really wide net aren't they. That being said, I am glad I am not in the position of having to try to reduce sick time. There are so many issues involved. There are the people who are in fact abusing the benefit. There are those whose health is a concern. Is the workplace affecting people's health? What in the workplace might be contributing to people needing to take time off when they are not sick. I really don't envy those trying to create these policies.
 
Yes, I agree they spread a really wide net. Honest employees wind up feeling as though they are mistrusted.

It would be interesting to see some of those stats which prove AMP's actually reduce sick time.
 
paradox3 said:
Another idiosyncrasy of the AMP my employer had. The 48 symptom-free hours were not counted by the AMP because they were required by law. However, the day of actually being sick did count against you.

This made no sense to me whatsoever. I talked to an Occ Health nurse about this once . . "You wouldn't want to come to work when you are sitting on the throne, would you?" was her response. Again, I kid you not.
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48 hours symptom free? How does that work with someone with a chronic illness? Why the need for a symptom free period?
 
ChemGal said:
48 hours symptom free? How does that work with someone with a chronic illness? Why the need for a symptom free period?
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It really applies to those with acute illnesses - not chronic conditions. 48 hours to be more certain that one is not still shedding virus etc. - ie less likely to infect others at that point.
 
Well - not on the topic of sick time - I'm having a wonderful four day weekend - including a couple of scheduled days off :-) It is my mate's 70th birthday, so our dtr flew home to surprise him! And he was surprised!! Son & his gf are also here for the whole weekend. Two years since they have all seen each other, and we're having some great fun!
 
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