Hellobee Boards

It depends on the job. Is it an office where you manage your time? So you don't need to request leave in advance? I know I don't and don't give people details. I've taken planned sick days for being hungover, medical appointments, recovering from a marathon, kids after vaccines, period induced migraines, and therapy. Generally I just put "leave" on my calendar and omit details

I think it depends on how your days are allotted... at my work we get vacation and choice. We are supposed to schedule all vacation ahead of time and then the choice we can use unexpectedly, aka sick. So in our case it would be a bad move to tell our bosses that we planned to call out sick tomorrow.. in that case we should use a vacation day and plan it. I'm not sure what, if anything our boss would do or could do legally/hr issue.. but I think it's a dumb move to say it...

@Corduroy: I have a whole host of medical issues, and yes, I use my sick days to take care of that stuff, and most of it is "planned". My job has personal leave and sick leave, and theoretically personal leave should be planned at least 3 days in advance and sick leave doesn't have to be planned in advance (obviously, if you wake up sick or are sick overnight). But medical issues (as per our contract) are covered by sick leave. Luckily, my boss NEVER EVER asks for details, and thank god he doesn't, because I don't really want to tell him that I'm having diarrhea again every time I eat, so I'm going back to my GI doctor. Or that the mass in my breast has changed, so I've scheduled another diagnostic mammogram. Or that my vaginal discomfort has gotten so much worse that I'm going to see a pelvic floor therapist. Or that I've developed a toenail fungus, and I'm going to a podiatrist to have my toenail removed and my nailbed treated.

Basically, there are just so many reasons I could be taking a planned sick day that I wouldn't want to discuss with my boss. If I just said "a medical appointment", it almost leads to, "Why, is everything alright?" and then I have to decide if I'm really going to talk to my boss about my breast/vagina/nail fungus or if I'm going to lie.

If your workplace has rules about time off, and she's following the rules.....who cares?

We’d be expected to submit a leave request if we knew we wouldn’t be coming in. That sounds really weird to me.

I’d probably give her the benefit of the doubt that she had some kind of appointment she doesn’t feel like sharing? And if she didn’t know you were her direct supervisor at the time of the conversation she maybe just didn’t feel the need to tell you? I’d see if it’s a pattern

@Corduroy: Given she only recently became your direct report, maybe she told her former manager the details?

This is complicated, because I have 100 percent called in sick when I wasn't actually sick...call it a mental health day, if you will. But I certainly didn't tell anyone beforehand. I don't know that I'd personally reprimand much, if at all. I don't really see the difference in her telling you vs. someone taking a last-minute sick day for whatever reason (as I've done) other than being oddly honest. Frankly, I think all leave should just be filed under PTO rather than sick and vacation anyway, and then it wouldn't matter. Caveat: none of my workplaces would go up in flames if any one of us were out for a day here or there. Also, I think workplaces should be more flexible in general...so if this person is generally a good and responsible employee, and gets their work done on time, as a manager myself, I wouldn't really care.

If you were not her supervisor before that, and there’s a possibility she had not been notified of the change, I think it’s completely plausible that she did not think she had to elaborate for you. I know when I was doing fertility treatments, I often would not know until a day or two in advance that I would need to call in sick bc it would depend on how my body was responding to meds. That could be why she did not give the team a heads up. Or a myriad of other reasons. I would wait and see if this is a pattern.

@2littlepumpkins: lol I supervise someone who often shares TMI when he calls in sick. I want to be like, “I believe you’re sick, I don’t need details...”