[kelli]

When your kids are sick and you have to stay home with them, do you take a sick day, a holiday or does it not count?

Or do you work from home?

I'm asking this because a couple of parents in the office call in to say they're working from home.. but nobody else is allowed to do this.. there's an actual policy that says we don't get that privledge..

I find it a bit toxic in the office when others use this when the rest of us aren't allowed.. there were a few people griping in the lunchroom about it.

So.. i'm curious.. how do other places handle this?

 

[MidwestGirl]

Well my kids are big enough now to stay by themselves. But before I would stay home with them w/o pay.
OH and I also would work through lunch to get caught up and get paid for that when I got back the next day.

 

[Ender's Mom]

The policy at my workplace is you can take sick time if your kids or significant other is sick and needs care at home. If you don't have sick time, you can use personal or vacation time.

You do not get to work from home... unless you have a previous agreement with your supervisor for telecommuting.

 

[BoatDog]

Same as Linds - or find a great friend to care for the sicko!

 

[MyGoldenBoy]

When your kids are sick and you have to stay home with them, do you take a sick day, a holiday or does it not count?

Or do you work from home?

I'm asking this because a couple of parents in the office call in to say they're working from home.. but nobody else is allowed to do this.. there's an actual policy that says we don't get that privledge..

I find it a bit toxic in the office when others use this when the rest of us aren't allowed.. there were a few people griping in the lunchroom about it.

So.. i'm curious.. how do other places handle this?

It depends on the child for me and what's on my workload. If one of my 4 yr olds is sick, I could only work about half of the day, when they're sleeping or watching a movie. If it's my 7 yr old, I can work the whole day at home. I have VPN access to my machine at work and I can do my job as if I was sitting there.

I will generally work from home rather than take a sick/vacation day but it sounds like it's more accepted here than at your workplace.

I do have to say that the opportunity started locally within one department before it was generally accepted with the other departments. And the later departments, including mine, had a lot of sour grapes too, until their and our manager allowed them and us to do that.

It's not written into the official company policy yet but I'm sure it will be in the next 10 years. They'll need to cross out the section that doesn't allow it.

I think there are three key points here - the person actually works from home and it's not limited to parents and we had manager buy-in.

 

[Golfgirlrobin]

At our office the policy is supposed to be like Lindsays. However, if the kid gets sick during the school day and the parent has to go pick them up, we usually end up with the sick kid sleeping on the office couch or watching tv in the break room.

 

[bacatherine]

My office it's concidered a sick day which we can take for us or a spouse/kid. My husband gets personal time that accrues each pay period if he would take off it would come out of that time. He could technically work some from home but I doubt he would. He works in the field a lot though so it's not like he is normally in the office all the time.

 

[jzgrlduff]

Here, you have to take a vacation day or unpaid. Can't take a sick day, since you're not the one who is sick. Well, errrrr, unless you lie about it.

Speaking of that though, we have one guy up here (not in my department) who works from home every Friday as soon as the weather breaks. He lives in Belmar (NJ shore). Yea.

 

[Princess Zoe]

When Makenna is sick I work from home. I have VPN access so it makes no difference. Before VPN I had to take a personal day. It's not a big deal here. I work from home on Mondays anyway.

 

[Belles mom]

Here, you can take your own sick day, vacation, personal leave or they now have 'Family Sick" hours. Depending on your job, you can also work from home

 

[gailatmsu]

If Jason for some reason has to take a sick day for the kids or me (like when I had my surgery and couldn't drive myself home), he uses personal leave. He has 3+ months of it though so he has more than enough. If he didn't want to use that, he could take a sick day.

 

[Clanceycanuck]

Holiday day must be used.

 

[Charla]

John "works from home" occasionally. In fact, he's "working from home" right now. Oh look...he just woke up from working as I was typing this!

Actually, I believe anyone in his department can "work from home" every now and then.

 

[CoCosMom]

We have personal days to care for a family member, but I think its usually filed under sick. I know that if I've been up until 4am with a sick kid, I'm generally not well the next day!

 

[kelli]

John "works from home" occasionally. In fact, he's "working from home" right now. Oh look...he just woke up from working.

lol!

 

[Nick]

I don't know what the specific policy for where I'm currently interning is, but I know they allow you to work for home once you go through the necessary steps. It's available for everyone. I think that's one of those things that needs to be all or none or else it does breed resentment.

 

[Jan]

I guess I'm lucky - when my kids were sick, I'd take Family Related Leave ... we get 5 days per year in our contract for any family member (child, spouse, or parent) who is sick or has a dr appointment. I don't begrudge the younger ones who use this now, I had my turn! I don't use it at all now, except for the odd medical appointment for my mother.

 

[Wendy]

I can not work from home so I have to take a sick day. Now hubby on the other hand can work from home so he would do just that. We are lucky only two of our kids still need someone at home when they are sick. They have great immune systems!!

 

[mydogmiles]

No kids here, but we have a very liberal work from home policy where I work. I do it about 3 days a week, and I don't even have kids. In fact, if we have someone who actually calls in sick, rather than just working from home instead, we know that something's really wrong.

Not fair if it only applies to some people, though. It has to be everyone or no one, and I would be ticked if we had a policy against it but some people got to do it anyway.

 

[Maple1]

Our official policy is take sick or vacation time. But it really depends on what your job is and who you are. Some people have little leeway, others can work from home, not take time off or work from home, bring your kid into the office. It really just depends.