Sick Leave

[differenceblog]

Laaksonen et al (2008) studied City of Helsinki employees over a period of 3-5 years to examine differences in illness-related absenteeism. For medical leave over 60 days, there was no gender difference, but women were 46% more likely to take "self-certified" sick leave and 34% more likely to take medically certified sick leave. Laaksonen told

Comments

[axejudge]

In other words, women weren't just more likely to go to the doctor, they were more likely to need to.

Huh. Really? Even though I've reached A Certain Age where you have accumulated a stable of doctors for various physical/emotional issues, and I do make a point of seeing them regularly - I just don't use that much sick time. In fact, I currently have an absolutely obscene amount of sick time available. I mostly don't get sick - or if I do, it's nothing the doctor can do much about, like a cold.

I've gotten a warning from HR that if I don't use some vacation time by June, I'm going to start losing it. I've almost banked the limit.

Already there. I have to take at least 2 days off a month or I'll hit the limit again and again - PLUS I have 2 "personal days" that don't roll over from year to year, so must be used as well before my anniversary date. Yes, I feel vaguely uneasy using the time AT ALL (darn work ethic!); then I realized that what little vacation time I had been using involved running around for days at a convention, so there really was never any downtime - no vacation in my vacation. People would talk about their getaways, and lazing about, and I thought, "Hmm. I'm not doing that. Should I?". The answer, of course, is DUH, yes, but it's a hard habit to break.