A recent Wall Street Journal article — an actual article, in the workplace/lifestyle section, not even an op-ed! — laments the recent trend of horrible, lazy workers who, umm … *checks notes* … tak…
In Germany, you just go to any physician and tell the receptionist, you need a day off. The vast majority don’t ask questions. And if they do, you say you got a stomach bug.
I’m pretty sure that’s not right, they cannot require a doctor’s note unless it’s over a certain number of days off. If it’s just the one day it’s unreasonable to require a note.
As long as there is no consistent pattern of absences they should just accept that you are ill and leave it at that, (although if they’re feeling particularly petty, they can insist on a return to work interview). They are absolutely not supposed to ask for a doctor’s note for a single day off because it’s an enormous waste of everyone’s time, and of course if you are ill, you shouldn’t be moving around trying to get a doctor’s note.
In Germany, you just go to any physician and tell the receptionist, you need a day off. The vast majority don’t ask questions. And if they do, you say you got a stomach bug.
I’m pretty sure that’s not right, they cannot require a doctor’s note unless it’s over a certain number of days off. If it’s just the one day it’s unreasonable to require a note.
As long as there is no consistent pattern of absences they should just accept that you are ill and leave it at that, (although if they’re feeling particularly petty, they can insist on a return to work interview). They are absolutely not supposed to ask for a doctor’s note for a single day off because it’s an enormous waste of everyone’s time, and of course if you are ill, you shouldn’t be moving around trying to get a doctor’s note.
It’s unreasonable to ask a doctor’s note for one day, and the cultural standard is not to, but it is legal in Germany to ask for one even for one day.
In pretty much all the lower paying jobs you have to, because they cultivate basically American standards of suspecting any worker is just lazy.