Pulling a sickie?

We've probably all done it but which is your most worthy, outstanding, pointless or disbelievable if genuinely sick?
My most outstanding was a day off I took when I worked at ICI. I stayed in at a mates house where we generally did nothing except played endless Arnold Palmer Pro Shot Golf and I managed to drink 24 cups of tea in one "working"day. So perhaps pointless too.
Most recently I had to go off sick mid-morning with Labyrinthitis and stayed off for four days. Nobody, particularly the admin woman, seemed to believe me until she was diagnosed with it a couple of weeks later and took two weeks to recover.

my most glorious sickie was on the day of Olympic TT in Hampton court. Glorious sunshine, stood by the road, drank beer, saw Wiggo win. I regret nothing.

I didn't sickie nearly enough when I was salaried, and I really regret that now - I thought it would be valued that I was hardworking and always there, but it just makes people take you for granted. Message to all wage-slaves: do it now before you have to join the gig-economy freelance ranks - no one will thank you for being diligent, you're mugging yourselves off if you don't rinse it as best you can.

^100% FACT.

Over many decades I must have replicated an entire works stationary cupboard at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM

Once I started commuting by bike my days off sick dropped to near nil. Probably 5 days off in the last decade? Public transport is def harmful to health.

Yeah, that's true. I hardly ever get a cold or flu anymore compared to when I used to get the tube everyday.

Still pull a lot of sickies though.

How many is too many?
Got called out at an old job for taking 6 days in a year.

6 was where I capped mine in old job, never more or less. Did it every year.

Our limit used to be 8, but now it's pretty much as many as you like as long as you have a reasonable explanation. Started to take more recently that I'm losing interest in the job.

I had 10 in 10 weeks. Got sacked.

My old boss used to go by the 'Bradford Factor'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford_Factor

So there's no limit per say but he'd get more annoyed if people took single days off scattered throughout the year rather than in lumps.

I'm also freelancing now and wish I'd taken more days off while I had the chance :'(

My lifestyle used to be rather "chaotic" and in those days I would rarely get my shit together to use my annual leave but would max out my sick days every year.

This by the bucket load. I always thought I was a model, conscientious employee. What I was in fact, was a mug. I think I went 2 years without a sick day.
Since becoming a freelancer I think I've had half a sick day in over 5 years. I reckon being ill is often a psychosomatic thing, if I know I'm not going to get paid, it's remarkable how I can get soldier on.

Made the most of the good weather last week and took a full week off work as its been really stale. Projects are going through preliminary stages and its near pointless being stuck in the office. Using my type-1 diabetes as an excuse to obtain a sick line...evil laugh

Garage cleared out.
New grass put down.
Shed and fences painted.
Car washed inside and out.
Clocked over 200 miles on the bike.
Won some money on the Grand National.
Drank awesome beers with awesome friends.
Watched the Paris–Roubaix in the sun.
Loads of bacon.

10/10 would do again.

If I'm sick (genuinely) it just means I work from home rather than from the office.

Being un-genuinely sick would mean the same, not that I've done that. There's simply no point.

Good point, plenty of people take their work home (some just can't, mine for tech / media access reasons), perhaps management rôles or consultancy that sort of thing, or stuff where work and life sort of blend (film, fashion?), so inability to ever be ill amounts to the same as being freelance i.e. if you gotta work, you gotta work. Benefit of freelance is you can say 'no'!

I'm salaried and not taking advantage nearly enough.

Think we get a meeting with management if we exceed 3 periods of sickness within 6 months. A 'period' could be a day, a week or a month.

I've thought about pulling a sickie a few times recently but if I'm genuinely feeeling I'll then I think I'd rather save it for a time I'm not and can enjoy the time off and if I'm not genuinely sick I worry that I will be soon and will regret having used one of my 'periods' dishonestly.

Got caught out pulling a sickie on my second shift at a bar a few years ago. Some pretty incriminating photos of me crowd surfing whilst chugging a beer bong at a house show somehow made their way to my manager.

^My wife works in an M&S store and the students and part-timers are almost universally posting incriminating social media before throwing sickies. Amateur hour.

I've learnt my lesson now. Also, in my defence, I was asked to interview for that job after the interviewer had already served me 4 or 5 pints and finished off another during the interview, so they knew what they were getting themselves into.

I got scarlet fever a couple of years ago immediately after a dose of real flu and ended up off work for about 3 weeks. Not a lot of people believed I caught something that basically nobody has had since about 1687. I had 3 GPs come in to have a look.

Penicillin is amazing though. I went from covered in heavy red rash and rapidly decomposing to my death, to looking perfectly fine in the space of about 48 hours!

I get ill a lot, I think I'm off for 2-3 days every quarter with cold or flu. I don't know what's wrong with me but I get it really easily and it always goes straight to my sinuses and gives me a bad fever which knocks me right off my feet.

I've only pulled fake sickies a couple of times. I was a temp when I was younger and called in sick for 2 days while I was in Amsterdam. Of course I got sick while I was out there so it looked more believable when I got back!

Current work I called in sick on a Friday and Monday saying I had flu, but actually I was hammering it around Knockhill racetrack and the North Coast of the Highlands and surprisingly the weather was glorious. Quality sickie.

I had it when I was younger, a mild version, I was off school for nearly a month and when I came back I had coughing fits for nearly a minute, I thought I was going to die from suffocation.

Same deal for me, multiple GPs came to look at me and I had more blood tests than I can remember.

Took a week off in Oct last star when old back injury kicked in. Was doing 2 jobs then - 1 boss was like come back only when you are better then other one was so when are you coming back right away? Erm... When I could move? Glad i don't work for them anymore!