# BBC Breakfast - time off to care for sick pets



## dwi (30 January 2007)

Did anyone see BBC breakfast this morning? They had a whole article moaning about people who had to take time off work to look after sick pets. 

It was really unreasonable with one of their guests saying "they should just take the dog to the vet at 8pm after work". 

I dread Daisy getting ill because as a teacher I can't take a morning off to wait around for the vet.

I kind of understand why a vet can't guaruntee you a specific time that they will turn up but this morning's story shows what a difficult position we are in. 

Employers don't see you taking a morning off as reasonable and vets can't understand that you don't have a whole day to wait around for when they choose to turn up.

Any thoughts? I feel like we're getting pushed from both sides


----------



## flying_change (30 January 2007)

There was talk of taking your pet to work to look after it, but I guess that's not so practical with a horse.......


----------



## Christmas_Kate (30 January 2007)

Why not just take a day off sick? it's none of your employers buisness WHY you're sick.....


----------



## Alibear (30 January 2007)

Or why not drop poorly pet into vets before you to work and collect afterwards? OK you have to pay more for this but if helps pet and you keep your job then it's worth it. 
It's scarey how much time life does take up , I'm a mum and have a horse etc and time needed out from work to keep everything going is scarey and I can see that it could be deemed unreasonable in many employers minds.
Hence I earn less and work for a small company who can cope with my need for time off.
Am now waiting to talk to boss face to face about being off for 2 3hrs every monday lunch time from here on in as my son Martin needs special help, no one else will do it , I have to but I can see it being hard to sort out and I do feel bad for asking my boss.  If it was a pet I would pay someone else to do it.


----------



## Sooty (30 January 2007)

Time off to care for sick pets should be taken as holiday. It is ludicrous to expect it to be anything else.


----------



## wizzi901 (30 January 2007)

yup agreed with above.  Time off for dependants does not cover pets!

(HR manager creeps slowly into the corner.....)


----------



## jacks_mum (30 January 2007)

i just take the time off and say " if it was your child, you'd be going to the docters - this is my child, we're going to the vet" I've got away with it so far - no-one seems to be able to argue with my logic successfully...

when my cat fell on her head at 6 weeks and smashed her skull, when she came out of hospital she came to work with me - simple as that. she needed full time care but i could work around her feeds and other needs if we were both in the office. so that's the way it worked for 3 weeks.


----------



## TheresaW (30 January 2007)

My boss has always been really good when it has come for time off for the horses or the cats.  I get half day once a week to balance out my hours, and obviously try and have appointmets then, but in the odd emergency, he has given me the time, and I just make it up as and when I can.


----------



## SSM (30 January 2007)

I have just taken two days holiday and a 'sick' day to take Bumble Dog to the vet, get through a day of misery - where I was neither use nor ornament, just howled and howled and then go pick her up.  If I have a vet appointment I get it as early or late as possible then work through lunch to cover the time.


----------



## WishfulThinker (30 January 2007)

Thankfully I have flexitime, and always have around 8 hours in the 'bank'.  
At my old job I had to take a day off for a farrier (who called at like 9pm the night before to say he would come and then never turned up!), I took it as a sick day as in a way I was inconveniencing my work and sick days count against MY work record so figured that was fair. 
And if I had to leave early cos Beau did himself a mischeif I would take that as flexi then if needed other days off as holiday. 

But I do see the dependants argument.  I bet if say I coulnt have kids and tried that line I wonder where they could stand if they took action.................would it be sex discrimination? Im sure a fabby lawyer woul dfigure that one out!


----------



## Rambo (30 January 2007)

I think companies should apply a little common sense here. Most companies will quite happily 'take' the unpaid overtime / excessive hours we work for them and think nothing of it. Likewise, if i need to take a couple of hours (or even a morning !) off for something i have to do, then my company should reciprocate.

Obviously if someone abuses the system then that is a different matter, but as a lot of people work flexitime anyway then it shouldn't be too hard to accommodate


----------



## Amymay (30 January 2007)

I'm lucky, that work are very understanding when I need time off for any of my animals.

However, it's not our god given right, and I can understand why people would get uptight about it.


----------



## Tia (30 January 2007)

Speaking from an employer's perspective, neither my husband and I would never stop anyone from taking time off to take pets to vet, however we would not be happy to pay them for it!  

If it is taken as holiday or unpaid leave....no probs.


----------



## Rambo (30 January 2007)

[ QUOTE ]
Speaking from an employer's perspective, neither my husband and I would never stop anyone from taking time off to take pets to vet, however we would not be happy to pay them for it!  

If it is taken as holiday or unpaid leave....no probs. 

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you pay your employees overtime for extra hours they may work for you though


----------



## GinaB (30 January 2007)

I'm lucky in that I work flexi time. However, unlucky that beastie always decides she needs a vets visit after surgery hours, requiring an on call vet which costs so much more! :S


----------



## jacks_mum (30 January 2007)

it's probably worth my adding that I always make up any time off i have for the vets - which generally can't be said for many of the parents i have worked with that have had time off to take their children to the dr's. (i'm not tarring all parents with the same brush, so don't jump on me - just those i have worked with)


----------



## dwi (30 January 2007)

what about those of us who work set hours and set days? 

I can't take a holiday or make the time up. I have to be in school for the hours that the children are there. I'm not complaining about the school, thats the way it is. I think that vets could be alot more accomodating, especially for routine visits like vacs or teeth that I can book weeks in advance

(In case you're wondering why I'm not teaching right now. I'm off school sick   
	
	
		
		
	


	




)


----------



## emma69 (30 January 2007)

There was an ariticle on the radio last night about introducing petdays for owners in the states - in the same way they allow sick days for children of workers. The idea being that honesty in the workplace is far better than people lying and taking sick days. I am still waiting for my work to introduce duvet days - oh I could so easily have crawled back under this morning! 

I don't have a horse /dog /cat at the moment, but I am lucky enough to have an employer that recognizes work life balance, which is just as well as my dentist is only open between 8am and 5pm Mon-Fri, except for one day when they are open late in the evening - they are however booked up until August on that night!


----------



## Tia (30 January 2007)

Yes of course we do.


----------



## Rambo (30 January 2007)

[ QUOTE ]
Yes of course we do. 

[/ QUOTE ]

Then i would say your position was perfectly acceptable 
	
	
		
		
	


	





I only asked the question as the company i currently work for think nothing of taking with one hand....and then taking with the other too


----------



## Tia (30 January 2007)

Yes that does seem standard in a lot of companies.  We're not like that though  
	
	
		
		
	


	




.  Actually I think that hubby is waaaaay too lenient a boss  
	
	
		
		
	


	




.......but then that works both ways, as he is lenient with me too  
	
	
		
		
	


	




.


----------



## Tia (30 January 2007)

For vacc's and teeth - have them done at night.  Most reputable vet surgeries are open evenings.....in fact I don't know any which aren't?


----------



## dwi (30 January 2007)

I'm not talking about my cat here, who does go to the vet in the evening, but my horse. Do some horse vets do evening appointments?


----------



## Tia (30 January 2007)

Mine does anytime appointments.


----------



## Ferdinase514 (30 January 2007)

I actually text BBC prog this morning.

My previous employer (in NHS) would let me come in late or take A/L at short notice if Finni got colic. I would then make up hours if need be.

Now I work from home and arrange all my own appointments so can be more flexible.

Emergancies happen, whether human or pet related. Employers have to understand that if they want to keep their employees happy.


----------



## ann-jen (30 January 2007)

I should think if you boxed your horse over to the vets they would vaccinate him during an evening surgery appointment but I wouldn't expect them to do a visit for routine appointments during the evening. 
Most vets do try to keep to time slots for visits but in large animal practice this can be very difficult. You can start the day with what looks like a few visits for vaccinations or tooth raspings and look like everything will go like clockwork only to have someone call in with a colic or a calving and these appointments will always rightly get preferance - but it leaves you running behind on the routine stuff. Its not uncommon to go to a farm to look at something and then someone to say while you're here do you mind looking at this and so on and so on.... That is why sometimes it can be very difficult to give a definite time slot.
Coincidentally I've had to take a days holiday recently to wait for my new oven to be delivered because the company wouldn't specify a delivery time. I've also had to nip home in my lunch hour to meet the washing machine repair man. Sometimes its very difficult to schedule things round working full time


----------



## Janette (31 January 2007)

Another teacher here - As far as I'm concerned, Vets could be FAR more flexible than they are.  I had to get Star to the Equine centre for a lameness workup - they don't do Saturdays.  I have to wonder why, because the centre is there, so is the equipment.........gathering dust.....  In the end, the YO took her for me - a massive favour, very much appreciated.
If I don't turn into work, my class is split between the 2 others until a supply can be found - that is 100 children and 6 adults put to a lot of trouble.  Nearly the whole school!


----------



## ann-jen (31 January 2007)

The trouble is vets already work incredibly long hours. I start work at 8.30am and work until 7pm officially although its sometimes later than this. Vets also have to work a lot of weekends and nights in order to provide 24 hour emergency cover. Our practice drops from 13 vets to 1 vet on call for emergencies after normal surgery hours are over. The on call or weekend vet needs to deal with any emergencies that may arise and so there just isn't the man power to cover routine work on a weekend or night. If the surgery was kept fully manned over the weekend/nights it would mean employing more vets/nurses to cover for weekday staff receiving a well earned break over the weekend/night. I'm sure you can see that additional salary would then be passed to you the client in a massive increase in your fees.


----------



## Dovorian (31 January 2007)

OK fine -  well let's put the cap on parents leaving early ' to se the teacher', 'to see sweet darling in a play'... Of course if a child is unwell then the parents need to be there but I think thast they should take annual leave.  I work in a dept with several young mums -  they struggle to cope I know but if it is ever an issue that I need an hour or so to attend the vet I'll have no qualms justifying it!!


----------



## Baggybreeches (31 January 2007)

I am very fortunate in that I can take time to wait for vet or go to vets with the dogs, but this is done at the expense of my time, I do not take libertys and also have had to get people to drop off or pick up dogs from the vet and have had to pay people to wait for equine vet when necessary. Its called using your privileges and not abusing them!


----------



## Daydream (1 February 2007)

Your company sounds like my old one.  I worked hard and over my hours to bring the accounts department into the twentith century.  When my dog (Benson) got run over they were total out of order. 

I had the morning off to go to the vets, i was also in shock as the car nearly hit me so was not in the right frame of mind to go in.  I was ordered to come back in by my boss.  When i said no and that i was not coming in the next day as he could not be left.  I did ask to bring him in and he said no!!  So i was off unpaid for two days...........  This was a solicitors firm.  As you can guess i left shortly after...

My currect boss is great i pre-book all know appointments and book the time off as you should..

In emergencies you are allowed the time you need and are not expected to make it up........ yet you do as they are so great about it you don't mind putting in a bit extra.  When you got a give and take relationship.


----------



## burrows (1 February 2007)

I think it is quite a sensitive subject but my opnion is that a lot of people love their animals as much as children espcially people that cant have children often they will get an animal.  If people have time off for looking after sick people why shouldnt they get time off to look after their sick pets.  My biggest worry is if something happened to my animals god forbid and they passed away I would be distrot in no fit way to go to work, my old employer would have in no way understood and I would have had to take it as holiday or not even get the time off.  I am lucky enough now to work somewhere that they I can take time to go to vets, farriers, saddler etc. I do think there should be some allowance for sick animals


----------



## Tia (1 February 2007)

[ QUOTE ]
I do think there should be some allowance for sick animals 


[/ QUOTE ] 

I totally agree.....however the employer should not have to pay for that time off.  It is not his fault that one of his employees animals is unwell.....same goes for kids in my opinion....if you take any time off for anything it should either be holiday time or unpaid.


----------



## smallbutgreat (1 February 2007)

I find my employer's policies very fair.

We are on flexitime, with the requirement that we are all present during certain quite short core hours, and arrange at least one person within our teams to cover a rather longer working day. But it's quite easy for individuals to arrange time off at ANY time ... as long as we record it, and make up our weekly total to 37 1/2 hours (averaged over the month). 

We don't have to go into detail about why we take time off, and taking a child to the doctor or an animal to the vet would carry equal weight, because we pay back the time. However, a colleague has a child with a chronic long-term condition, and now that this has been documented these medical appointments come out of company time rather than hers with all of our blessing. Don't know if it would be the same for a horse!

Glad I'm not a teacher though ... I suppose you can always pray that your animals fall ill during the school holidays. Won't the vet take your special job a little bit into account?


----------



## magic104 (2 February 2007)

As a parent if I had to take time off because my daughter was unwell then I had to take leave.  I also think no matter how much your animal means to you, it still is not the same as a human child.  Most employers dont just give you time, it has to be made up or taken as leave.


----------



## piebaldsparkle (3 February 2007)

Wouldn't think twice about going 'sick' if I couldn't make any other arrangements and one of my pets needed emergency care.  No one thinks twice is someone goes sick to look after their child, which are much easier to dump on the grandparents than a horse with colic!!! (can you tell I don't have kids!!!).


----------



## alsxx (6 February 2007)

Lol I had an old employer who allowed 2 people in the department time off for their animals 'as dependants' as they didnt have kids and they were their 'substitute'!!


----------



## tabithakat64 (9 February 2007)

My boss lets me make the hours up if i take time off for rountine vets appointments or the farrier.  When either of mine have been really ill she's been really good, about letting me have time off with no notice, working different hours etc
But working flexible hours or provision for time off because of my animals is something I asked about before I took the job.


----------

