The nature of working from home often presents some difficulties in drawing lines between work life and personal life, and at the same time blurring the expectations of asking for sick leave. For us, work from home employees, when we take even one sick day, we often feel guilty. But, when you are sick, you are sick, and it will surely lower your productivity, and it is quite unfair to have different standards regarding sick leaves for work from home employees.
How to write a work from homesick email? Sick leave email should be concise and clear. Send your clients quick email about the period of your sick leave, the reason for it and your availability for communication. Inform your clients in advance about a missed deadline and give them an alternative timeframe for meeting those deadlines.
Even though a large percent of the workforce is starting to work remotely from home, there is still a stigma for taking sick days for remote workers. Usually, there is the suspicion that they are slacking if they are taking a day off since they are already working from the comforts of their office at home.
But, actually, a remote worker is much more credible when asking for a sick day. Since, if they wanted to lay around for a day, they could easily just do that and get paid for it. The employers trust the work from home employees enough to give their sensitive information to them, but trust them less when they are asking for a sick day.
Working from home is much different than when working in a regular office. When you are sick in your regular office, you can ask for a sick day and go home to rest, with just checking your email if some emergency arises.
When working from home, with deadlines looming over, taking a sick day usually means that you’ll have to make up for that day later by staying up late or working an extra day. Here come the questions: do you proceed to work, even if you aren’t feeling very well and will you be as productive as you are?
It is for the best if the employees decide for themselves if they are able to work or not. When you are sick, your mind isn’t sharp as before, you lack focus, and you can’t concentrate on your work. You can’t deliver your best work, and you can make mistakes that won’t be visible to you at that particular time. Don’t feel guilty and give yourself the permission to take care of your health. Give your mind and body, the well-deserved rest and sleep it off. You will work better when you feel better.
Here are some tips on how to take a sick day and write a sick email, and still make your clients satisfied:
- Call as soon as possible. Inform your clients as soon as possible for your illness. If you’re feeling very sick the day before and know that you won’t be able to do your job, inform them that evening or first thing in the morning.
- A subject of the email. Write short subject stating the period of your sick leave and your name, in case your client has too many employees.
- Specify the reason for your sick leave. Start the email by specifying the reason why you will be absent without telling too many details. Working from home doesn’t mean that when you are ill, you are superhuman and will do your job flawlessly.
On the contrary, you won’t be as productive at doing your job, so accept that as soon as you get the symptoms of minor illness or a common cold. With that being said, also, specify the main symptoms that are preventing you from doing your job. You do not have to list every detail.
- Specify how long you will be absent. Usually, when is common cold or flu, the worst is over in 1 or 2 days. When you are not sure of how long it will take to recover, ask your doctor to tell you.
It is better when you have a work that requires regular submission, to give your clients an idea when you’ll be back. If you are having a deadline, and you are probably going to miss it, inform your clients by giving them an alternative time-frame on when you will meet that deadline. This is a courteous and professional approach.
- Inform your client of your availability to communicate. Inform your clients if you are going to be available via email or Skype if there are some questions. If your client needs to reach you by phone or some audio platform, you can also add an emergency phone number. In case you are too sick to check your emails, be honest, and make it clear that you won’t be using any devices during your sick leave.
- Doctor’s note and additional documentation. If you are living in the same state as your clients, you can send them a doctor’s note, or the received prescription to backup your sick leave request. If you are work from home employee from another part of the world, then any doctor’s note won’t be of value to your client.
- Name the person that will be your replacement. If you are taking a longer period, mention the person who will be taking over your projects, for the time being, so your supervisors or managers know whom to contact for raising questions about your tasks. For example, you can write: “Anna will take over my meetings with the client X this afternoon, also, she is up to date with all my projects for client X”.
- Professional closing. End your email for a sick day with a simple professional closing and your name.
Extra tip: Draft some emergency work for the client
Setting your own work schedule is one of the perks of working from home. As an emergency backup, it’s best to draft some future work for the client, in case some unforeseen events occur such as illness, appointments or death.
For work from home writers, this means writing, a certain number of blog articles in advance, or whatever content will be expected from them.
For work from home virtual assistants, this means automating some tasks using different platforms, for example, for posting social media posts. This could also mean designing blog post or email templates to speed up the process of distributing the content.
How many sick days per year can you get?
The standard for taking sick days usually varies according to the number of years the workers have the job position and the type of job they hold. If you are work from home employee in the US, and you are a full-time employee in private sector you get an average of 8 days of paid sick leave, which will be available to you after one year of employment.
If you and your client/employer are from different countries, the number of sick days depends on the sick days’ policy in the employee’s country or from the contract between the employee and the employers.
Can You Get Fired If You Call In Sick?
If the employees are asking for too many sick days, they can be fired after receiving a warning from their employers whether are work from home employees or traditional office employees. If there is at-will employment, then your employer can fire you for just being sick, unless there is some union or individual contract in place that states differently.
At-will employment means that your employer can fire you at any moment, and also, you can leave your job at any moment.
Individual employers usually have their own sick leave policies, but require from the employees to inform them in a timely manner by calling or emailing them that they won’t be able to perform their tasks. Of course, the laws may vary from country to country.
If you want to improve your chance of keeping your job, you should call in sick only when you are actually under the weather. So if you have a habit of calling in sick on Monday or some other day, your employer may not believe you when you are actually sick.
Basic Sick Leave Email Template
Hi (Name of your client, supervisor or manager),
I’m writing this email to inform you that I won’t be able to perform my tasks today (Date), because of (Illness). If there is something urgent, I’ll be able to answer your emails, but feel free to contact (name of your replacement). He/she is up to date with my tasks for today and will make sure that all deadlines are met.
Thank you for your understanding,
(Your name)