Calling in sick to your supervisor, senior and employer is a common practice. It allows people to attend to their urgent needs and requirements for themselves and their families in case of unlikely and unfortunate circumstances. Government organizations like U.S postal service help their employees by allowing them to call in sick in situations where beforehand they couldn’t inform employers regarding a few days of absence or leave by writing a leave application. These practices significantly benefit the employer-employee relationship as it builds trust and loyalty to work with employees. Here we will see about How can employees call in sick at the USPS?
U.S postal service Employees who want to call in sick can use the USPS Interactive Voice Response system at 877-477-3273 to explain their unscheduled leave as well as the reason for their absence. Employees will be required to give their EIN or employee identification number and then state their illness and the number of days or hours they will need as off. Employees are supposed to call in sick and report their leave as soon as possible.
What guidelines do USPS employees have to follow when call in sick?
- If an employee falls ill and needs to take a sick day, they should notify their supervisor as soon as possible. Employees at USPS can call in sick by contacting their supervisor or manager.
- Employees should keep their employee ID ready after dialing in as they will have to enter a said number to report their reason for absence. Employees also have the option to key in their responses
- Employees will then need to specify the type of illness they have and the necessary time they expect to take off. For this, they would need to provide a doctor’s note or other documentation that verifies their illness once they are healthy enough to resume work. There are other additional procedures for calling in sick depending on the employee’s job position.
- If illness restricts the employee’s ability to talk, they can use their phone’s numerical keypad to register their request.
- If an employee for whatsoever reason is unable to provide a doctor’s note that verifies their few hours or days of sick leave, they may be asked to take leave without pay. Additionally, if an employee calls in sick too often, they may be subject to disciplinary action from their supervisor.
- Except for unanticipated situations, accidents, or injury situations, sick leaves must be requested.
What points distinguish sick leave from other types of leaves?
- As the name denotes, sick leave is a type of leave or leaves provided to employees who are dealing with certain medical condition or conditions which prohibits them from actively working in the field or the office. These leaves can be used by employees to attend to their member who is ill and needs proper care and attention.
- Sick leave comes under the USPS’ benefits policy that allows employees to take time off work for personal medical reasons. Sick leaves not only apply to the employee but also to the employee’s immediate family members. Each Sick leave taken in one week is accrued on the sixth or seventh day of that week.
- The leave gets accrued based on a bi-weekly pay period at a rate of 4 hours per pay period for full-time employees and 1 hour per 20 hours worked for part-time employees.
- Other types of leaves include personal absences, vacations, or holiday leaves. Such leaves in most cases take a few days to get approved whereas sick leaves get granted immediately once the employee calls the interactive voice response system number.
What if the employee has exhausted all their sick leaves but later gets sick and has to work?
- If an employee feels deeply ill but has to work, the first thing they need to do is consult with a concerned doctor and visit them before possibly showing up to work.
- This helps the employee in their recovery process as a precise diagnosis helps to determine whether or not it’s safe for them to get back to work.
- It is also advised that the employee should reveal his/her condition to their immediate superiors. That way the employee can take the necessary precautions and avoid one-to-one interaction with others unless highly necessary.
Conclusion
Sick leaves are part of the USPS’ benefits policy that assists those employees who for medical reasons are having a tough time and require a few days off work for medical emergencies, be it personal or family related. To make sure sick leaves taken are strictly for medical purposes, USPS functions under a “deems desirable policy” which verifies the medical documentation provided by its employees and precisely goes over the reasons for the medical diagnosis and the duration of recovery provided by the doctor among other things. Sick leaves accrued are different for different employees as it takes into consideration the experience and type of employee who requests it. As a result, employees should utilize this policy responsibly and carefully.
