The Medical Excuse Note

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The above letter, from a Canadian doctor, has been flying around the internet recently.  It’s easy to see this doctor’s point but, alas, life is not that simple.  Let me play devil’s advocate for a minute.   In this country, you cannot fire someone for being ill and missing days at work.  That is a lawsuit waiting to happen.  So what happens when you have the scammers who take days off of work for every little thing?  And don’t say they don’t exist.  Disability fraud is rampant.  Medicaid fraud is rampant.   So for these people, what does the boss do?  Well, she makes them clear hurdles and get a medical note to make it harder for them to keep doing it.  This is not about the cancer patient with chemo treatment.  This is for the irresponsible ones who are hung over or have a little back ache or have the sniffles. Whatever.  The bottom line is that doctors are caught in the middle, as always, and it sucks but there are two sides to this “medical excuse note” story.