I'm doing these Monday Work Blog Posts, but I think today I'm calling in sick from that. Just for today.
Some people say "call out" sick. I always said that, but where I am, people never say "call out." They say "call in." So I've started to say "call in" instead, but it still seems weird, because you're calling in to say you will be out? So I just say, why not consolidate and elide? Skip to the relevant preposition.
Still, I call in now. I don't call out. It's too confusing, I use the local terminology. When I say "call out" it's like, they expect me to utter a sharp cry while I'm doing it. That would be somewhat more demeaning than the circumstances require.
Anyway, I feel fine. I'm actually going in to work. I'm only calling in sick to this Monday Work Blog Post thing. Part of work is occasionally, coasting a bit and maybe sandbagging on your obligations, only to work like a maniac catching up later. That's just part of being a good worker and managing your efforts.
Shoot. But that makes it sound like next week's Monday Work Blog Post is supposed to be some real impressive stuff! Like I'm going to sweat hard over it, working late to make up for this present malingering.
We'll see. I'm not making any promises.
5 comments:
Did you seriously used to say "call out sick"? You're not saying that's a regional variant, are you? It seems like it's what you were saying at first, but then it seems like it shifts to you just deciding that was a better way to say it. I've never heard of anyone saying "call out sick," because the whole phrase is about calling in to work. You wouldn't call out to work, because as you say, calling out generally means a shout or cry, whereas calling in usually means using the telephone to reach a switchboard or reception of some kind. Telethons, radio station contests, information centers, they all say "call in." Nobody would say "call out" because of the non-telephone connotation, or because it would imply you were already in someplace and calling out from it. (As in, "I'd like to make a call out---how do I get an outside line?")
And usually, people don't even like to phrase it as "I will be out," they usually call in sick to say they won't be in that day. You say "out" and you're accentuating the truth of the matter, that you will be out of the place they need you to be. You might be getting unluckily close to saying "out of work"! :o You don't want that. So I encourage calling in (how thoughtful of you!) to say you won't be in (oh, that's too bad) to work today. (We hope you feel better!)
Now school, unless you're on Ferris Buelleresque thin ice, you can have your parent call in to say you'll be out sick, so you can at least revel in the deliciousness of not being there. But the parent still has to call in. The school won't hear if Mom or Dad just calls out. "You're sick AGAIN?!" ;)
Well, I can't really say I agree with you that nobody would say "call out" in this context. Every job I had before I came to California (yeah, all four of them), the norm, the phrase, was always "call out." It was nounal: "You had a 'call out' last week." "You've had a lot of 'call outs' lately." Here's a Google result for "call outs"+ sick. It's not an uncommon term, by any means. The emphasis for me was always on "out." You were out. That was the salient fact: you were calling "out" from work.
"Call in" and "call out" can both mean things that have nothing to do with work or absenteeism. It still makes way more sense to me to say "call out" when you are telelphoning work to say you will be out.
I can see it as a noun, I suppose. I looked at the Google results there---it seems like most places where the actual result is about calling in sick to work (which is also used as a phrase in some of the same results), the people are using it as a noun or using it as a verb form because of the noun, which seems to be a shorthand term used in a business record---makes sense, because they don't care why you're not there, so they wouldn't write "sick" or "aunt died," they'd probably write that the person called and would be out, so I can even see that as a possible origin for "call-out."
Still, I think using it as a verb is pretty unusual, especially compared to the other option. You get 27,600 Google results for your "call outs" sick, with a first page that includes duplicates/results with the same information sources, pages where it was used as a noun and "calling in sick" was the verb form, and also unrelated results like doctors making house calls "call-outs" for sick children. Whereas for "call in" sick, you get 1,630,000 results, the first page of which all look on-point---except for that Lehigh Valley band!---and discrete.
I meant to search with the whole phrases in quotes before I posted that comment, but I forgot! The results there are 108,000 for "call out sick" and 2,970,000 for "call in sick."
Yes, but the Kingdom of Idiomatica isn't a democracy! Ahee.
Anyway, 'til I got to Cali I'd never considered anything other than "call out", because that was the only phrase that was ever really used. Nobody ever really said "call out sick" I don't think. Probably that's part of it - laziness. "Call in sick" is three words. "Call out" is two. "Call in" is just kind of ambiguous! :-)
The typical usage would be "Angel called out." But that dude was constantly calling out. He didn't last long.
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