Hello,

I am supposed to go to work (day no 2) after maternity leave and my baby has just sick with high fever, cough etc. What are my rights as an employee in a swiss company with american mentality?

What are my options?
1) have to use my holiday
2) take a sick day
3) work from home - normally that's possible but since it's my 2nd day and I'm still in training on a slightly different job and I don't have access from home yet

I would be interested to know if you have been in a situation like this how you dealt with it and what the response from employer is in general here in Switzerland.

Thank you!

Petra

You should be able to take a sick day. I'm not 100% sure but I think that it is standard over here. The child care services do not want sick kids and so usually won't allow you to leave them there. So unless you have a nanny then your options are very limited.

It's as if you are sick - you can take a day off as a "sick day" to look after your sick baby.

Depending on your company's policy on staff sickness, you can take about 3 days off without consequence.

3 days per child's illness?

This Thread - taking time off when you child is sick might have some info for you on the subject.

It's your right to take a sick day to attend your child if you have a medical certificate from the child's doctor.
Don't even hesitate.

Thank you guys for the answers!

This time I will probably book it as a sick day and check with HR how many days I can have like that.

Once I'm up and running I can usually work from home so will try to do next time baby is sick (no doubt that will happen very soon). The creche does not take babies with fever, that's correct and mine is not an exception.

Not easy juggling without family support but between myself, my husband and a hanful of friends we will just have to manage somehow!

.....and you will manage
they grow very quickly, and all the responsibilities just become easier to juggle with time.

don't worry.

Everyone gets sick. It's normal.

Employers understand.

Best case is if your boss has kids...

My colleague had to delay her return to work by a few days as her baby was ill, so I think it should be fine. Check your companies policy on sick days for children.