If I'm put on quarters by military doctor, can my unit force me to work?

SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 07:07:28 -0400

I was put on quarters by a military doctor due to the flu. My unit forced me to come in to help administer an APFT. Is this allowed? PFC Private RallyPoint Member SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG(P) James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" LTC Stephen F. CPL Dave Hoover SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth PVT James Strait SSG Private RallyPoint Member Capt Dwayne Conyers CPT Jack Durish

Response by CW5 Jack Cardwell made Apr 6 at 2019 7:11 AM

CW5 Jack Cardwell — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 07:11:39 -0400

Guess they wanted everyone to get the flu !

Response by Lt Col Charlie Brown made Apr 6 at 2019 7:41 AM

Lt Col Charlie Brown — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 07:41:30 -0400

They are not supposed to do that. Now they can take responsibility for any adverse actions that happen as a result.

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Apr 6 at 2019 7:47 AM

SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 07:47:40 -0400

If you masked up I see no problem, but if you weren't,then , I'd go to someone higher level about the situation.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 6 at 2019 9:47 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 09:47:24 -0400

I don’t understand what you mean by forced. If you were at home already, how did they force you to come in?

If it was me, I would not have returned to work. As long as you have your quarters slip from your provider you were covered if they decided to take any action against you.
My observation, no disrespect intended to any Commander or leadership, when Soldiers follow guidance like you provided, unintentionally you’re giving negative power to leadership because they assume you don’t know any better and will just do it without contacting the provider. This is the start to creating a toxic leader (not all leadership is like this) Once they do it to one, it becomes easier to do to the next.

I would talk to IG to get their take on this, maybe you can prevent this from happening to someone else.

Response by CPL Jeremy Glenn made Apr 6 at 2019 10:31 AM

CPL Jeremy Glenn — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 10:31:13 -0400

I had that happen once. I had a severe case of flu with 103° fever. I got back to my my platoon sergeant’s office and gave him the quarters slip. He tore it up and told me to go to the SRC to get my vaccinations for deployment. It caused a lot of problems, but I called the flight doc at our TMC. She was PISSED. I was standing at parade rest (trying not to fall over) while she had my commander on a conference call with the platoon sergeant. She was chewing them out talking about how they had no reason to countermand her medical order, and that if they didn’t send me home she was going to take it to the battalion commander. She was all of 5ft, but she was a pistol. I had to go back and get another quarters slip, but I was asleep at home 20 minutes after I left the platoon office.

We had a crazy toxic command in that unit, and it was well known as a meat grinder for troopers. For some reason they felt the need to always volunteer us for ever stupid detail (for higher command recognition of course), penalized legit sick call requests, and even fought my cancer surgery. They wanted me to deploy first, and then do it when I came back....for cancer. They also sent up a 4187 for “erroneous” promotion while I was on rear detachment following a DA select promotion. Their reason? The acting first sergeant told me that no cancer riddled “cripple” would make SGT while he was still in the army.

Response by SGM Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 6 at 2019 2:01 PM

SGM Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 14:01:27 -0400

A commander can call you in from leave, pass, sick in quarters, anything at all, if he deems it necessary.
That said, the likelihood of a commander calling in a Soldier from sick in quarters is directly proportional to how often that Soldier has sick in quarters.

If this is your first SIQ all year, then the commander just needed you for the APFT and assumed the the very minimal risk based on everyone having their flu shot complete.

If you have a track record of SIQ and/or any other non-leave reason to be out of the office for one or more days every month or so, then he thinks you're skating and he has run out of patience for it.

Response by PO1 John Meyer, CPC made Apr 6 at 2019 2:06 PM

PO1 John Meyer, CPC — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 14:06:52 -0400

That makes no sense what so ever. Sure... lets get the guy who has the flu come in to work so that everyone else can get it. I myself wouldn't have gone in. I mean, really... you've got a quarters slip signed by a doctor that covers you in these kinds of situtations. If it doesn't, then why bother having quarters slips in the first place?

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2019 1:05 AM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 01:05:11 -0400

I guess I need to respond to this with English.
Quarters means... wait for it... QUARTERS.
Technically, the commander can override a medical restriction of duty, but he/she does it at their peril and I can't think of too many things that would even warrant considering it.
It is too easy to take care of Soldiers. Let's not make easy things hard by injecting feelings into it.

Response by SFC Melvin Brandenburg made Apr 8 at 2019 10:09 PM

SFC Melvin Brandenburg — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 22:09:19 -0400

This happened to me too. But, I handled it differently. I coughed and sneezed and blew my nose as often as I could. Several times I wiped it on my commander and 1sg doorknobs. I contaminated their coffee mugs, inside and out. I spread as many germs as I could on as many surfaces my COC regularly touched. Both my commander and 1SG came down with flu. When they went on quarters, I raised holy hell at battalion, and both were quarantined in their offices. It wasn't long afterward I was reassigned to another unit because my COC retaliated against me for complaining. Not really a productive thing, but it drew scrutiny from battalion and a few months later, both were relieved for crap they pulled with a lot of people. I guess I wasn't the only one who complained. Since I am a cook, the dining facility manager also complained and when I worked sick, it was in the company area. At least the dfac manager understood the meaning of communicable.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 23 at 2019 12:00 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:00:33 -0400

AR 600-8-10:
Sick in quarters is an absence where a soldier is excused by medical personnel due to injury/sickness or recovery and self treatment of which that time absent is not chargeable leave... so no, you should not be made to work while on quarters. With that being said, you are not authorized to be running around or hanging out either. The only way I could see a unit doing that and it being justified is if someone was on quarters and were seen out at the movies or what have you (not Saying you were or would). Definitely a topic to bring up to your PA/provider.