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[oldfullprof]

Strike the sh!t out of union busting systems. 

Seriously, too, "ethics" are self chosen sets of rules various professions establish for themselves.  If one isn't in that profession, one doesn't have anything to say about its ethics.

[polly_mer]

OP, I'm with you.  Doctors should only issue notes of illness for people who were ill.

However, I'm a professional who thinks that other professionals should be free to schedule their working lives as they see fit with only adequate notification of taking appropriate leave (personal, professional, sick) required to be ok to  adjust pre-scheduled meetings on the fly.

Grown-ups shouldn't need sick notes and other grown-ups shouldn't encourage people to lie to game the system.  The only exception to that rule is immediate life-and-death circumstances like the death squad at the door asking if you are hiding anyone.  You may lie to the death squad with my full blessing to keep the refugees under your bed safe.

Otherwise, you are participating in exactly the same circumstances that lead our students to come ask for a W around final exam time, grade based on "personal issues", and other wink-wink-nudge-nudge-c'mon-we-know-that-the-rules-don't-really-matter behavior.  Either change the rule using civil disobedience (and, yes, possibly pay the price for it) or obey the rule.  That's the ethical standard to which I hold people.

[farm_boy]

"Ethics in Higher Education"

Ha!  That's a good one!

[oldfullprof]

I'm a complete anti-Kantian about lying.  Participating in a bureaucracy means that you have to lie and misrepresent.  Ideally, you shouldn't lie to family and friends.  If I need a mental health day, for example, I may call into the sick-line, and say I'm physically ill.  I may do social lies: "I can't come to your party because ___ (lie.)"

I'm against googling candidates because I think the informal sphere (public or not) shouldn't figure in hiring decisions.

[polly_mer]

 If I need a mental health day, for example, I may call into the sick-line, and say I'm physically ill.

Don't do that.  Just call in sick.  Don't tell them what kind.  However, don't then do things that are inconsistent with being sick.

If you can see a mental health day coming, then arrange for a personal day and do whatever you want.

Or, work overtime for a bit and then take a flex-day with a clear conscience.

 I may do social lies: "I can't come to your party because ___ (lie.)"

Don't do that.  Just say, "Unfortunately, I can't come to your party".  Don't make up excuses.  Just give the information.  If you want to go to the party, then follow up with "Please ask me again.  This is just unfortunate timing for this one instance."  If you never want to go to a party thrown by this person, then keep saying no.

I'm against googling candidates because I think the informal sphere (public or not) shouldn't figure in hiring decisions.

I, on the other hand, think that how people present themselves in the public sphere is important to some kinds of hiring.  I respect someone who is discreet enough to use a pseudonym for some purposes.  I respect people who can decide what ought not to be public.  People who aren't smart enough or discreet enough to use pseudonyms and then put private things in the public eye, knowing full well that they are in the public eye aren't the kinds of people who I want to hire.

People who scrounge to figure out pseudonyms and then feel a need to make them public reflect poorly on the scroungers, not the person being revealed.  People who make private things public without permission also reflect much worse on the revealer than the exposed.  For example, I think Weiner should have said, "Yes, that was a private thing that was leaked.  Moving on..." instead of trying to cover it up.  He lost my respect for being a weaselly bad liar, not for taking pictures and sharing them.
 
Likewise the people who went to Madison to protest should have owned their protest instead of getting fake doctor's notes.  I respect someone who will stand up for ideals (even if I don't share those ideals).  I don't respect people who weasel while claiming it's for the greater good. 

[oldfullprof]

I think that they had to get the fake doctors notes because of legal repercutions.  If the sickout had been more along the lines of a general strike, no.  But that would necessitate a "hold harmless" agreement with the state before returning to work.  In my work state, I wish we had used sickouts in the past.  We're way behind on salary because of waffling and never doing job actions.  When MA was flush in the 90s, for example, the union and professors never did anything to catch us up.  So now, there's bad inversion for the group right ahead of me. 

I like your suggestions on the more direct way to express wishes in a bureaucracy, Polly, and will try to use them.  I think my mind is more convoluted naturally.  I have started posting on somewhat controversial sites in pro per because I want to support sides of these controversies publically and won't need to seek another job after August, 2012 (retiring.)  I think we need to be more publically honest about a number of issues. 

[polly_mer]

I think that they had to get the fake doctors notes because of legal repercutions.  If the sickout had been more along the lines of a general strike, no.  But that would necessitate a "hold harmless" agreement with the state before returning to work.  In my work state, I wish we had used sickouts in the past.  We're way behind on salary because of waffling and never doing job actions.  When MA was flush in the 90s, for example, the union and professors never did anything to catch us up.  So now, there's bad inversion for the group right ahead of me. 

I do not approve of sick outs.  Walk the picket line.  Attend the rally.  Sign the petition.  Use any bully pulpit you want, but don't pull a sick out if you are a freakin' professional.  Be professional if you want me to take your demands seriously.  The grade ins for the teachers seem much more in line with being taken seriously than calling in *cough* sick to attend the rally.  Take a personal day to attend the rally or go on Saturday.  I've seen the pictures, still lots of people showing their support on Saturdays in ways that are a good balance between being heard and performing the duties while making voices known.  The nurses' strikes I've seen were similar: do the bare minimum in specified time chunks and then go back to walking the picket line.

The other logical fail in something like a sick-out is how easily replaced some people are.  Do you know how many people would be willing to walk into any K-16 classroom tomorrow under almost any circumstance?  The whole union thing only works if the union represents nearly everyone who could do the work is a member and believes in the union.  Fun in right-to-work states is watching the union make claims that are directly contradicted by anyone who can get a reporter on the line.

[oldfullprof]

Public union strikes are often illegal.  We would have had one anyway in the California state hospital system in 1979, but they blinked at the last minute.  You do need the picket lines to keep out the strikebreakers.  Sickouts are an intermediate step.  It's not an issue of idealism: it's an issue of power (as I've said on the Wisconsin thread.)