Suppose you woke up this morning ...

...with a combination of swine flu, shingles, typhoid, and a hangnail. You need to telephone your workplace and inform them that you are too ill to come in. What do you do?

Me, I would "call in sick." But I've been amusing myself reading the posts at Customers suck and I see a lot of "call out." For example, we were swamped today because two of my coworkers called out." Sometimes they "call out sick;" sometimes they just "call out."

I'd never heard of "call out" i this context. A bit of Goggling tells me it's short for "call out of work because you are sick." Is it regional?

I would "call in sick" too -- especially because of the hangnail.

The only similar context in which I've heard "out" is when a number of people agree, as some sort of protest, to call in sick, termed a sick-out.

If it's the police, it's also known as the Blue Flu.

I remember this topic coming up on here a few years ago, too. I think of "calling in" but there are people who talk about "calling out."

Never heard "calling out"
Here in UK it's either "calling in sick" or the Australianism "taking a sickie" which has gained ground

On Monday morning people often call in sick with wine flu.

I've never heard of call out sick before. Does it come from calling out from your home as opposed to calling in to your place of work?

I think "calling out" is supposed to mean you're calling {to explain that you will be} out.

Edited by: DianaHaddad because of bracket problems

re #5 - there's a Spanish (Latin American) equivalent, something like "martesista," (corrections welcome) based on Martes, Tuesday, for someone who frequently calls in sick with the wine flu on Monday and doesn't show up until Tuesday.

I'm from the U.S. and have lived primarily in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. I've always said, and heard, "call in sick," because the person is calling in to the office to tell people that he/she will be sick.

Now I live in the Mid-Atlantic and I occasionally hear the term "call out sick," particularly from people who have lived in this region all their lives. I suppose that the rationale is that the person is calling to say that he/she will be out sick.

So, based on my limited experience, I would agree that it's a regional difference - much like the difference between standing in line (what I grew up saying) and standing on line (what people say in NY, NJ, and some other parts of the Northeast).