Doctor calls medical note to patient's employer a waste of time

A doctor's note excusing an employee from work for one day because of a cold has gone viral because in it the doctor accuses the employer of wasting his time and tax dollars.

The note was posted to Reddit on Tuesday and has been viewed more than 3.8 million times, according to image hosting service Imgur. 

The Reddit user eaglel66 posted the note to the /r/funny forum, one of the most popular on the social linking site. In comments there, eaglel66 said the note was written for a friend who works in Alberta. 

The note says the patient "sensibly stayed home from work," rather than spread his cold to his colleagues and customers. 

"I have no test for the common cold and therefore believe him, however, you feel his time and mine should be wasted by making him sit in the walk-in clinic for hours and me spending time writing a sick note that I could be spending on people who genuinely need my attention," the note reads. 

The note urges the employer to reconsider its policy on sick notes. "There are surely better ways of wasting your tax dollars," the doctor concluded. 

This isn't the first time such a letter from a Canadian doctor has gone viral. Nova Scotia physician Ethel Cooper-Rosen includes an invoice to employers along with sick notes she writes for her patients, "if, for whatever reason, your business decides to continue to require a physician to authorize their employees' absenteeism." 

Two months after the CBC story about Cooper-Rosen's memo, a Reddit post with an image of the note brought international attention to the issue. 

Both the Ontario Medical Association and Doctors Nova Scotia have urged employers to stop the practice of requiring employees to present notes from doctors.

The head of the OMA, Dr. Scott Wooder, said the policy could have a "discouraging effect" on workers who are ill and should stay at home.