Sick Days

By Shikole Struber

I woke up this morning feeling like I had been run over by a truck in my sleep. It is that time of year again, when the drastic temperature changes, allergies, and stress levels all gang up on your body and attack. It made me think about sick days at the work place.

I had to call in sick my 2nd week here because I had pink eye. There was no question that it had to be done. I couldn't open my eyes to even drive to work. But what about when you have a cold? Or flu-like symptoms? Or a fever? How do you know if you should call in sick to work or tough it out?

There are many reasons not to call in sick:

  1. You have a very limited number of sick days

  2. You want to save your sick days for fun

  3. You have sick days but they are not paid

  4. You actually have things you need to get done at work


There are also many reasons you should call in:

  1. Spreading the germs is not going to help your company.

  2. If you are sick you will not be functioning optimally.

  3. It will take longer to recover if you push your body too much


If you really don't want to call in sick though, I would advise taking something to feel at least like a human, even if it's not a high functioning one. Working from home is another great solution. I am currently sitting at my desk trying to do just that. Working from home would save my coworkers from being exposed to germs, and I'd still be getting something done. It might not be as much as I would accomplish at the office, but I'd be in bed with tea trying to recover. The only way to really do that is sleep and rest and vitamins, not so much emails, phone calls and work.

1 comment:

  1. If you're sick days are paid, take them. No guilt here people. If you have paid sick leave, you probably also have annual leave so use that for using your time off to do something fun, or honestly, when you're sick but you've used all of your sick days. My boss told me once "We don't want any martyrs," meaning that you're not doing anyone any favors if you come in when you're under the weather.

    ReplyDelete