Mumsnet Talk

I've been on the brink of something for a couple of weeks now, sore throat, glands up a bit, headachey. Just a bit meh really and I can keep on top of it if I take Lemsip. I'm not sneezing and coughing everywhere but if work wasn't so busy I'd probably take myself to my bed for a few days.

At what point do you call in sick to work?

I only ever phone in sick if I am well and truly incapacitated to the point where I cant even get myself a glass of water.... however the company I work for pretty much only accept your death as a reason not to go in...

A bit meh isn't good enough for time off.

Get a lemsip down you and get in there.

I don't go in when strong painkillers aren't cutting it and I've barely slept through blocked nose. Most colds I can work through, my work isn't that sympathetic to illness tbh.

Yes

If it's been coming for a few weeks, and you'd take yourself off to bed if work wasn't busy, I'm afraid I'd give in to it now and have a few days in bed. You may well be contagious and won't be working to your full capacity.

Yes.

If you are well enough to work, you should go to work.

What kind of work do you do? Could you do it from home, sparing yourself the commute and sparing your colleagues your germs but still "getting things done"?

Rhonda I'm in, have been since 7am! On my 2nd lemsip of the day.

I haven't taken sick leave for years, however I was reading on the "things you wish everyone knew" and someone posted about the perils of ignoring viruses and exhaustion. I know I'm very run down, I have two weeks of raised glands and neck ache. Temperature comes and goes. It's not even anything I can really take to the doctor, I imagine they'd just say get some rest. But I can't because I work 14 hour days, on my days off I'm on housework/childcare duties. There is literally not one day in my week when I rest.

Absolutely. The only reason I wouldn't go to work was if I literally felt too ill to get out of bed. If lemsip keeps things at bay why would you take to your bed for a few days?

I only call in sick if I am actually incapable of getting out of bed, and medication is not helping.

A few days off for feeling a bit "meh"? No.

When I worked, I did tend to drag myself in even if I was sick. I don't actually think it is the right thing to do - you just end up passing it round and then instead of one person being off sick for a couple of days, you have an entire office full of people who are only half functioning for the next three weeks, because everyone is feeling rotten. I'd guess that productivity is probably damaged more in the second scenario. However, employers do not look on it the same way and I have found that, particularly in large organisations, HR consider all sick leave to be unjustified, and it is assumed that when someone is sick they are actually faking. So, like most people, I would have dragged myself into work anyway, because I was expected to.

Trills can't work from home... got a very big project on which completes on the 18th. We're off on our first holiday in 18 months at the end of March, but I'm just so bleurgh... soldiering on but really feel I could knock it on the head if I just had some time off.

treaclesoda it is a shame that sick leave can't actually be used by people unless they're seriously ill. I hate it when people pass colds around the office, pulling a martyr face sneezing all over the place.

I didn't bring my thermometer with me to work but this morning I was at about 38 degrees before the lemsip. It came down once that had kicked in.

I wouldn't say "I only stay home if I literally can't get out of bed" - there are a number of contributing factors and I think that's far too extreme a stance to take.

If you have a big project due and nobody else could do it for you, and you can work mostly normally if you take the drugs, then it's probably better to go in.

honestly, if you havent had a lot of time off, and you feel a rest would help you kick it, and you not being there for 1 day isnt going to put the project at risk, take a duvet day.

I tend to go in but it's a balance.

I'm a nurse working nights and nearly always running the shift so responsible for 22 very unwell patients. I do have to balance whether I am well enough to function through the night and on the ball enough that I can cope with whatever the ward throws at me! Nights are extra tough when you are unwell I think so I have taken time off with a heavy cold before.

I took time off before Christmas with a heavy cold then got another one in the New year I worked through the second one and it took me weeks to get over it. It was only after a week annual leave that I felt recovered.

I think you have to trust your instincts ultimately.

I've just been off work for a few days - now I'm back feeling miserable at my desk, thinking that everyone hates me for being off one minute, and that everyone hates me for coming in today and potentially infecting them the next.

<really can't win emoticon>

I always ask myself whether I think I am likely to get anything more serious in the next few months.

If I think yes, then I will go in - it's not worth blemishing my attendance record for and can't really be that bad. If I think no, this is probably the most serious thing I'm likely to have for the foreseeable future, I'll stay at home.

There's nothing more annoying than taking time off for a moderate illness, only to be totally floored by a much worse one soon after but feel obliged to go in.

I never take time off unless extremely ill.

Was off at the beginning of pregnancy with hyperemesis (an inpatient with drip etc)

Before that was mumps in 2010.

its tricky though, because sometimes you're lucky and can go a long time without being ill, and that's great. Then you can have, for example, a winter where you get flu, proper flu, and you need time off. Then a few weeks later, one of those vomiting bugs goes round, and for 24 hours you are so ill that the idea of going to work is just totally unfeasible. And then suddenly, its a disciplinary meeting with HR. And you could have worked somewhere for years with an unblemished record, but a few bad weeks healthwise and its all out the window.

If you had just been feeling like this for a day or two then definitely you should go in, but if you've been feeling like crap for a couple of weeks then I think you should stay home for a day or two, get yourself better, and go back to work able to work at full capacity in the run up to this project being due.

If you don't, you'll continue to feel like this and then as soon as you stop (i.e. when you're on holiday) you'll probably feel 10 times worse.

My line is generally - do I feel well enough to drive. If I feel ill enough to feel unsafe behind the wheel, then I'm probably not going to be much use at work (and wouldn't be able to get there anyway!)

I have to be very ill before calling in sick - I'd rather be feeling like the walking dead but working and getting paid, than being home and unpaid.

The only times that I've not worked when unwell, was when I couldn't leave the bathroom, or was physically injured in some way.

However, I don't work in an office and have very little opportunity to spread germs about.

take tablets and go in to work, people complain but the thing is you get into trouble if you are off sick to much and you don't know when that might be - so best get in and actually be at work otherwise the sickness days could mount up to loseing the job

If ok after paracetamol I'd solider on and try to arrange a lie in at the weekend. I have taken stick leave when drugs would eliminate my symptoms, but only once I was moving up to the drugs which cause severe drowsiness (falling asleep at the desk looks bad)

I'm rather fortunate in that our company is very tolerant of sickness. I get paid if I'm off, and no one really questions too deeply unless you're really taking the piss. I was off for ten days following a particularly horrendous miscarriage (very anaemic afterwards and weak) and my boss just asked me if I was ok and if there was anything I needed to talk about. I think he was more worried I'd say I was unhappy at work. He was almost relieved when I said it was because I'd had a mc (I'd given a doctors note to hr, but of course they hadn't shared it with him)

Robot I'm not sure I would trust myself behind the wheel of a car, quite sleepy and headachy is making my reactions pretty slow.

I've got some really evil shifts coming up, 0500 starts in central London (I'm 90 mins away) and going sick over those shifts would really stuff things up for work. I guess I'm going to have to put my foot down this weekend and insist on putting my feet up (it is Mother's day after all ) and try and recover.

MrsHoarder I took some co-codamol yesterday I found at home (left over from my cs) and there's no way I could work on that, blimey I was practically horizontal most of the day! But the pain in my throat was agony, I couldn't swallow saliva.

Get your DH to take the children out so you can get some rest. I know what you mean, I took two days off work last week (unusually) as I had an ear infectino and a hacking cough and am off again today after a night of violent vomiting. Wish I had staggered in last week now

Well I do go in but have been suffering for 2 months now because i went back to work too soon after tonsilitis. I now have a chest infection and have cold and illness since January and i am pretty certain its because i soldiered on when i really shouldnt have.