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AIBU?

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Original poster

Do you go into work poorly?

115 replies

C1239 · 23/05/2023 19:29

When your under the weather - bad headache, body chills, aches etc do you push on through and go into work dosing up or stay off if you can?

OP posts:
WibblyWobblyLane · 23/05/2023 20:07

Ironically, the more ill I am, the more likely I am to go in. Once it becomes too hard to set cover, it's easier to feel like death at my desk.

QueSyrahSyrah · 23/05/2023 20:07

Much more inclined to stay off now I can work from home if I feel up to it (less efficiently on a laptop, but it's something).

Our boss is also much more sympathetic these days to someone saying 'I'm a bit sub-par so I'm going to keep my germs at home, but I can get on with X this afternoon and I'll be on emails'.

Obviously if I'm actually too ill to work I won't work, but if I'm that bad then I wouldn't have been in the office even if the old days.

tigger1001 · 23/05/2023 20:07

Headaches? Yes. With chills and aches then I would try to work from home if I wasn't feeling too ill.

TruthRevolution · 23/05/2023 20:05

Yes, headache, aches and pains, sore throat and ears etc I'd take paracetamol etc and go in. Not chills or fever.

I've continuously felt rotten since covid and all the viruses. If I stayed off every time I felt ill just now I'd never be in!

lalalalalalaleeee · 23/05/2023 20:04

Nope... unless I physically can't leave the toilet

mastertomsmum · 23/05/2023 20:03

If we have a cold we are encouraged to wfh, especially since we moved back to desks closer together.

lljkk · 23/05/2023 20:01

bad headache, body chills, aches etc

I haven't had an illness like that since... 2009? I wasn't working then.

BounceyB · 23/05/2023 19:59

If it's contagious I stay at home. If not, I go into work.

Loafbeginsat60 · 23/05/2023 19:58

Popsicle42 · 23/05/2023 19:42

Yes. I can’t call in sick. It’s just not the kind of job you can not turn up to do. The only time I have is with a stomach bug, but I’ve been with other colleagues who have come to work despite even that.

If we don’t turn up, there is no-one who can fill in for us so any absence really needs to be exceptional. It’s not a healthy way to work - the impact on our emotional as well as physical health is pretty huge, but unless it changes from the top (which it won’t), we will carry on bringing our germs into
our places of work.

What do you do???

Stabee · 23/05/2023 19:57

I work from home instead usually, unless really unwell. I hate people spreading colds and viruses. It spreads to one family, then three more. You can have symptoms for weeks. If only people would stay off while they are infectious.

PaddlingPoollyColour · 23/05/2023 19:57

I wouldn't go in with a fever. If it was an option I'd work from home if I was feeling crappy at all though. Assuming WFH isn't available though, I'd probably dose up and go in for headache etc, but not a full blown fever.

ASDmum99 · 23/05/2023 19:56

As unpaid carers we have no choice.

User1529865 · 23/05/2023 19:55

Mild cold or headache, I would but not if I had a temperature

MyMachineAndMe · 23/05/2023 19:54

Not usually unless it's really mild like just a headache. I hate being poorly and prefer to dose up on meds and sleep.

PumpkinSpiceLattePlease · 23/05/2023 19:52

I'm a self employed cleaner and have gone into work with sore throats and colds, although never to elderly or vulnerable clients. I've also gone in with pulled muscles, slipped disk, and an infected pilonidal cyst 😫

TeenLifeMum · 23/05/2023 19:50

@LubaLuca haha I recently dreamed I had appendicitis so I could justify being off work! Gp wanted to sign me off with stress but my job was under review so I didn’t want to give them a reason to get rid of me. Instead she prescribed sleeping tablets to get me through as I can cope with sleep.

Dacadactyl · 23/05/2023 19:50

Yeah I go in unless I'm ill enough to need to stay in bed. Nothing martyrish about it..

QueenofLouisiana · 23/05/2023 19:49

Usually, yes. Teachers normally do as it’s really difficult to sort out things for cover.

However, I have a very upset stomach so have had to take time off. Saying that, I’ve produced next term’s plans, replied to emails, written several week’s in-depth plans and resources them. I’ve not exactly taken time off, just time out of the classroom.

Bookworm333 · 23/05/2023 19:48

I won't go into the office but I can work from home and will do unless I'm really unwell. The work doesn't get done by anyone else and just piles up if I'm not there - I'd rather just get on with it!

TeenLifeMum · 23/05/2023 19:48

I never used to (old boss was lovely but my sickness was never more than twice a year and usually less). New boss gets in a tail spin if we’re not fully staffed. Last November I was sick - vomiting - with a bug dc kindly shared. I called on day 3 to say I’d stopped being sick for 6 hours and felt I was over the worst so would take that day and be in the following so long as I wasn’t sick again. I can work from home so boss sent me a message with a list of all the work required and how me being off was “really difficult for the team”. I ended up feeling guilty and working from home while feeling crap.

whole team “battles through” like a bunch of martyrs. Awful culture.

BitOutOfPractice · 23/05/2023 19:47

No, I work from home. But the. I work for myself, no work no pay.

Daffodilwoman · 23/05/2023 19:47

of

Daffodilwoman · 23/05/2023 19:47

Also zero chance if working from home.

Daffodilwoman · 23/05/2023 19:46

I go in. If we have too much time off….which is not very much at all and the manager has zero Lea way……we get a disciplinary.
So no, I’m not going to risk putting myself through that.

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 23/05/2023 19:45

I did today, but what I had wasn't catching

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