Being off sick is worse than the actual illness!

[Whineocerous]

I'm off today with tonsillitis having had no time off for maybe 10 years. My company is OK with absence and boss is nice, but I feel so guilty about the impact on my colleagues as it will be a huge inconvenience. I've not slept and got horrible D&V which I think is the anxiety of being off, effect on my colleagues, no-one picking up my work and returning to an even more enormous mountain. Obviously there's been a lot of absence over the pandemic but my job is one of a kind and other people are in teams. I did think about going in but I can barely speak or swallow and my face is all swollen which would frighten everyone.

Any tips on trying to relax and get better? I realise it can't be helped and I'm being irrational.

How do you/they manage when you are on holiday?

It's fine when I'm on holiday as I can plan ahead.

Meant kindly you need to relax. You aren’t indispensable, the world is not going to end. You say your boss is nice and understanding. Everyone gets sick at some point. Relax and feel better.

I've just retired from a job like that OP. I never dared to take more than a couple of days annual leave in one go as the mountain of work I would come back to would be outfacing. I got covid in April and had to take 5 working days off. It took me 3 weeks to get caught up again.

I know I need to relax but I don't know how to.

It's if you resigned or died they would be able to replace you. Turn your phone off and go to sleep. If you go back to soon you'll be off again. You need to rest properly with tonsillitis because of the risk of developing post viral fatigue from it

OP I understand that feeling. Some companies, while on the surface being OK about people being off sick, do lay it on a bit thick re perceived disruption. Which isn't fair on the employees.

What can you do? Well, not much really. In your head, flip the situation around; if you went in, what would happen? You'd feel awful, you'd be dashing to the facilities quite often, meaning your work product wouldn't be as high quality as it normally would be anyway.

And you'd potentially pass your bug onto other people in your office space or team. Surely the disruption caused by a group of people being off would be worse than from just one person being off.

Make a deal with yourself re the amount of work you return to. It's going to be there, whether you worry about it or not. So try to park it in your mind, focus on healing and feeling better. Because you'll be much better resourced to deal with it when you do feel better. You do your job day in and day out, so you know that when you're feeling well you can cope with busier periods and heavier workloads.

Get well soon

firstly take care of you. at the moment im in a job like you're - we have lost a few staff recently so the work is piling up but we are actively recruiting and this is not normal for us.

if it was me, i'd be taking to the couch, and either reading a book, or bnge watching something on Netflix/amazn/prime.disneyplus (other streaming services are available). have a nap.

lots of cold drinks. squishy food - when your tummy feels up to it. or ice lollies

Concentrate on getting better and when you have recovered take some cakes or cookies in for your team. Not that you need to compensate for being ill, but it's a nice gesture (and food in the office is always appreciated).

This

my last job was a bit like this. I hated being the only person doing the role, but when I was off sick colleagues had to help with the urgent stuff and everything else waited until my return.