to think if I'm not well enough to safely cycle into work I should take it off as sick

[yoofoftoday]

Hi,

I have a normal office job. I think if I'm not well enough to ride into work then I should take it off as sick. My friend thinks this is silly and unless she is unable to get out of bed she will go to work.

Aibu?

I disagree. I think if you are well enough to sit at your desk and do your job, even if you are a little slower than usual, then you should be at work as long as you aren't contagious.

I don't think being well enough to cycle on the roads is a good marker of whether you are capable of doing an office job or not. If your job was physical then you might have a point, but it isn't.

Yes. That's bizarre logic.

If you aren't well enough to exercise, find alternative transport to work. Drive, or take public transport.

You'll be sitting at a desk all day, so inability to exercise won't affect you.

If everyone took a day off when they didn't feel up to cycling, we'd have 40% attendance.

I'm off work at the moment - signed off after surgery. If I waited until I was ok to cycle in, I'd probably be off a month. As it is, the two weeks on the fit note seems excessive.

If it is your only way of getting into work, you might have a bit of a point - but as WooWoo says, an office job is not as physically demanding as cycling, so if you are capable of doing the work once there, and you can get there via some reasonable means, then you should go - unless you are contagious.

If you aren't contagious, could sit at you desk and do your job then you should be at work.
Sick days are for when you are too ill to carry out your duties and that is it.
If you can't use your usual mode of transport for any reason you find another one.

YAB incredibly U and also quite lazy

If everyone did this then there'd be no-one at work!

If you stub your toe then that would make cycling difficult. Do you suggest people call in sick to work because they stub their toe??

Also people go to work with colds.

Your friend is correct. Unless you physically can't get out of bed, the. You go to work

Of course it's unreasonable, take public transport. Don't go in to work and start coughing all over everyone but no-one is demanding that you need to be fit enough to cycle there.

If cycling is your only way there then YANBU

I used to take 2 buses plus approx 20 minute walk (uphill) to work. I was off sick more than I am now as it wasn't just about sitting at a desk for the day having stepped out of the car/off the bus.

that makes sense only if your work involves a lot of cycling.

I think that depends on your definition of "not well enough to cycle". I'd be capable of pootling down the cycle track for half a mile long after I felt too lousy to concentrate on work. DH cycles 10 miles to work and takes the car or bus instead if he feels even slightly unwell.

Depends what kind of not well. Not just whether you're contagious - if you'd broken your leg you'd be going in, wouldn't you?!

OTOH if you are so light-headed that you can't keep balance, and you know you will end up making important mistakes, you might not BU.

My old boss (when I was 22 so still a baby) once had to send me home from work, and she really dinned into me that coming in when you are too ill to do the job properly is no help to anyone - since the job won't get done properly and you'll take longer to get better. Good advice IMO.

I have severely done my ankle in and couldn't drive into work. Theoretically, I could have used my crutches to hobble to the bus stop, get one bus to the centre of town and then change and get one as close to my work as possible and hobble to work. It was never going to happen. Alternatively I could have ordered a taxi there and back which would cost me more than I earn. So I stayed at home, with my foot up and will be far more quickly recovered because of it.

If you are too sick to get to work by your general mode of transport, you are too sick to go to work IMO. They don't own you.

Reverse?

YABVU.

An office job doesn't exactly require much energy or physical exertion. I have a pretty physical job in retail (as in, I'm on my feet all day), and if I'd called in sick everytime I was "too unwell" to cycle there, I'd have lost my job months ago.

Find another way to get to work.

Once or twice I've got the bus to work because I've been ill and not been well enough to cycle but felt well enough to sit at my desk. (Although to be honest on both occasions I wasn't very productive.) Generally though, if I'm to I'll to cycle I'm too I'll to work.

But my cycle is a very very easy one. Less than two miles, completely flat with "convenient" traffic lights every 400 yards or so for a nice little rest. The hardest part of my cycle is getting my bike out of the garage! (We have an annoying step!)

If you have a cycle that actually involves effort then it's slightly different.

I don't think a hard and fast 'too ill to bike, too ill for work' rule is a very good one.

Often I don't feel well enough or feel too tired to bike safely so get the train and am fine to sit at my desk at work. Especially as if you have a cold type thing you generally feel better after a few hours and some drugs.

Depends what is actually wrong with you.

another YABU - can you get to work another way? If you are well enough to do your job when you get there, then you are well enough to work. How you get to work isn't your employer's problem.

Well I can get into work another way, like I did today two buses and took 40 mins longer each way. Now I really regret it as still feel lousy and not being productive plus sat in a small room with air con circulating so could easily spread it to everyone.

YABVU
You call in sick if you are too ill to work. Not too ill to exercise

Another odd post.

If you are well enough to do your job then you go into work.

It has nothing to do with cycling. Use a car/bus/train/donkey like everyone else.

Too late to worry about spreading it now so just take some paracetamol and crack on with it, you're there now, you might as well make it worth while.

If I had a broken ankle I would be able to work, I just wouldn't be able able to cycle.

Last week my boss had a rotten cold. He drove to work because he wasn't up to an 8 mile hilly cycle ride.

So the answer is, it depends on what is wrong with you and what you do for a living.

YABU. If you are well enough to drive or go on public transport then you're well enough for work. There has to be some sort of happy medium. People struggling in with flu and giving it to everyone else and others off sick for no good reason at all.

It depends on whether there's another way for you to get to work.

I work in an office and we've had staff signed off sick with leg / arm injuries before - not because they've been incapable of working at their desks, but because they've been incapable of driving themselves to work or walking to public transport. Most people can't afford taxis every day.