To phone in to work sick with a cold?

[StopStaringAtMyTits]

I have had a cold since Monday but have went to work over the past few days anyways. Tbh though I wasn't exactly productive on those days and just got by. This morning however I have woken up and I just feel like crap, even worse than the past few days.

My throat is killing me and I'm losing my voice and I feel all shaky and achy all over. I just want to go to sleep.

I know that it would be best to get a few days off and some rest and I know I wouldn't really be much use at work if I did go.

I have never been off sick with a cold before though and am a bit about phoning in sick because of it.

No idea of the legalities but StopStaring - you should be asleep and recovering. You've clearly made things worse by working when you were ill so for goodness sake stay home!

Fudge - go home. And stay in bed. For at least a week.

Lottie - antibiotics do nothing unless there's a bacterial infection. So you could have the worst case of flu ever and all they would advise is to treat the symptoms (paracetamol, etc.)

Oh and personally, I would phone in sick with a cold. Horrible things which make you feel like shit and are highly infectious.

Unless you have something really urgent to do or a shitty employer like Fudge's then I actually think it's unfair and annoying to come into work sneezing and coughing or suffering from a stomach bug. It's just being a martyr and spreading your germs around the office.

I hate presenteeism, if you are ill you are ill, if you can't perform your duties, I would much rather get cover than have someone who is ill passing their germs around causing more sickness.

I think it was fudge? Your employer is breaking the law. If you are that ill you shouldn't be at work.

I sometimes hear people boasting about how they've 'never had a sick day off in five years' and I think 'yes, but how many sick days have you caused other people to take by coming in with contagious colds and bugs?'

I had to cover someone last week while I was still on antibiotics for a kidney infection, sat at work in pain with a hot water bottle as someone had phoned in sick with a cold. There was absolutely no other cover available. Go in to work, if you're sick, they'll send you home again.

Trying to be polite here, you have a cold, not ebola.

Some colds can be very debilitating and make you feel miserable and feverish.

And if you were that ill, why were you in work?

My goodness, where do you all work that you have to ring in with detailed list of symptoms so someone can decide whether your illness is worthy of staying at home?! We ring in and say I am not coming in today, I am ill. Is this not normal?

phone in and say youre feeling really ill and cant get out of bed or talk.

You don't need to give them a diagnosis

good heavens, I've taken days off sick with a particularly wretched cold. Employers who make a fuss are idiots if they really think making people come in, do substandard work and allow the cold to drag on and on, as well as passing it on to all and sundry, is better than saying yes, take a day in bed and rest.

If you feel shit and cant work, call in.

PS, Get Day/Night nurse capsules, if you can take them, they really take the edge off the symptoms, I managed to work yesterday after taking the first lot.

Antibiotics might be prescribed for a secondary bacterial infection arising from the flu like bronchitis but wouldn't be any help for the flu itself.

I remember a couple of years ago I was scheduled to have major surgery and was finishing up my last few days at work for 3 months, so really busy. My father was also seriously ill in hospital with double pneumonia and I was visiting him every day as I knew once I'd had the operation I would be out of action for a while.
A girl I shared a room with decided it would be a good idea to come in smothering with a cold, blowing her nose and sneezing and coughing. I could have strangled her.

I had flu last week.

I felt so rotten that even though there was a box of paracetamol and a drink on my bedside table, I couldn't "psych myself" up to turn over in bed, go up on one elbow, take the paracetamol out the pack, and swallow them. I lay there thinking about it and thinking about it and saying "I'll do it in 30 seconds" then I think I had a dream type thing that I did it but I hadn't. Instead, I lay there shivering, until my husband came home, then I pathetically asked him to get the paracetamol out the pack, put them in my mouth, and hold the drink up to my lips. That's how useless it made me!

It did turn to bronchitis by the way so I am now on antibiotics but when you are in the virus stage there is nothing anyone can do for you and there is NO WAY I could have gone to work. Lucky I don't work!

An employer who tells you whether or not you can take sick leave or what for is trying it on. If you call in sick with flu and they fire you, what then? Guess who's going to get in trouble then? How ridiculous. If you are too unwell to go to work, that is what statutory sick pay is for, and you can self-certify up to a week. SO THERE!

It hurts my head that there are people still out there who want anti biotics for viruses.

No hooting, a cold can make you feel just as bad as someone who has antibiotics for a kidney infection. A bad cold can feel like flu.

Did you miss the bit where the OP is shivering and shaking and has a sore throat?

I'm usually of the opinion that you should just work through a cold, presuming you aren't putting vulnerable people at risk. Take some day nurse,(seriously, it's great for the snot!), fluids, just power through.

When it gets to the point where you still can't really function after taking something, then that's when you need to be at home.

A few years ago I went to work with a stinking cold and dosed up on Day Nurse. I only went because it was my birthday and I thought it would look really dodgy if I skipped it.

When I got round to calling those clients again 3 months later, virtually every note I had made on my birthday was pure gobbledygook. I would now never do anything requiring brain power when full of cold and Day Nurse. I did childmind a bunch of children today, mostly from a reclined position on the sofa. Their parents knew the deal.

In Genuine cases of flu you are usually so Ill that you can't physically get out of bed, let alone work.

I rang in with a cold 2 weeks ago, I work in an NHS Building and refuse to spread germs to try and play some hard working martyr at work, it's irresponsible. If you are unfit to work, call in sick as you are within your rights to do this. Unless your boss is a doctor who can assess your condition, they have no right to challenge your decision to stay at home and rest

'Love it's hen people say they have flu but actually they have a cold. Flu incapacitates you. You physically cannot get out of bed, lift head FUNCTION full stop!
Flu is a serious illness and not one to be taken lightly fudge. I think you need to do some serious research because it sounds like you have a nasty cold virus, like OP. And stop being a martyr by announcing that you are in work with flu cold.
OP, some colds are very, very nasty. There are numerous cold viruses around and not all of them have us bed bound but it seems this one is, either that or your feeling of guilt for having a couple of days recovery is actually stopping your body from having the R&R to recover.
I sometimes have a couple of days away from work for a cold (am a teacher so they are pretty nasty and makes teaching hard) and find two days at oho,e recovering has me back on my feet a lot sooner and with less complications than being at work, coughing, spluttering, sneezing my guts out whilst trying to teach a class of thirty or so kids, listening to readers, marking etc, etc.
Take the time off and despite the guilt, will people PLEASE take the time off to recuperate. Recovery is far quicker and people aren't infected as much if others stopped being martyrs.

Please have time off - I powered through with a cold for two weeks. Eventually my boss told me to go to the doctors as I was coughing my lungs up. The gp he sent me to a&e after a chest x-Ray they told me I now have pneumonia.

It's not worth it.

Well in the end I did phone in sick and have spent most of the day sleeping. Also haven't been eating much which is unusual for me. Only now I feel guilty for phoning in sick even though this is the first time in three years I've had to do that.

I've had proper full blown flu once in my life and I have to say it was nothing like a cold. It started off feeling like awful period pains in my lower back and stomach.
It was then vomiting, not eating for 8 days, not being able to move without being in agony (I think crawling/dragging myself to the toilet was one of my all time lows) and being so sensitive to light of any kind it made my feel like it was going to explode.

I currently have a bad cold and feel like crap but it's nothing compared to flu. I also wouldn't want to be going in to work feeling like I do at the moment but it's definitely not flu.

It's perfectly possible for a bad cold to be serious. It can come with a high fever - and if you have a fever, you should not be at work and you should certainly not be driving into work.

We are encouraged not to come in when we are unwell so that we don't spread it around, and there are provisions for home working for people who are borderline. A couple of years ago, one of our staff had a DH who was being treated for cancer, so he was immunocompromised - we were all very careful about not bringing any nasties into the office. It's only common sense.

We have a very low sickness absence rate...