to ask if you go to work when sick?

[CoolToned]

I think I have the flu.

I have had actual flu before. I was paying out and couldn't lift my head off the pillow.

Just because it's 'flu season' it doesn't mean you have it.

No. I work in a hospital. I go in if I'm ill due to a non contagious health problem sometimes.

I go to work if I have a cold /sore throat / headache and can function.

I have a sick day if:

• I have a temperature of above 38 degrees (I hallucinate, get the shakes, ache and cry uncontrollably like a baby)
• I am contagious with an infectious disease (unlikely)
• I have sickness and/or diarrhea (it's a long way from my classroom to the toilets)
• I have a bacterial throat or chest infection because likelihood is I feel like I am dying.
• I am missing a limb (more chance than winning the lottery apparently)

This past week I have had a lingering cold. I can function in the classroom but by 6pm, I am dead and feel like shit.

Most people can function when they have a cold. For some reason, I can't. I become a snot infested, eye-watering mess. It's quite disgusting to look at and rather pointless trying to teach phonics when I can't pronounce my sounds. But hey-ho, got to muddle through. Afterall it's just a cold.

I've had bad colds before and thought they were the flu. Then I got the flu. Which then became pneumonia. It was hell on earth.

My main check list for if I go in or not is:-

Can I get up and dressed without feeling like I'm going to pass out?
Have these paracetamol I've taken cooled my temp?
Do I feel able to drive to work?
Can I bear to anything more than just sleep this off in bed?

If yes, I go in. I rationalise that I can always leave if I'm that bad. At least then people can see I am actually really ill.

It depends partly on the kind of work you do I suppose. So food prep would mean stay away, but office work might not. I wouldn't thank anyone who has the actual flu for soldiering on and going to work though, because it can be really dangerous for a lot of vulnerable people. I spent a week on oxygen the first time I got flu and was having conversations with little blue floaty things in between coughing up blood. The second time I took Tamiflu and next time I will take my chances with the blood and floaty things!

Being able to post online is no indication of sickness or health- I was online posting bollocks when I was on a morphine drip last year. Nothing I said made any sense, but nobody challenged me so I'm assuming they didn't notice.

For church we use the Little Old Lady Rule, and it works for school or work too. If the thing you had would pose a serious health risk to anyone you might infect (like the little old ladies who sit near us in church, or the boy with severe asthma at school) then you stay at home.

I went to work with the flu for three days, when on the 3rd day my fever was so high I was hallucinating and my mother had to come pick me up and take me to the doctor (I was an adult with a child of my own at this time). I was pretty young, 22/23, I'd never had the flu before, and didn't realize how sick I was. I wouldn't do that again, though that was quite a few years ago and I've not had the flu yet.

I mostly work from home, but I would go in with something that wasn't contagious. Something contagious, I would stay home. Most employers in the US give sick leave in addition to vacation, though. I get 80 hours of sick leave a year.

I do sometimes, but only with colds, really.

I had three days off with a viral thing earlier this year, started to feel guilty at home as I felt a little better, went back in for half a day then had to go sick again. Not very sensible really.

Would like to say, I had a cold last year. I took one day off sick. The cold lingered and became bronchitis. I was ill with this for three months, but didn't take more time off work. If I'd taken a week off, I'm sure I would have got better faster, but the culture where I work means nobody wants to take sick leave.

Depends how busy I am, and if I've got my laptop with me.

If I'm mega busy I won't take a sick day unless super bad.

If I've got laptop I'll WFH.

If quite quiet I'll take a sick day if feeling a little bit shit to make up for the times I worked when I was feeling mega shit!

I'm so torn on this. I'm a lecturer, and it causes massive upset for students/colleagues if you're off, plus you fall behind which makes it hard when you go back. But, every year about now I get "freshers' flu" which is really just a completely stinking cold. Last year was really awful and took my entire office down. I stayed off one day, a Friday, spent the weekend in bed, and struggled in on the Monday still feeling awful, then ended up taking weeks to properly shake it. With hindsight, another couple of days resting would have meant I went back well and did a better job.

Doctors Gold Standard test for flu is:Imagine there is a £50 note lying in the middle of your garden. Are you able to go outside and get it? If you can, you do not have flu.

Says it all really, most people think a bad cold is the flu...

I personally would argue if your well enough to post on AIBU your well enough to go to work

Just like any other viral illness flu has a spectrum of a mild coryzal illness to a severe respiratory disease requiring hospitalisation. It's not a given that you'd be too sick to look at your phone if you had flu.

I don't really do poorly, and i never believed the hype about flu being dangerous/deadly to babies and the elderly, until I got it.

I couldn't move, I couldn't eat, I couldn't see properly. My kids phoned grandma to come round and look after us all. I was in bed for 3 days solid and have no memory after my mum turned up.
Nothing could have got me to work feeling that bad!

I used to work in retail and I'd drag myself in when I shouldn't really have been there because I couldn't face phoning sick. Customers told me I should go home on more than one occasion.

They had such a bad attitude to staff being off ill - they phoned up one girl who was hospital and persuaded her to come in and talked someone else into delaying a hospital appointment for suspected cancer.

Current job, before ds was born I tended to work from home if I was ill. Harder once you've got a small child in the house, unless you have the space for a home office, which we don't.

I went to work last winter thinking I had a cold. Lasted an hour before I had to ask if I could go home. In bed a week, was flu

I wish people would stop with the money on the floor thing.. it is not the litmus test for flu

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Flu/Pages/Symptoms.aspx

Flu can give you any of the following symptoms:
a sudden fever – a temperature of 38C (100.4F) or above
a dry, chesty cough
a headache
tiredness and weakness
chills
aching muscles
limb or joint pain
diarrhoea or abdominal (tummy) pain
nausea and vomiting
a sore throat
a runny or blocked nose
sneezing
loss of appetite
difficulty sleeping

Is it flu or a cold?
It can sometimes be difficult to tell if you have flu or just a cold, as the symptoms can be quite similar. The main differences are:

Flu symptoms:
come on quickly
usually include fever and aching muscles
make you feel too unwell to continue your usual activities

Cold symptoms:
come on gradually
mainly affect your nose and throat
are fairly mild, so you can still get around and are usually well enough to go to work

I'd go to work with a cold, but not flu which is a different kettle of fish, I've only had flu once and it was horrific, please don't take this the wrong way, but surely the fact you have to even ask the question then maybe it's not the flu? With flu you're so ill you just KNOW you can't go in to work, you wouldn't be doubting yourself, either way I hope you get better soon!

*Flu can have mild to severe symptoms.

And I thought the Doctor's Gold Standard test for flu is a viral culture.*

This.
Which means going to work with what may be a bad cold or may be the flu could potentially put others at risk of a life threatening illness.

I've never had a day off. I work in a school though so illnesses fall in the holidays! I think adrenaline keeps you going. I've gone in feeling unwell but not flu

As to the OP's question.

I have been to work with a sinus infection and coughs/colds.

I stayed off work when i had pleurisy, migraine, flu, D&V and chest infections (asthma, so they were nasty)

Your litmus test should be if you feel capable and if you're not highly contagious!

I've had a cold/mild flu type thing since Monday. I worked from home Monday. And dragged my ass in tues weds and today. I'm feeling awful. But my boss is away next week and I have a ton of stuff I needed to speak to him about. Otherwise I'd have stayed home.

Oh fuck off with the 'If you had flu you wouldn't be able to MN'

I have met many people hospitalised with the flu who could go on their phones.