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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask if you go to work when sick?

186 replies

CoolToned · 22/09/2016 21:02

I think I have the flu.

OP posts:
MaddyHatter · 22/09/2016 22:31

i've been in hospital with renal colic while on morphine and was still able to MN.

Many times that being propped up in bed with my laptop has been the only thing between me and boredom when ill.. and i'm quite capable of putting it down to sleep when i needed!

putzing about on the internet requires very little energy.

AndieNZ · 22/09/2016 22:32

When I had the flu I was completely bed bound. Whole body aching, sweating, shivering and didn't know what day it was. If there was a bundle of £20 notes at the bottom of the bed, I still wouldn't have had the energy in my body to sit up and reach them.

You can't have the flu if you are asking this question!

However, I am a believer that if you really do not feel well enough to go to work, don't go to work. That's what self certification is for. I can't understand these people who drag themselves into work despite being ill and play the martyr. On my team there is a pregnant lady and also another lady with a very weak immune system as she has been having chemotherapy. And yet, a girl on my team came into work with a bug that she had picked from her daughter as it had been going around school. We all insisted she went home and she was told not to be so stupid in future.

LastBusHome · 22/09/2016 22:33

I often get rotten colds and will still go to work. I took a couple of days off when I had a chest infection though, I felt awful and felt so relieved when the doctor told me to stay home and rest.

JellyWitch · 22/09/2016 22:34

If I had the flu I wouldn't be going anywhere.

Right now I have a horrid cold but am still trucking into work because if I stay home then the toddler will spend the day climbing all over me (husband at home doing childcare but in practice that will default to me if I'm here) and it's more restful commuting and sitting at my desk.

Haudyerwheesht · 22/09/2016 22:39

Omg the £50 note test is shite, as is the 'you couldn't post here if it was flu'

We had flu a few years back - all of us, me, dh, ds (3) and Dd (newborn) and guess what a magical clan of nannies and nurses didn't descend on our house and take care of everyone!! I posted on here at the time because I was pretty scared if I'm honest. I also sterilised bottle, breastfed, checked constantly on ds who ended up with pneumonia, drove to the hospital, made drinks and changed nappies because I had NO choice. Dh did the same.

MaddyHatter · 22/09/2016 22:42

i had flu last year, i couldn't stand up because of how dizzy i was, my temperature was somewhere around the 102 mark, i was shivering, sweating, off my food, hurt all over and had to crawl to the bathroom... i spent most of it sleeping, but i was still capable of using my laptop during the brief times i perked up (usually after mainlining lemsip max.)

pinkiponk · 22/09/2016 22:48

Haudy- I completely agree, I had flu and husband was working away. He drove home as quickly as he could (from 6 hours away), but I still had to get Ds up and to nursery. I cried because I felt so truly awful and had no other choice.

sausagefest · 22/09/2016 22:48

Some fucker came in with a chesty cough, passed it to me.

My chest infection lasted 2 weeks and turned into pneumonia then pleurisy.

Am staying off on doctors orders partly because I know work will be full of ill people battling on and I'll catch something else.

SocksRock · 22/09/2016 23:23

I had proper flu once. I couldn't get out of bed properly for 5 days except to go to the loo.

But I wouldn't miss work for anything where I could get out of bed and wasn't infectious.

PinkSwimGoggles · 22/09/2016 23:28

if I feel like shit poorly then I would stay home.
if 'just' tired and sniffly, I go to work but try to take it a bit easier and to go home a little earlier to get rest.

Fluffyears · 22/09/2016 23:38

I've had 'proper flu' once and fucking NHS 24 made me drive to out of hours to see a dr despite me saying I could barely walk and begging for a home visit. I sat in my car crying because I had to de-ice the windscreen but didn't have the energy or feel well enough. When people say they have flubwhikst still functioning it's a cold or virus. A friend of mine has 'flu' twice a year....erm no you don't love!

A bloody colleague came in this week with tonsillitis, I was raging.

HelenaDove · 22/09/2016 23:50

13 years ago i was made to cancel a dentist appointment when i had an abscess because the job i had then wanted to send me for a full days training on the same day as the appointment.

Then on the day the training was cancelled.

Was retail which some of you wont be surprised by.

littleshirleybeans · 23/09/2016 00:39

I've had flu a couple of times the last two years or so. I was physically unable to get out of bed and cried a lot as I felt so bloody miserable. And I have very strong painkillers for other conditions but nothing helped!

I couldn't take my dc to school and Gawd knows what they did/ate on the days where I was here myself. (My mum and dad did help out and dh was here on his days off)

I go in every day with long-term chronic pain and last year, I went in for months with a sinus infection until the doctor told me that I would actually have to stay off and rest. Whilst trying my 4th round of antibiotics. A year on, more or less, and I'm being referred to ENT for chronic sinus pain.
Maybe if I'd allowed myself to rest and recover properly in the first place, I might not be in this position now.
Oh and if I'm off in the next few months, I will be escalated to the next level of attendance review.
Way to go. So when I'm throwing my guts up again whilst simultaneously emitting from the other end (accounting for another absence), I'll have to go in so as to avoid procedures against me.

As a primary teacher, I don't stay off unless I'm physically incapable of going in. Tbh, every single day is a struggle as I now have 3 long-term pain conditions. It takes me a shed-load of painkillers at 6.30am to enable me to do so.
Plus an assortment of gadgets/gizmos when I get home to try and alleviate the pain. Oh and wine helps when I'm desperate Grin
Sorry, don't mean to sound all "oh poor me"!

littleshirleybeans · 23/09/2016 00:42

Oh and yes to the other posters who have said a cold/virus is NOT the same as the flu!!!!!
If you can manage into work, it's not flu. Yes, a cold/virus can leave you feeling fairly hellish, there is no doubt about that. But if you have flu, you can't get out of bed. Full stop.
£50 lying in the garden??? Simon Baker could have been lying in my garden and I wouldn't have cared!

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 23/09/2016 01:22

If you have the flu you won't have the strength to pick up the phone let alone go into work. No matter what your morals are.
You're sick. That's the end of it.
No one gets sick on purpose.
If you need time off. You need time off

QueenLizIII · 23/09/2016 01:24

Yes. My last employment contract had no right to paid sick days at all. It was at company discretion. I couldnt afford to be off.

KeepingitReal2 · 23/09/2016 01:40

£50 won't make me get up on lie in day

MidniteScribbler · 23/09/2016 01:44

The real flu had me laying on the floor of the bathroom moaning in agony. Ended up hospitalised.

Stop calling it the flu when it's just a cold.

CrohnicallyAspie · 23/09/2016 06:55

I had the flu about 10 years ago, and I still remember it. Went to uni, started feeling dodgy so drove home. When I got home, I conked out on the sofa. The next couple of days are a blur but I remember my mum had to carry me to the toilet, and I kept mixing up dreams and reality. It's probably the sickest I've ever been.

ForalltheSaints · 23/09/2016 07:07

I struggle in unless something prevents me travelling.

AloraRyger · 23/09/2016 07:22

I've had real actual proper flu three times. All diagnosed by a doctor.

First time I was bed bound for a week and took about 3 weeks to fully recover.

Second time I managed to crawl to the oven and cook a turkey for christmas dinner. Dh put a pack of frozen chips in. We were both so ill I have no idea how we managed bar not wanting to totally ruin christmas for the dc.

Third time I managed to get all 4 dc up, dressed and walked to school before walking to the doctors. Doctor was quite clear that it was flu, a mild bout of it of course but flu all the same. I had no choice but to carry on as normal - dh couldn't take time off work and he works 12 hour shifts 6 days out of 9.

The whole oh you wouldn't even crawl out of bed for a £50 note thing is a load of shite and I wish people would stop peddling such nonsense.

Thattimeofyearagain · 23/09/2016 07:23

Please don't go in ill- I've already posted on another thread- my boss came in with d& v on Tues and 4 people have now been struck down- its selfish and counter productive. Hope you feel better soon op Flowers

StealthPolarBear · 23/09/2016 07:24

Only because I can work from home almost as well as in the office

ClopySow · 23/09/2016 07:36

I've been ill since saturday with a stinker of a cold. My boss ordered me not to bring it in to work because she'd rather one person was off than the whole office being hit with it. No-one gets points for dragging themselves in where i work.
Don't go to work. Rest and get better.

Oblomov16 · 23/09/2016 08:01

Always. I go unless I am so ill I can't, or if I think I am so contagious I would give it to others.
A slight sniffle and I'm there, always.
Very rarely ill though.