to ask if you go to work when sick?

[CoolToned]

I think I have the flu.

Cold, sore throat, congested, cough etc I go to work.

High fever, shakes, dizziness, D&V I work from home if possible.

Bed bound, so I can't even shower, I go off sick.

I have had flu once. I was single and living on my own at the time. My mum came to stay and look after me as I was hallucinating and couldn't even lift a glass of water to drink. If you have flu you wouldn't be in two minds about going into work, you would bot be physically able to go to work. Bad cold I go in.

LOL ok toasty, you're right. My crazy blood test results and secondary bacterial infection plus confirmed swab wasn't "full blown flu" because I could lie in bed, use a phone and pee. I slept about 20 hours a day but during my awake 4, I lay on bed using my phone. A confirmed virus is a virus.

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't say that shit to the face of someone who'd been left permanently disabled by flu. Also, if you're going to make a point, at least have some very, very basic knowledge to make yourself look less silly.

Mrsmorton I had a smile at your first comment. I'm imagining these posters charging into GP surgeries and A&E departments.
"You got here, so you don't have flu."
"You are not crying, so you are not depressed."
"You only vomited 3 times and had diarrhoea once, so you have a non-infection illness. Go to work. Oh you work in a paediatric oncology ward? Too bad. You're fine!"
"Your toe has fallen off? Suck it up cupcake, I lost both my feet and I worked a 374 hour shift as an army nurse in the battle field afterwards!"

My brother had a mild flu, and then developed ME/CFS...

You should really test when you're ill. I've always believed that it's a warning from your body to slow down. Like the above poster said, if you go too much into your reserves, you can get chronic energy related illnesses like ME or CFS which are terrible to live with.

I'll never understand why some people are such twats about flu on here.

'My flu was worse than your flu!' 'No, MINE was much worse than yours!'. Competitive influenza is just ... weird.

When ill yes, but not with flu. I've had flu once. I was barely able to get from bed to loo. Even if I'd wanted to go to work it would have been a physical impossibility.

Years ago, I had a colleague who boasted about never taking time off. He went on holiday to Hong Kong and caught some horrible flu thing then brought it into the office. We all went down like dominos, presumably as the virus was something we had never encountered before. Loads of us were very ill but I was particularly bad. I needed almost three weeks off work got a nice disciplinary action for it, and had breathing difficulties for several months afterwards. I almost lost my job all because some arsehole needed to make a point as to how he was so hardworking that he never took time off. If he had just taken a couple of days off, it would have cost the company two days of lost productivity. Instead, he spread it round so the company lost about 40 or 50 working days instead because so many other people were ill.

treaclesoda if you were off sick and covered by a medical certificate how did that end up as a disciplinary? Apologies but public sector here and HR Manager to boot.

I thought there were different sorts of flu and they had different symptoms. I'm vulnerable to the bugger. In my 56 years I had it when I was 5 (hospitalised), 9 (started feeling ill during the Wilky Wonka film), 14 AND 15, and 36 when I caught it from 18 mo DS. DH couldn't take time off work and we had to hire an agency nanny for a week. I have a flu jab every year now. That's the answer.

I WFH and am a mum of 3 I don't get days off and WIN the thread.

In reality though if it's a travelling day D&V and proper honest to god flu I'll stay home and try and farm out kids but if it's a cough/cold/ headache then no.

Just wondering how all the people who say you can't possibly have flu if you're on MN think people with flu manage to ring in sick or call the doctor....

TBF when I had flu, DH had to ring the doctor. My temp was 106, I was bordering on delirious and couldn't stand without support.

Just wondering how all the people who say you can't possibly have flu if you're on MN think people with flu manage to ring in sick or call the doctor

Nope. My DH had to as I was unable to.

Influenza Facts

What if you're a single parent or don't have a dh? Then who rings?

Oh the roses I'm sure you know this better than I do but surely the disciplinary would have been on capability grounds. You're allowed to sack someone for taking too much time off sick as I understand it!

I often get a fever with a cold. It's not the flu but I feel jolly awful so take a day or two off.

Yes, you can sack someone for taking too much time off sick, but not I my experience for three weeks, isolated incident, medically certified as unfit for work. OTH if that three weeks follows a year of persistent absences, unrelated to disability for a variety of reasons then of course it would reach disciplinary stages.

I had two weeks off in Jan (been at work five years - one other day off). The CEOs office (equiv) sent me flowers.

Ohtheroses I got a disciplinary because that was the company policy. Any more than ten days sick leave in one rolling twelve months period was automatically a disciplinary. Doctors line mattered not a jot. Chemotherapy, car accidents, flu, didn't matter, was still a disciplinary. My husband works in the public sector and his workplace have a similar policy.

I did not have persistent absences before that, I had a good attendance record. It didn't matter to them. ' Rules are rules'. They said that the disciplinary was for staff's own good because it would draw attention to how we needed to take more care of our health and focus our minds

It would also have been a disciplinary issue to have someone else ring in for you if you were sick. You had to do it yourself. The only time that would have been excused would have been if you had been admitted to hospital as an emergency admission.

Roses thabks for clarifying that makes sense.
treacle just to make sure you know I wasn't talking about your situation specifically but there is a myth on mn that "they" can't sack you for sickness if it's genuine.

No, I understand stealth. Was just clarifying. Some companies have very draconian rules on sick leave and unless you've worked in one it can sound far fetched. But even when the rules might break some employment law, the company will only change them if someone has the energy and financial backing to challenge them eg at a tribunal. So it's easy enough for them to get away with it.