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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Stinking cold - work or duvet day?

35 replies

LEMtheoriginal · 17/09/2017 18:15

I'm usually pretty stoic. If I can walk I go to work but I'm not sure. I had to get so to rescue me shopping today as I felt awful and couldn't get round the shop for the last bits so woolly was my head.

My job can be full on and physical. We are now corporate with all the bullshit that goes with. Return to work interviews where one of the q's raised with line manager is has employee taken more than 3 incidents in past 6 months. Having worked there just over 18m I had my first absence when I got a vommiting bug a few weeks ago. So if I dont tomorrow I can't get sick again in next six months. To be fair I don't usually get sick or I battle through but I feel terrible. Didn't go out with dd today. Stayed home but feel shit. Total snot fest. Can't take Lemsip etc so it's lemon and honey all the way.

We are fully staffed tomorrow and not busy but I do work as part of a team and have a role within it. I caught this from a fecking temp Angry now me and dd both ill.

Feel weak and developing a cough as did temp who now on antibiotics.

OP posts:
schokolade · 17/09/2017 18:28

Christ, stay at home!!

Look after yourself. Without your health you'd be stuffed. And no one else wants your cold.

QueenieMum · 17/09/2017 18:38

Another vote for staying at home! Do you have a good relationship with your manager? My company has a similar policy and my manager has a little discretion as to when to invoke it.

Original poster
LEMtheoriginal · 17/09/2017 18:53

Trouble is despite a good relationship with boss we are newly corporate and they are playing strictly by the book. I suffer from anxiety so I worry. Also there is a definite expectation that unless you're on your deathbed you go in.

Last time I was sick I asked to go lay down for 5 minutes. Literally after 5 minutes I was called back to work. I ended up sent home when I vommited at a meeting.

OP posts:
Liverbird77 · 17/09/2017 18:56

Go in of you can. Exactly the same situation and I am determined to get through the day. Feel like utter crap but need the job.

ilovesooty · 17/09/2017 18:56

It sounds as though a day off tomorrow might be a good idea.

The return to work interview process seems pretty standard to me though.

PeanutButterIsEverything · 17/09/2017 18:58

I had a bad cold last week (well it's still dragging on) and took Monday off. DS in nursery, I spent the day lounging on the sofa, in bed, pottering in the kitchen. I was too I'll to go into work, but not so ill I couldn't enjoy a sick day. Plus my job isn't so high powered that it would be a big deal of I wasn't there.

It was bliss. Forcing yourself to go in does no one any favours imo.

Original poster
LEMtheoriginal · 17/09/2017 19:01

Definitely no power at all in my job. Right now I'm not too bad if I'm sat still but any effort and I'm weak and dizzy. Nose won't stop running. Sneeze sneeze sneeze.

OP posts:
PurplePillowCase · 17/09/2017 19:02

if you have a fever you need to give your body time to recover.
if you don't and would not be a liability at work due to brain fog/tiredness go in.

Sprinklestar · 17/09/2017 19:03

Any chance you can work from home?

MrsClegane · 17/09/2017 19:03

How is everyone at work going to feel when they get your bug....then pass it to their children to pass around their classes and take home to pass around families....

A ta at my ds school stood at the classroom door complaining that they felt so poorly. ..within 2 days children started with her cold/flu/bug. It spread around for weeks. My ds ended up having a week off with it!!! All so she didn't have a few days off.

If you feel really bad then don't go in. X

user1497199406 · 17/09/2017 19:05

Had this the last two weeks - pushed through the first week, I'm a teacher and was in a total panic. Ended up with a sinus infection, fever, swollen face and was forced to take two days off in the end. I doubt that would have happened if I'd listened to my body. Stay at home!

gingerbreadmam · 17/09/2017 19:08

i wouldn't go in. you will only spread it and probably not be productive at all. also sometimes you can drag these things on longer if you dont give yourself chance to recouperate.

Youcanstayundermyumbrella · 17/09/2017 19:08

What actually happens if you have the return to work interview? We have a similar procedure but it only triggers anything if the absences seem odd. It's also to check whether the employee is stressed or needs an OH referral etc. It's not a punishment in itself at all. From experience of managing genuine poor attendance it was far more complicated than just a number of sick days.

FWIW as the manager of a large team, I would very much want you to stay at home tomorrow, for your own sake and that of your colleagues.

ThomasRichard · 17/09/2017 19:12

If you were on my team, I'd want you to stay at home. If a member of staff comes in sneezing and streaming, they get sent home. I don't want their germs taking out my entire team!

MrsPnut · 17/09/2017 19:13

Please don't go in. I am immunosuppressed and I have been so very ill when people have come into work with colds and passed on the viruses to everybody else.

TwoKidsAndCounting · 17/09/2017 19:18

It sounds like you want to stay off but you are worried you'll be judged by your work colleagues if you do?? Do you work in a male dominated environment by any chance? There is no-one here who can advise you if you are anxious about your bosses opinions on sickness. You will look back on this in a few years and realise that you should have stayed off and that you should have been allowed to do so without pressure and that no-one actually really cares, comes with age and experience unfortunately. Good luck and get better soon

Freshprincess · 17/09/2017 19:19

We have a similar three strikes rule. People tend to come in and wait to be sent home As it doesn't count towards your sickness.

farfarawayfromhome · 17/09/2017 19:31

Why can't you take lemsip, did I miss something?

Panadol cold and flu and vitamin c and echinacea could get you through...

applesareredandgreen · 17/09/2017 19:31

We have a similar absence policy at my work which is getting stricter and stricter - however if I felt as bad as you are describing yourself I would not go in.

drquin · 17/09/2017 19:33

Is your policy really that you can't be sick again in the next few months?

A good return to work policy shouldn't stress the genuinely ill. It should stress those always taking a Monday off, after a high-profile Sunday drinking ..... or always off ill on the Fridays the school is off for a long weekend. Folk who are taking the mickey of a sickness policy.
And, if it's good, it would be highlighting where & whether the company can help you in anyway, with recovery or prevention in the future.

GastonsWife · 17/09/2017 19:37

I hate having colds. I think unless you currently have one it's easy to forget how rough they make you feel.

Original poster
LEMtheoriginal · 17/09/2017 19:45

Farfaraway - I don't know really. It used to be my go to but lately I think the pseudoephedrine thingy disagrees with me. Get all lightheaded and clammy. Although i was eyeing them today i sruck with ginger and lemon with paracetamol.

OP posts:
MrsPringles · 17/09/2017 19:51

Don't go in, take the day off and get better. If you go and spread it to your colleagues, you'll be in a bitter circle of germ spreading!

This definitely calls for a duvet day

Polkadot1974 · 17/09/2017 20:28

See at my work being off with a cold isn't really ok. It's ridiculous how poorly s cold can make you feel but I'm only off if vomiting. Varies between teams and one team seems positively encouraged to be off but not in ours.

carjacker1985 · 17/09/2017 20:30

If you're ill you're ill. My work has the same return to work interview policy with 3 absences in six months, it's just to check there's nothing at work causing problems. Don't be a martyr and make everyone else sick too!

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