To wonder about this person calling in sick at peak time

[bestfakesmile]

Had a crazy busy week at work with a major project on. One of our team who has been very involved in all the planning for this project and was supposed to be supervising the completion of it has been off sick for the entire week with a cold. This has put massive pressure on our team, we would have been stretched even with that person, so without them it’s been very difficult. It has meant that everyone on our small team has had to put in loads of extra hours to cover her work between them. She could have helped out a bit by doing some work from home even if she couldn’t make it in but no.
The irony is, I know she is still going to expect the credit and the sales bonus in her pay packet this month. Even though the sales would not have been fulfilled without everyone else stepping in to do her work while she’s been off.
If the rest of us hadn’t done that work there’s no doubt we would have lost a number of important clients and that would have had a devestating impact on the business. Quite literally she would have put herself out of a job. She must be mightily naive if she hasn’t worked that one out.
Obviously it’s a time of year when coughs and colds are running riot, almost everyone I know has had something in the last month or so but most people know they can’t just drop out of life when they have a cold. But this person is the type to refuse to have a lemsip because they don’t like the taste, and won’t take a tablet either cos she can’t swallow it. It’s as if she actually enjoys being ill and wallows in it.
Personally, it would have taken hospitalisation for me not to come in to work this week. Firstly, I would feel absolutely awful if I let my colleagues and boss down at a crucial time. I don’t think I could face them afterwards knowing I’d left them in the lurch. Secondly, I’d hate to miss out on the satisfaction of completing this project that we have all worked so hard for, I could not bear to let it all go down the drain and see these clients walk away.
It feels a lot like she couldn’t be bothered or possibly couldn’t cope with the higher than usual workload this week so just bailed out and left everyone else to pick up the pieces. I’m going to find it hard to work with her when/if she manages to drag herself back in next week.

YABVU

YABU. She was sick. You already mentioned she has been very involved in the project's earlier stages. And she is in no way obliged to work at home when she's sick.

I called in sick with a cold when I had a miscarriage. I didn't want anyone to know. It won't do you any good to resent her; if she gets the bonus it doesn't hurt you. If she's unreliable going forward I guess she will get sacked. Try to let it go.

I think if you would go to work bar hospitalisation as you claim, you can shoulder the load of your colleague's absence.

Or mind your own business.

"If the rest of us hadn’t done that work there’s no doubt we would have lost a number of important clients and that would have had a devestating impact on the business. Quite literally she would have put herself out of a job. She must be mightily naive if she hasn’t worked that one out."

Fuck your work. Sounds like a shitfest if the place crumbles into devastation if someone dares to be ill. Who needs that sort of crap - we work to live, we don't live to work. I wouldn't want to operate under that sort of pressure, it sounds mental.
Or are you being dramatic?

This makes me very sad. I'm currently off sick after having surgery. I work in a very stressful environment and I know that me being off has put the team under immense stress and additional pressure and I feel bad about this. For what it's worth I would rather be at work. You really shouldn't judge.

YABU. OP you are the type of person I used to worry about when I was actually very ill. I used to worry what people thought about me and this made me even more ill. Now I don't worry about what other think of me, my health is exactly that. My health! You have no idea what she is going through. If you are really concerned maybe ask if there is anything that you could do to help. When she gets back to work I hope that you won't hold this against her.

Before I ended up in agriculture I was a retail manager and my bf was a manager in a different retail outlet she was off work for just over a week with a “severe cold”. I held her hand as she miscarried the longed for child she had been told she couldn’t conceive from the ‘d’p who had given her a beating for ‘lying’ about not being able to get pregnant before clearing out their joint account and disappearing.

I guess I have to be patient and karma will kick in eventually

Spiteful. Glad I don't work with you.

You’re right, it’s none of my business what is or isn’t wrong with her. She’s definitely not a team player and she has already told me that others have complained about her in past jobs (I have absolutely no idea why she told me that!)
If she’s taking the mick she will get found out in the end and I guess move on to another unfortunate workplace.

Oh and by the way I was off ill for a week once, including being hospitalised. I still tried to help out with work, got asked to help with things that only I could do even though it left me weak and shaking. I offered to work from home too. They still treated me like absolute shit when I came back, calling me out for being behind on work - I had internal bleeding FFS!

I left immediately. That company folded, fyi.

Why don't you focus your energy on your own job instead of pick fault with your colleague. It really isn't any of your business as to why she is absent - that's between her and her manager. And yes YABVU (and rather spiteful).

You sound delightful to work with OP.

An entire week is a lot of time off for a cold tho isn’t it?

Not at all. Colds can be horrendous and it really is none of your business to know how how bad it is and how it’s affecting her, or whether she has any underlying conditions such as asthma that could make it worse.

If I most caring colleagues were you, I’d be a) happy she wasn’t in working spreading it about b) happy that she wasn’t making herself worse by forcing herself to work and then having to take more time off in the future.

As for being convinced it’s just because she doesn’t want to work (you do know thinking the batter of people rather than the worse takes a lot less energy and time don’t you?) have a

And on another note entirely, if she had been working on the project up until she was sick, she quite rightly should get some of the credit and the bonus regardless because she did in fact work on it.

I am a finance director - it is never convenient for me to be sick. Didn't stop me being in bed on Tuesday coughing up green slime..

Still ill today, although I did have to struggle in for the other days.

The older I get the more I am a bit 'meh it is just work'.

But, I have never worked in this 'big project' environment - which I tend to assume is generally sales.

If you are ill you are ill. If you are off at an important time, and you know there will be some flack, the chances are you are REALLY ill.

My SIL's co-workers probably say stuff like that about her. She didn't want her employer knowing she was trying for a baby to start with, so when she had two miscarriages, she gave the same sort of vague excuse as your colleague.

It sounds like you really don't like this colleague anyway, and your department sounds extremely inefficient. Were you all screwed without her because she's better at her job than the rest of you?

I guess I have to be patient and karma will kick in eventually

You've just created your own Karma

What you give out you get back x 3, good or bad.

Oh, and your company should have its own system for rewarding effort above or beyond, it's really not difficult and we do it all the time. I guess your bosses share your lousy attitude though.

I think your username is very appropriate by the way - I bet you are as nice as pie to her face.

If one of my colleagues came into work with a cold and spread it around, I’d be really annoyed so I would be happy she stayed at home!

Well aren't you a lovely person OP, how do you know what's going on in her life....glad I don't work with you!
I'm currently off work for several months now with a severe autoimmune disease and my colleagues have been wonderful and supportive, you sound very bitter!

Also, fuck "team players" being more important than people who are actually good at what they do. We get that a bit at my work, and my DD is struggling with a job she really wanted because her co-workers have decided her face doesn't fit and she needs slapping down a bit.

For all you know she could have something awful and personal like a miscarriage. A "cold" could be the cover story because she doesn't want everyone knowing. Or it could be a cold but a very bad one, she could be aching allover and unable to get out of bed. These things hit different people differently. You could also be right and based on your experience of her you could have every reason to be pissed off. The fact is though you're speculating and so I think you need to get off your high horse. I am so very committed in any job and have often worked long and extra hours, sometimes from home when needed, but if I am unwell then I'm putting myself first, if I don't I won't be any good to anyone and will end up off work for longer and useless at home where my family need me. I don't live to work, I work to live.

I think you're so caught up in work you've lost perspective as to what really matters. What matters more to you...your personal health or making money for your company?

So you had a bit of extra work to do for one week? My heart bleeds for you.

OP, you just don't like this woman, do you? I mean, we don't know either of you, you may be right not to like her

but frankly, attitudes like yours contribute to the horrid work culture people often have to endure, this misguided idea that work is the be all and end all, that people should sacrifice everything in their life to be "professional", your use of management speak (she is not a team player!) makes it obvious

as a PP has said, we work to live, not the other way round!