To be unable to take a sick day without worrying all day?

[kokosnuss]

What's happening at work? What if they judge me for bailing on them? What if they don't think I'm really sick? What if they think less of me for being sick? Should I just have gone in and powered through?

I should be resting up and instead I'm overthinking work on a loop?!

I do this. What makes it worse is that my work is quite complex and difficult to be off sick from!

I've got better over the years but I still beat myself up a fair bit for being off sick and I have to be really out of action.

I've given up taking sick days, just ends up being twice as much to do when I get back - and I still get quizzed about what happened when I wasn't there.

I used to be like this. I had awful flu once and still spent half the time worrying about what people at work were thinking.

Someone said to me "when someone else at work sick do you spend all day thinking about them, if they are actually sick, judging them and thinking badly of them?"

The answer is no, someone says "oh Matt is sick today" I'll think about it for 2 seconds and then not again! We all overthink sometimes and a lot of that is wasted energy.

I used to be like this and would get myself really paranoid and worked up. Like a PP had said, when you hear a colleague is off sick do you all sit bitching about that person and accusing them of lying? My guess is you don’t (unless that person is off all the time. But even then you’d probably just be concerned for them that they are ok and aren’t going through a difficult time in their life).
Is your work quite a bitchy environment? Don’t spoil a day where you should be resting and relaxing by getting yourself really stressed and upset about things you can’t control

God - how stressful for some of you! I've obviously been very lucky to have very understanding employers as anytime I've been unwell I call in, get told to get well and they'll see me when I'm better!

Likewise if a colleague calls in sick my only thought is 'I hope they're ok'. I think my
Employer's attitude is probably why we don't have an issue with sickness. I wish more would follow suit.