To be slightly annoyed that work expect me to carry on as normal?

[Paperbackmermaid]

I’ve got covid and so far it’s true, I don’t feel at death’s door. Work have said I’m ok to work from home as usual, because I do anyway.
However although I largely feel ok periodically I’m hit with absolute exhaustion, not tiredness, like MUST REST NOW. I’m taking paracetamol for the headache and sore throat and apart from the exhaustion it’s ok really.
If I had a job I couldn’t do from home I wouldn’t still be expected to attend meetings and deal with clients.
AIBU? Obviously I will do what I can and it’s varying a bit, I feel ok and then it just suddenly crashes over me that I am so unbelievably tired.

It's like anything else, if you are sick & unable to work, you don't. You avail of sick leave. That's up to you & your GP if a cert is required. No need to be annoyed at work.

I would say you were unfit to work and take a couple of days off.

We have similar arrangements at my work but don't expect people wfh with covid to carry on as normal - it is a case of do as much as you can and not to worry about how many hours they do etc but if they are really struggling, go sick.

Agree with the PP - surely you just use whatever your normal sickness process is and call in sick? You can self-certify for 5 days anyway and there isn’t much they can do about it.

Surely if you’re too ill to work then you need to tell your employer that you’re taking the day off sick. Many people can work from home with covid if they only have mild symptoms. Many other people are too ill too work when they have it. It’s fine for your employer to ask you to work at home while you’re isolating but if you’re too ill to do that then just follow your normal sickness procedure

If you're too unwell to work then call in sick.

The advantage of a WFH job is that if you're contagious but not unwell, or have a broken leg or something, is that you can generally work as normal and don't need to waste your sick leave or go without pay.

But if you feel too unwell then just tell you're boss you'll be off sick

If you're feeling well enough to work normally, then you can, but I'd be telling work that you are unwell, and will not be able to carry on as 'normal'.
When you don't feel well enough, or are exhausted, then fire off an email to your boss saying ''I'm too unwell to continue working today, but I will email you when I'm fit enough to resume some duties.''

If they are OK with that, then fine, and you can play it one day at a time. But if work become unhappy with you not being able to work as normal, then you're going to have to say ''I'm afraid I'm going to have to be signed off sick.''

They aren't expecting you to carry on as normal, you are saying you are fine to work by not going off sick. I had 3 months signed off with covid, it was just treated like any other period of sickness.

My DH can’t work from home, but would’nt of rung in sick with his symptoms normally . So that meant no pay!

Just ring i sick!?

@updownroundandround

If you're feeling well enough to work normally, then you can, but I'd be telling work that you are unwell, and will not be able to carry on as 'normal'. When you don't feel well enough, or are exhausted, then fire off an email to your boss saying ''I'm too unwell to continue working today, but I will email you when I'm fit enough to resume some duties.''

If they are OK with that, then fine, and you can play it one day at a time. But if work become unhappy with you not being able to work as normal, then you're going to have to say ''I'm afraid I'm going to have to be signed off sick.''

this is spot on.

My line manager worked for the first couple of days of COVID as she felt well enough, then ended up taking 3 days off sick. She said it really helped just to sleep & recover.

If you push yourself too much you'll possibly end up feeling worse & taking even longer to get better.

If you’re off sick you’re off sick. It’s confusing and difficult to manage someone who’s working but not to their expected capacity. Take sick leave and then your work will have to manage cover.

Have you told them you want to use sick leave and they've said no? Or did you say it's not that bad so they said keep going? Who is BU depends upon how that conversation went

Tell them you are too sick to work then. You can't have it both ways. If you were at work you couldn't say I was ok this morning so I've done some work but now I'm going to go to sleep at my desk for a bit and I may do some more work later. You are either at work and working normally or you are at home on the sick. The same applies to WFH unless you have a specific arrangement with your boss. So talk to them, tell them the situation wither they will be flexible or if not you go on sick leave. People aren't mind readers you need to communicate.

They didn’t ask me, they just made the decision that I was working from home as usual.
I’m ECV so I do wonder how much of what I’m experiencing is worry, because I am worried - which I know is ridiculous. I’m fine. I’m just very very very tired.

You need to sleep and rest. Call in sick !

Work don't decide if you are at work, you do! I worked from home when I had covid but I definitely wasn't at 100% productivity, and my manager did not expect that. The phrase 'turn your bloody laptop off' was used more than once!

Call in sick. Your work don't get to decide how your feeling and how you can cope. Don't be a martyr.

they just made the decision that I was working from home as usual.

But work don't decide if you are sick!

You just need to call in sick. You clearly aren't able to work at the moment, and that's fine.

@Paperbackmermaid

They didn’t ask me, they just made the decision that I was working from home as usual. I’m ECV so I do wonder how much of what I’m experiencing is worry, because I am worried - which I know is ridiculous. I’m fine. I’m just very very very tired.

Did you tell them you had covid and were too sick to work?

Because the above sounds very much like OP: "I have covid", Work: "Good job you already WFH" as opposed to OP: "I have covid and am too sick to work", Work: "No, you already WFH, you don't need sick leave"

Call in sick! My boss did this to me one day, omg, I was furious. In future, I’m going to always say I’m head down toilet regardless so I can’t be told to carry on. One sick day in 3 years!

@Paperbackmermaid

They didn’t ask me, they just made the decision that I was working from home as usual. I’m ECV so I do wonder how much of what I’m experiencing is worry, because I am worried - which I know is ridiculous. I’m fine. I’m just very very very tired.

I think if you are too sick to work then they rely on you to tell them. They won't know if you have covid mildly or are too ill to work unless you tell them.

But work don't decide if you are sick!

Right!? Surely, you just let them know that you are feeling bad and need some time off work. if you are sick, you're sick, they'll just have to cope without you.

What? You have Covid : you're ill! Call in sick and rest up. Wouldn't you call in sick if you had flu or a gastro bug?

Like what @ExchangedCat says. There's a difference if you've said to them you're too sick to work and them saying no your not.

You’re overthinking this massively OP. It sounds like your work has a policy of not defaulting to requiring sick leave just because of COVID, which is good because it allows the people with mild symptoms to crack on. If you’re too ill to work just follow normal procedure and say you’re ill!!

When you say work decided, what was actually said? Was the explicit bit “of course mermaid must stay at home” with the implicit bit being “she has covid so she’s going to be having time off when needed”?