stay off work another week?

[SNWannabe]

Obviously I know about the v and/or d plus 48 hour rule… but I’m asking more about how do you know when you’re not well enough to return to work when it’s less clear cut?

Post viral- exhausted, headache, tearful and just feel generally run down. But I’m due back at work soon. Busy NHS-based 12.5 hour shifts… Guilty at the idea of staying off longer than “necessary” when we are so incredibly short staffed, but feel awful at the thought of working 36 hours in 3 days at the end of the week. Currently not getting through a day without regular sitting down, the occasional nap and painkillers.

So aibu to stay off another week? I have been off for one already.

Get sick note

You might be better by the time you have to go to work.

Are you actually capable of doing your job, for the full shift and then for the following shifts without going off sick again? The viruses doing the rounds this winter have been brutal and people are taking much longer to recover let alone feel well again. Also, if not really well enough to do the full role, your colleagues will have to pick up any slack when they’re already overloaded, and that can cause issues among the team on shift.

I used to work in the NHS and was often ‘in charge’ on shifts after senior staff had gone for the day so would be responsible for taking calls from staff going off sick or coming back from sick and the first question I asked those ringing to come back was ‘are you well enough to be back?’ Mainly because people are in jobs where there is an expectation of being back the first day you don’t feel completely shite but aren’t actually well enough to work; then you risk going off sick again - which doesn’t help the ward/unit when trying to get other staff to fill in the shifts so soon after covering previous sickness. Not to mention, lots of places don’t allow overtime for a fixed time after sickness and so have to then find cover for overtime the person may have booked.

Plus it doesn’t look great on your sickness record and would likely be counted as 2 separate episodes of sickness and could go some way to triggering sickness monitoring/management procedures.

"Guilty at the idea of staying off longer than “necessary” when we are so incredibly short staffed,"

Realistically - whether you go or not, your service will still be short staffed and it's unlikely you can fix it by going in unwell. Look after yourself.

Thank you for taking time to reply. I appreciate it

If you work in the NHS please stay off until you're fully fit. Even if you're not contagious, there's too much margin for error if you're not 100% and, whilst you feel guilty for dropping your colleagues in it, you'd feel worse if you made a life changing error with a patient.