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AIBU?

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Original poster

Do you go into work poorly?

115 replies

C1239 · 23/05/2023 19:29

When your under the weather - bad headache, body chills, aches etc do you push on through and go into work dosing up or stay off if you can?

OP posts:
PumpkinSpiceLattePlease · 23/05/2023 19:52

I'm a self employed cleaner and have gone into work with sore throats and colds, although never to elderly or vulnerable clients. I've also gone in with pulled muscles, slipped disk, and an infected pilonidal cyst 😫

MyMachineAndMe · 23/05/2023 19:54

Not usually unless it's really mild like just a headache. I hate being poorly and prefer to dose up on meds and sleep.

User1529865 · 23/05/2023 19:55

Mild cold or headache, I would but not if I had a temperature

ASDmum99 · 23/05/2023 19:56

As unpaid carers we have no choice.

PaddlingPoollyColour · 23/05/2023 19:57

I wouldn't go in with a fever. If it was an option I'd work from home if I was feeling crappy at all though. Assuming WFH isn't available though, I'd probably dose up and go in for headache etc, but not a full blown fever.

Stabee · 23/05/2023 19:57

I work from home instead usually, unless really unwell. I hate people spreading colds and viruses. It spreads to one family, then three more. You can have symptoms for weeks. If only people would stay off while they are infectious.

Loafbeginsat60 · 23/05/2023 19:58

Popsicle42 · 23/05/2023 19:42

Yes. I can’t call in sick. It’s just not the kind of job you can not turn up to do. The only time I have is with a stomach bug, but I’ve been with other colleagues who have come to work despite even that.

If we don’t turn up, there is no-one who can fill in for us so any absence really needs to be exceptional. It’s not a healthy way to work - the impact on our emotional as well as physical health is pretty huge, but unless it changes from the top (which it won’t), we will carry on bringing our germs into
our places of work.

What do you do???

BounceyB · 23/05/2023 19:59

If it's contagious I stay at home. If not, I go into work.

lljkk · 23/05/2023 20:01

bad headache, body chills, aches etc

I haven't had an illness like that since... 2009? I wasn't working then.

mastertomsmum · 23/05/2023 20:03

If we have a cold we are encouraged to wfh, especially since we moved back to desks closer together.

lalalalalalaleeee · 23/05/2023 20:04

Nope... unless I physically can't leave the toilet

TruthRevolution · 23/05/2023 20:05

Yes, headache, aches and pains, sore throat and ears etc I'd take paracetamol etc and go in. Not chills or fever.

I've continuously felt rotten since covid and all the viruses. If I stayed off every time I felt ill just now I'd never be in!

tigger1001 · 23/05/2023 20:07

Headaches? Yes. With chills and aches then I would try to work from home if I wasn't feeling too ill.

QueSyrahSyrah · 23/05/2023 20:07

Much more inclined to stay off now I can work from home if I feel up to it (less efficiently on a laptop, but it's something).

Our boss is also much more sympathetic these days to someone saying 'I'm a bit sub-par so I'm going to keep my germs at home, but I can get on with X this afternoon and I'll be on emails'.

Obviously if I'm actually too ill to work I won't work, but if I'm that bad then I wouldn't have been in the office even if the old days.

WibblyWobblyLane · 23/05/2023 20:07

Ironically, the more ill I am, the more likely I am to go in. Once it becomes too hard to set cover, it's easier to feel like death at my desk.

purplerainyday · 23/05/2023 20:07

Hmm@Badgeringabout it's not so much about being a martyr. Some of us work under draconian sickness policies where the whole process is so stressful it's easier to go in ill. Others simply cannot afford to be off if they don't get paid.

sotiredandburntout · 23/05/2023 20:09

Anyone else wondering what on earth @Popsicle42 does for a job that means they can't be off sick ever? 🤯

Badgeringabout · 23/05/2023 20:10

Well those people are not martyrs are they? They are forced to work when they are ill for fear of the consequences which is appalling.
I was talking about the martyrs.

sotiredandburntout · 23/05/2023 20:12

For me it very much depends what the symptoms are and manageable they are. I won't go anywhere with a stomach bug. Migraines I struggle depending on severity - some I can crack on and meds help me get through; other more severe ones absolutely floor me and I'm bedridden so no chance. Mild headaches, sore throat / mild cold, things like that, then yes, I crack on as normal.

Ladysaurus · 23/05/2023 20:13

I go to work until I physically can't. That means lots of dosing myself with whatever I must. I'm not being a 'martyre', I'm doing my job. I have colleagues who call out sick or go home sick for the most minor ache for which they refuse to take even a paracetamol. These are the same people who complain about HR being on about their sickness levels too.

OCarumba · 23/05/2023 20:14

No – and I hate it when other people do. It’s just selfish presenteeism.

Yummymummy2020 · 23/05/2023 20:16

i now have covid pretty bad now because someone came in with it in work, I’m fairly sure it was them as I worked closely with them, they were smothering,they found out it was covid and now here I am. Needless to say I stayed off work rather than pass it on. I wouldn’t mind we get full sick pay so there was no need and their attendance was unnecessary anyway.

marshmallowmatcha · 23/05/2023 20:16

No coz i can work from home

NurseryNurse10 · 23/05/2023 20:16

Forced to go in otherwise thrown off the agency books. 9 hr shifts feeling like crap is just as hellish as you can imagine it to be.

Otterock · 23/05/2023 20:18

Yes I go in unless physically unable to leave the house. Employers changed the sick policy to become very strict in that 4 instances in 12 months is a first warning. Also sick pay is almost non existent. I can’t afford to be punished for being ill

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