Aibu to have a sick-day when I WFH?

[Mrsbusybody]

Full of cold been nauseous all day and was sick after a few mouthfuls of my roast dinner 🥲

I never take sick days ever I worked through Covid twice but I’m only 5 months into my role. Not that it matters!

If I was going into the office in the morning I would definitely not be going. But I almost feel like I should suck it up because I WFH even though I can tell I’m not well enough to work.

AIBU?

It shouldn’t make any difference if you wfh. You’re either well enough to work or you’re not.

This 👌

As above, are you actually able to work for your contracted hours at a reasonable level?

Or should you be in bed recovering so you be back at full strength sooner

If you were actually sick then I'd be surprised if it is the former

Sick is sick. You need to go to bed and get better. Don't be a martyr. It's pointless and counterproductive.

I felt the same OP and struggled for two weeks with this bloody virus that's been going round. In the end I took two days off and felt miraculously better by lunchtime on day two.

It's taught me a lesson for sure - WFH is still demanding on your body, if you're unwell you should rest.

Well it does make a difference because you might feel well enough to work but not to drag yourself out to the office. Also risk of infecting others at the office; it's not really acceptable to go in if snotty and feverish

But on the other hand you can still be too unwell to work at home for sure

I wouldn’t bother unless you really can’t manage. I’d just be honest and say I was feeling a bit ropey, rearrange any meetings and finish if I felt I needed to but suppose it depends on the role. You could literally sit in bed with a laptop and get on with it even if full of cold. If your workplace is strict on sickness policy, I wouldn’t “waste” a sickness incidence if I could feasibly work from home.

This is ridiculous and the world has gone mad since 2020. You are well enough to work, or not well enough to work.

So what @WineIsMyMainVice said.

See how you feel in the morning. If you feel well enough to work then do, if not then don’t.
I wfh and it’s much easier in some respects than working in an office for me.

I know and I agree! But you feel guilty for some reason. me and my manager had this chat few weeks ago. We would only really have a day off if we physically couldn’t turn our laptop on.

But this cold/flu whatever it is has kicked me right up the bottom.

This.

If you are not well, you are not well.

It doesn’t make any difference - are you fit to work? If not, report yourself sick.

I made myself worse by crawling to my laptop every day while working from home. Then I had to go to an in person meeting and passed out in the street outside my house! I was a total idiot and have read some of the emails I sent that morning from home and they don’t make a lot of sense!

if you are sick you are sick. Take the day, stay in bed, stay warm, sleep. If you don’t take care of yourself no one else will.

Please take the day off if you are sick. You will not be thinking straight and will not get the rest you need, if you work whilst unwell. Sick pay is there for a reason.

If you can't work then you can't work.

My company has a policy where a certain number of absences in a year (3 I think) triggers a meeting with HR. WFH is a good middle ground where I've had COVID and had to take time off, but with a regular cold I was able to carry on working. So COVID will have a mark on my HR records but the cold didn't because I worked.

The "cold and flu relief" pills (red ones for day usage and blue ones night) are a massive help when you have a cold! You can find them in all chemists and supermarkets.

@Mrsbusybody - as you were physically sick though, I would take sick leave if you're still feeling poorly tomorrow.

If you're unwell, you should take a sick day and give yourself a better chance of a speedy recovery.
I had covid a month or so ago. I'm usually a hybrid worker (2 days home /3 days office) but I arranged to wfh all week so as not to travel in, or take covid into the office. I was ok to work mainly, although took regular breaks - but day 3 was a killer and I just had to give in and go back to bed.
Took a sick day, slept all day, and was able to log back on the next day.

Don't feel guilty - yes you could wear PJs and have home comforts and sometimes that's enough - but sometimes it overtakes you and you need to shut down for a bit.

I work from home. My manager has a rule - if you're too sick to go into an office, you're too sick to be working from home too. They prefer you rest if you're unwell.

I think this is fantastic and of course well meaning advice, but also ignore it completely. If I took it, I'd never work - I chose a WFH role because i have health conditions that mean i'm always feeling to rotten to get out and to an office!

My own main rule for it is, will my illness affect my work? Will clients get poor service, will I make mistakes? Either because I'm not thinking straight or just feel THAT rubbish? If yes, I take the day off away from work. Better for everyone.

Op, never be lead into agreement that you'll "never take a sick day unless [you] physically couldn't turn laptop on" ... especially by your manager! (who sounds like a twat for having such a manipulative conversation with you).

You don't need to be on your deathbed to take a sick day. You just need to be sick. Don't be a martyr it won't do you any good. Also it's 2023. People take sick days without all this stupid guilt whether they wfh or not.

Get better soon

Don't push yourself to work if you're not well. I did that once and had to re do all the minimal work I did as it was very poor quality. Really no point.

as much as I love WFH, I hate the expectation of WFH when unwell. we have been told to WFH if not we'll enough to come in. I have worked through 3 bouts of COVID and a few other bugs in the last 4 years. I had a child for a month in hospital very, vey unwell and worked from the ward and it was hell. my stress levels went through the roof and I made so many mistakes, I lost a stone along the way. not sure how other companies handle it but self certifying for a couple of days is really frowned upon where I work and very few dare to do it.

We got always told not to work even from home if we are sick.

WFH definitely makes a difference imo. When I commuted two hours into an office, I would call in sick at a lower level of sicknesses because

A) the commute made it a very long day and made it even harder to get through it sick
B) I don't want to spread germs

Now I wfh, it takes a higher level of sick for me to call in because the day is a bit easier to just suck it up and work - but it does happen when I am very ill or ill in a way that makes working almost impossible (eg migraine or D&V).

I agree. I definitely have to be more ill to call in sick when wfh. I can sleep a bit more in the morning, have a rest at lunch, don't have to drag myself onto a train and then the tube. It's also much easier to start work and see how you feel if wfh, and then just turn off the laptop if you're too ill. Rather than having to commute back home.

That said, I definitely will call in sick if I'm too ill to work. I did it last week when we had a horrible bug going round the house.

No expectation to work when sick even when WFH at my company. Covid was probably the worst I've felt in the past few years - started off the day just feeling mildly under the weather but it hits you like a ton of bricks. Was physically unable to sit at my desk and my colleagues were all encouraging me to log off and rest.