How on earth do people get through the work day with a cold?

[Forgetaboutit]

I don’t know whether I get colds badly or whether I’m just bad at handling them and other people just get on with it!

I was reading a post the other day that was asking how ill you have to be to call in sick and pretty much everyone said they never stay off with a cold. I have a cold right now (although I’m on day 4 now and starting to feel a bit better) and I have felt the same as I always do with a cold. Sore throat, streaming nose, headache, body aches and chills, my eyes hurt so much that it’s hard to look at a screen or have any lights on, I have such intense pressure in my sinuses that my nose and cheeks hurt. Sometimes I can’t even get up. It’s not the flu though, it is definitely a cold. When other people get a cold, do you just get the sniffles, or do you have all these symptoms and just power through somehow?! And if so… WHY?

this. Some colds are horrendous, some are completely get-on-with-able.

Like most other illnesses. e.g. a back ache - slight twinge, fine to work with paracetamol. Broken spine - can't work! Eat something dodgy - sometimes you throw up once or take some Imodium and are fine, other times you can't leave the toilet. When people are saying they're fine to work because it's 'just' a cold, then mean it's 'just' a slight cold.

Also I would much rather my colleagues took time off with a cold rather than bring it in.Even if its not severe.

I'm currently on week 4 of a horrible chest virus that a colleague gave to me. I don't know if I would have avoided it by them not coming in but at least we could have tried.

And everyone reacts differently to the same cold. My husband is never as ill as me with viruses, he never is sick, never gets a temp. I used to think he was making it up pre covid but he tests positive for covid at the same time as me

Maybe I'm just weak but I've had 3 fucking weeks of coughing all night, plus high temps, aching and shivering and exhaustion and he's coughed about twice and got over it.

Only times I have rang in sick with a cold is those where I have to permanently blow nose, can't stop coughing or constantly sneezing. As can produce very little work.

In call centres, I had no voice for 10 days - there was no other jobs to do.

Yours is obviously a mancold

Dose up. Shut up. Put up.
We've all done it, OP, and it's really not that difficult.

I am currently in the same position as you and just taken 2 days off work. 4 days in bed (2 at the weekend and 2 days off work).
For me its all about the sinus pressure. I can carry on with everything over symptom with medication bar the sinus pressure. It can be debilitating and for me if it doesn't release with medication, I take time off.
I suffer really bad migraines and I find that if I carry on with working with the sinus pressure of a cold, it leads to a bad migraine....which is not fun on top of the cold.

Sudafed nose spray and sudafed. The goods tuff.

Also any cough medicine with guafensien as the active ingredient. That stuff is the nuts and melts all the shit away that's on my chest.

I recently went in with a sinus,throat and ear infection with vertigo.
I dosed up on medication and got on with it as statutory sick pay is shit. Some people don't have any other option

I just don't. We had a cold go through my workplace the last two weeks and when I got it I was ill on the sofa all weekend and the Monday and Tuesday. I couldn't have worked to the standard required feeling like that, plus needing to wipe away snot constantly doesn't really fit with working with chemicals.

I rather enjoy a cold. Slightly raised temperature, explosive sneezing, Lemsip, duvet, Antiques Roadtrip, mulligatawny soup. Couple of days of that every year is fine by me.

There is a huge difference in severity of symptoms for me depending on whether or not I treat with OTC drugs. If I use paracetamol, ibruprofen and nasal spray I’m pretty much a human again. If not, I’m bed ridden for 4 days

As others have said, there are different severities of cold; also people react to medication in different ways. I can only take paracetamol (not ibuprofen), due to other meds I'm on, which is fine as it works for me, but for DH paracetamol does nothing at all. If he couldn't take ibuprofen, he'd really struggle.

Also depends on your job - a cold that gives you streaming eyes will be awkward if you work at computers, for example, whereas a sore throat is going to be difficult if you have to talk all day.

I wouldnt go in with a cold (proper cold...not just 'the sniffles').
I work with sick people so probably not a good idea. Also I work nights and cold symptoms get worse at night due to how your immune system works so Id feel extra shitty.
Luckily I dont get colds often. I get the beginnings a few times a year but it always seems to vanish before I can reach for the Lemsip!

There's a variance in colds. If it's mild or standard it's an irritant. Heavy ones are tough and a lot of painkillers, liquids, vitamin C and half of Boots can ease you through the working day, but then i'm usually shattered all evening and feel terrible.

Definitely not unreasonable. When I get colds they always go straight to my head which makes anything productive impossible. I also get symptoms of a constant streaming nose which again, hard to get on with anything if you are constantly wiping and blowing your nose.
I am limited in what medicine I can have as am on immune suppressants so can't just drug myself up and hope for the best. Colds are utterly miserable. Just got over yet another one. Sure I will get one to replace it in the next week or so....

Medication and just dragging yourself through it being in a sickness review is not worth a day off just for a cold unless I literally cannot get out of bed

Such a lot of presentee-ist posturing on this thread.

It's not about 'having a cold', it's about how it presents and whether you feel able to fulfil the necessary aspects of your job with those symptoms. Break it down: do you have a temperature? Muscle-ache? A sore throat? A head ache? Are regular cold remedies sufficient for reducing the symptoms enough so that you feel able to work as normal? Could you have a 'slow' day?

If you're taking what remedies are available and you're still feeling rubbish, then that's a sign that your cold is too severe for you to go to work. You're not staying home because of 'a cold'; you're staying home due to a temperature and sinus pain, or a migraine and a sore throat, which are making you feel too ill to work despite taking available medication to relieve your symptoms.

I'm a primary school teacher, so probably have pretty decent immunity to a lot of bugs, but if I'm ill, I know I'm not going to be able to be in the all-singing, all-dancing A-game performance mode which my job requires, so I stay home.

I can't stand grand-standing about working when ill. It makes people who are too ill to work feel terrible.

I get the shivers, headaches, nausea and vomiting with colds, as well as backache, so I always end up in bed for a couple of days. Some of the comments on this thread are infuriating. Why can't people accept some people experience things differently than they do.

It depends on the cold. The one you're describing OP I'd take a couple of days off for, but the one I've got at the moment is just all about the snot, and I feel fine aside from the inability to breathe. I'm WFH to avoid giving it to anyone else, but I'm fine to actually work.

Can't abide the heroes I've never been off ill in ten years then proceed to spread their disease onto others and in some cases it's hit others hard with needed sick leave.

My boss asked me to deputise at a video conference of about a dozen people. Night before I started a cold. Thought I couldn’t cry off since our dept was already sending a deputy. Suffice it to say my performance did not reflect well on our department. I struggled to stay awake, and my only contribution would have been better not made. I learned my lesson. Don’t try to work if you’re not up to it.

If you’re off work with it, call it flu. Everyone else does.

I work if I'm able, I don't if I'm not.

People need to know their own limits with colds, pushing through might be fine for one person but lead to chest infection/pneumonia etc for someone else.

Sometimes also a day off that lets you recover is better from an employment productivity point of view than a week spent at a desk doing barely anything.

Ultimately, fuck capitalism - no job is worth wrecking your health.

I generally work on the a) can I get out of bed and b) can I stomach food? If I can do those things then I work. When I've not been WFH I've always had long commutes. Managers have always been happy for me to finish my work and go home an hour early to miss the worst of the rush hour.

I WFH and have only had a sick day when I was recovering from elective surgery. But when I have a had cold or similar I crack on as best I can, whereas if I was in an office I’d be calling in sick as the effort of going out and risk of infecting others, would not be worth it