Would you do this? I feel weird about it but everyone is saying to take advantage

[Itsthebluecrayon]

I am due to have some minor ish surgery in May. I’ve been told recovery can take up to two weeks but a lot of people feel fine within 48 hours and back at work/usual tasks within a few days.

Obviously I’ve no idea how it will go until it gets to that point but having mentioned it to friends and family, everyone has said oh I hope you’ll make the most of taking some leave and have some time to yourself (or variations on this).

I don’t know if part of this is I’m a single parent so I haven’t had a ‘day off’ for over 2.5 years now (and toddler age child) or whether this would be the attitude generally. I haven’t had time off sick in several years and I have huge anxiety about it. I mentioned it to my mum (she’s not going to be impartial I guess!) and she said it’s obvious I am not well rested and I should think seriously about taking this opportunity in one go… taking multiple sick leave creates alerts whereas one following one event would not.

I have been really surprised by these comments and it’s made me think twice about rushing back in to work. What would you do? How long would you take?

@MisoSalmonForLunch: "But the UK has an enormous productivity problem, and attitudes like have been expressed above are probably part of the reason."

IME what contributes much more to the productivity problem is:

• people dragging themselves to work when not 100% fit to work, often repeatedly and/or over longer periods of time, instead of taking a much shorter period off to recover properly
• people coming in when clearly infectious, wiping out half of their colleagues for the next few days or weeks
• and yes, even people not taking the odd 'reset' day for their mental health, but coming in and working at part capacity until they're near or at burnout

But all this is unlikely to change until we stop touting attendance (often presenteeism, really) over both actual results and the kind of wellbeing that enables those results.

Take the two weeks off! I had a knee replacement two weeks ago and have been shocked at how painful and disabling the whole process has been. Yours may be a minor procedure but your body will need time to recover from the anaesthetic, the wound will need to heal and you'll need to be able to cope with home AND work again. I was thinking I'd be back at work within a month - I must have been mad! I can just about hobble around the house and am still at my daughter's as coping alone has proved impossible so far. I think it's likely I'll be off for up to 12 weeks and so take the 2 weeks - in the grand scheme of your working life it's nothing!

Take the medical leave. Rest, read books, watch tv. Honestly put yourself first

There's probably a happy medium (aiming for 4 weeks sounds like taking the piss) but don't rush back as fast as humanly possible. Better to take a bit more time, which your employer can plan for, and return full of energy, than struggle back in and potentially make yourself ill again.

Also if you're still on strong pain killers that would affect your work.