Dilemma - I have the flu but all other staff are out on annual leave.

[mabelineandme]

Looking for a bit of advice or perspective because my timing is always terrible and I just don’t know what the right thing to do is here.

So, I work from home full time and had booked two days off (yesterday and today) as we’ve just started having our kitchen done. I wanted to be around to keep an eye on things, deal with any issues etc. All fine, no drama there.

But of course, yesterday I came down with what feels like flu with an awful headache, body aches, shivering, and barely able to get out of bed except to use the toilet. I genuinely feel horrendous. Can’t believe the timing.

The issue is our whole team is currently off on holiday and it’s a really busy time. If I take any more time off, it’ll land hard on everyone else, which I feel awful about. I’m due back at work tomorrow and technically I could log in from bed and muddle through (badly), but I also know I’ll be next to useless and probably slow my recovery by pushing through.

So what would you do? Bite the bullet and log on tomorrow at reduced capacity, or be honest with my manager today and say I’m unwell and might not be fit to work?

I know I need to look after myself, but I also hate feeling like I’m letting people down and this always seems to happen at the worst possible time.

If you’re unwell, you’re unwell it can’t be helped. Lesson learnt for the manager don’t allow everyone off at the same time during a busy period

I would phone the manager today and explain. How did everyone manage to be off at the same time?? Not good management either. Hope you feel better soon x

If you’re sick don’t work. Why have they given everyone annual leave at the same time?
If that’s your manager’s decision they can pick up the slack.

Always put yourself first over any company. They don’t care about you.

Also, it’s not your problem about everyone else’s leave. The issue here is that your manager has authorised too much annual leave at once if you’re worried about being off sick.

Call the manager. Clearly you can’t work properly with the flu. However I’d probably offer to keep an eye on work, set expectations, answer/forward emergency queries.

don’t offer to do any work if you are ill. No one will give you a medal. Take the day off to have a proper rest.

Also - this feels like a mangagement problem not a you problem. Are some of the people on annual leave doing anything that they could log in for a few hours? I use annual leave in the hols for childcare and always happy to flex a few hours here and there

The timing is never great with illnesses. That's just how it is. Let your manager know you're ill and take the time you need to recover. Take care of yourself! Unless you work in emergency medicine, nobody will die just because you take a few days off to recover from the flu.

In my experience, I'm rarely able to truly see the consequences (or lack thereof) of me staying home when I'm sick. It always feels like the world may collapse if I don't muddle through. Whenever I do call in sick, it always turns out just fine - it's just my sick and stressed out brain that makes up worst case scenarios. Could that be happening to you, too?

I'd be open and honest with your manager and tell them you feel awful. Tell them you can try and work from bed, but its not going to be your best work -so you will try and muddle through but cannot promise anything at all.

Ask them what they would prefer.

It seems odd that a company would give all but one member of staff time off, especially at what you call a busy time? Are you a small team?

Good news is it's unlikely to be flu if you're able to post so coherently but if you're unwell, you're unwell and you should call your manager asap. There must be a contingency plan they can put in place.

Don’t work when you’re ill. You’re more likely to make mistakes and nobody will cut you any slack for it. It’s not your fault everyone else is on holiday or that you’re ill.

Depends what kind of job you have.

Do you have the sort of job where you have to be on the ball the whole day, needing acute focus I. E talking to clients or customers? Hosting important meetings? If so, take a sick day. You can't perform those tasks.

If you have the type of job where you're just in the background working, and no acute moments of focus are needed, then muddle through from bed. You're able to post here, so you can do that for sure.

Don’t work with the flu. If you make mistakes because you’re not really well enough to work it will count against you. It’ll also slow down your recovery

This is terrible advice. Don’t offer to check in on things. You’re sick so have a day of rest. Most employers wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire. And if they would - they’d care about you enough to want you to rest.

Message your manager and explain. It’s possible you’ll be feeling better by tomorrow morning, but it’s also possible you’ll be feeling worse and if you haven’t already said something you’ll be dropping your manager in the shit at the last moment rather than giving them a decent amount of notice as you could do by telling them now. Is your manager also off? If not I’d expect them to be able to cover your job.

Rest today as much as you can and see how you feel later. My DH had a fly like cold last week but it only lasted Wednesday & Thursday. I then got it on Friday (WFH) and worse in Saturday. By Sunday I was feeling almost back to normal.

You may find you need tomorrow off too but it's another 24 hours away yet

Might be worth doing a Covid test if you have one. There's a nasty dose of it doing the rounds and it takes about 2 weeks to recover properly, assuming you rest and look after yourself.

I want to know why the whole team is off in annual leave except you? You don’t have a very good manager who allowed that!

This is your managers problem to solve - maybe next time they won’t give everyone annual leave at the same time 🫣

If you’re sick, you’re sick - have the day off and definitely don’t offer to do any work from
your bed!

I agree by it's your mangers problem..maybe next time she will have more than one person as back up.