How to deal with sickness at work?

[wishIwasonholiday10]

I'm in week 8 and have just been hit with sickness. I had to leave work early yesterday as I thought I would be sick and I'm taking today to work at home but I will need to be at work tomorrow and all next week and not sure what I will do if the sickness continues. I hate vomiting at work as the toilets are often dirty and people in the neighbouring cubicles might hear. Even worse I often wee myself a bit when vomiting (poor pelvic floor after first pregnancy?) and am worried about that happening at work. At home I've taken to sitting on the toilet with a sick bowl in hand which is already pretty grim but obviously can't do that at work.

You can't prevent people in other toilet cubicles from hearing you throw up, if you need to. Honestly, I just tried to get sick and get on with it around being sick. I am an academic, when the sickness was at its worst and I was teaching, I used to bring airline sick bags to lectures, go out the fire door behind the lectern to throw up if I needed to, then come back in and go on with the lecture, leaving the bag to be collected afterwards (the fire door led to a service corridor or outside). I would just say 'Excuse me' in a meeting, go out, throw up, and come back and go on with whatever. Keep water with you, and sugar-free gum. Experiment with what and how much to eat to settle your stomach. I are a lot of plain Hula Hoops.

If the work toilets are regularly dirty, raise that with someone who can take action on it, as you're likely to be in there a lot.

I suppose what I'm saying is you can't leave work in case you might throw up. Just embrace it as a (hopefully very temporary) aspect of your life now and work around it.

Is there a disabled/accessible loo available? That used to be my go to (it rarely got used otherwise) or I wouldn’t have gotten into work for the whole 9 months 🫠 It’s grim, I agree.

I got permission to work from home for the duration of my sickness my line manager specified that this is because it's more comfortable to be sick in your own space. I did end up having quite a bit of time off sick too. I had permission to retrospectively inform them rather than the 10am deadline in the company handbook so I could wait until it had passed enough to message.

Feel for you OP, it's awful! Don't forget that you can take some time off sick from work and being signed off by your GP for a few weeks is a perfectly valid option if you need it! I'm a clinician in the NHS and my job was made virtually impossible by nausea and no rest time because I had a toddler at home. I was back at work by second trimester but it was the only way I could get through it.
Edited to add I was also prescribed cyclizine which took the edge off the nausea every so slightly once I got used to it!

solidarity as I vommed daily until about 36 weeks. You need to get some good liners that you can change after a little pee if this is happening regularly, does give some piece of mind! Our daughter was just over 2 when I got pregnant and it’s rough to juggle symptoms with full time work & a toddler.

I was sick every single day of my second pregnancy, even after delivery!

You just get used to it and step out of meetings etc in the same way as you would if you need the loo.

Thanks all for the advice! Normally my work would be quite flexible about working from home (hence why I could leave early yesterday and finish some emails at home) but there is a particular task I have to do at work over the next bit which I really need to try to do as it will have a big impact if I can't do it. No one else currently knows how to do this task although I will be training other to do it as part of the task.

I do try to use the accessible loo as its a bit bigger and more private but its usually not much cleaner than the other loos. Unfortunately the issue with the toilets not being clean is an ongoing problem and not something that complaining about will help (its a large university department and facilities management are awful to deal with).