"You shouldn't come to work sick!"

[Lace Neil Singer]

Today I dragged myself into work, suffering a bad cold consisting of sneezing, coughing, sore throat and bad chest. Some customers were sympathetic; others were less so and demanded to know why I'd come in.

Well, let me tell you.

1. I don't get paid for sick days unless I have a doctor's note. And I'm not going to the doctor for a cold, firstly cuz there is nothing he can do about it and secondly cuz I'd probably end up going down with something worse.

2. I can't afford to take an unpaid day off. I live hand to mouth a lot of the time and the time and a half I get for Sundays comes in handy when paying for things like heating bills.

3. I have a cold. Not swine flu, not ordinary flu, not the dreaded lurgy. If I took time off for every single cold, I'd probably spend the whole of the winter months at home.

I will also state that I sneeze and cough away from customers and into tissues. I wash my hands after doing this. I am not doing anything that's going to put someone at risk. So please could you kindly stop treating me like a leper? Thank you.

[guywithashovel]

For what it's worth, I hope you feel better soon.

Some people are just really fussy about germs and sickness. Fortunately, I don't tend to get colds like this very often. Usually, I get sick once or twice during the cold weather season, and it's usually something sinus-related. Normally, my nose will get uber congested and I'll go through about two days sounding like I'm wearing a nose plug.

[MadMike]

I hear you about not being able to afford an unpaid day off. I had that same problem back in my retail days. Thank God I didn't start getting migraines until years later, after I started at my current job that does provide paid sick days.

I remember catching something that I just could not shake for the longest time. I was under a lot of stress at the time, and that's probably why it held on for so long. I was coughing and sneezing constantly, my throat felt like I had been gargling broken glass, and I had no energy at all. The smart thing to do would have been to stay home and rest, but I couldn't afford to do that. One day I woke up feeling so crappy that I would have called off, if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't have a phone (yes, I was that broke!) I figured if I had the energy to drag my ass to the corner pay phone, I could drag my ass into work. I don't know how the hell I stayed on my feet all day.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It's early days, but I think I'm on the mend, tho I still have a chesty cough and sandpaper throat. X_x

For the record, despite my poor health record (weak chest, smoker), I don't get colds very often. I caught this one at work just before Christmas. And yeah, there are loads of people who get twitchy about germs which is stupid since there are customers who come into the shop and cough and sneeze everywhere; me sneezing into tissues and coughing into my hands before washing them is hardly going to give them anything.

I absolutely loathe people saying, "You should be in bed." Yes, I should; however, bed is a luxury I can't afford; and at least if I go into work, I can crank the heating up for free. I bet those people who are moaning would be whinging like crazy if I called in sick, and the petrol station was then closed early.

[KellyHabersham]

This has actually been more of a problem with my secretary job....there's no one to replace/cover for me, and I don't have the option of coming in at different times to make up missed hours, so I pretty much "have" to show up at work when I'm sick. (although we are working on changing that)

[draggar]

Up your vitamin C intake. I take 2 1000mg pills every day and if I think I'm at risk of catching something else (going to the hospital, out in the field etc.) I'll up it to 4 pills.

[jackfaire]

I hear you I hate taking sick days because it comes out of the same pool as my vacation days.

[blas87]

I love how customers get their granny panties in a bundle over your germs when, most of the time, their babies and kids are drooling all over merchandise or on their membership card that they are trying to hand you, or they go around picking goobers or their asscrack or sneezing on everything themselves.

[guywithashovel]

Thing with me is, I'll often have the stuffed up nose and crammed up sinus cavities and feel perfectly well otherwise. Then, anytime I talk to someone, they usually think I should be bedridden. It's hard to convince them that even though I sound like I'm wearing an invisible nose plug, I still feel fine.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I only usually get a couple of days of feeling like death warmed up, then I'm recovering. That, ironically, is when I get the most asinine comments. -.-

[fireheart17]

In the early days of the Aporkalypse (aka swine flu), if you had cold/flu symptoms, you were sent home. Period. You were required to get a docs note verifying it was NOT swine flu. Fortunately, in my case, you were paid for it.

As far as my current policy goes, it is something like this:

Hayfever/cold symptoms (Runny/blocked nose, itchy eyes, sneezing and possibly coughing): still go into work, but make heavy use of the hand sanitizer.

Cold/flu/chest infections: Depends on the severity. I do NOT go in if my voice goes funny or my throat is sore, mostly due to the fact that it'll make it worse. (Some of my coworkers would get around this by putting up a sign explaining it, but in my current case, I don't have that option)

Fainting/extreme headaches/very very severe case of shark week: Again, depends on the severity. Usually for some strange reason, if Shark Week begins while I'm at work or uni, it's worse than when I'm at home.

At my old store, I further elaborated on this by making a simple rule: if it's viral, do not go in since it can't be treated easily (most of the recommendations given by the doctors I saw involved bed rest, Panadol and the odd cough/flu medication) and I'm exposed to a lot of children and babies. (supermarket)

[XCashier]

I can't afford to take an unpaid day off.

....there's no one to replace/cover for me

These two statements sum up the problem. There is no allowance for sick time, most folks aren't paid enough to cover sick time and most companies are operating on a skeleton staff, leaving no coverage if someone falls sick. This is why people go to work sick and take a long time to get better. We all know that bed rest and taking it easy speeds healing, but we can't afford time off and it would adversely affect our jobs. A classic Catch 22.

When I had that neck muscle spasm before Christmas, I toughed out my job over the weekend instead of calling in. I wish I had called in, because my bosses yelled at me for slowing down (hello? I'm in severe pain and can't turn my freaking head!). They scolded me for not calling in since I was sick. Then when I decided I desperately needed rest, I called in Monday...and got griped at for that. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I've gone into work with a chest infection before, purely for those reasons. This was when I was at the garden centre, running the pet unit. There was no-one to cover for me, and I could not afford to take the day off, so I came in and just dosed myself with medicine all day long. I just had to make sure I coughed into tissues, in case I coughed up blood. Touch wood, I have not had one of those for a long time, but I'd still end up having to come into work if I did. -.-

[AdminAssistant]

I'm sure I've posted something about this before. When I was working as the Admin at TJ Maxx I came down with strep throat. My doc told me that I could go to the pharmacy and the grocery store, but after that I was to stay at home for at least 72 hours. I called into work and they got all whiny on me. "But who's going to make the deposit?" "Look, that's not my problem. I'm sick, I'm very contagious, and if I went to work I'd have to handle all that money, spreading strep throat to our customers, other employees, and the bank tellers who deal with the deposit. All the managers are trained to do the deposit. I'll be in on Monday."

There are times when you need to take time off, go home, and get well.