sick at work?

[Handruin]

I'm not talking about your love or hate for the job, but when you guys get sick, do you go to work anyway? I know it probably varies on the sickness, but I'm starting to get sick and I'm almost positive it's from the bastid's that come to work sick. It pisses me off, because now I'm feeling like ass and I'll probably have to call in sick. I would normally go in on principle to make sure everyone else gets sick, but when I don't feel good enough to share the wealth, I have to stay home. I hear people coughing up a lung, half way down the hall and now all I want to do is go in and vomit on them.

I'm a cranky fuck tonight, sorry. :rant: Happy Friday, I'm going to bed.

 

[sechs]

You go in and then leave after an hour. It shows your dedication.

 

[Mickey]

If I wake up feeling under-the-weather, I can usually tell if it's because I'm coming down with a cold or it's just allergies. If the former, I stay home from work and rest up. I'm usually fine by the next day if it's a cold.

Not only does it take me less time to recover by not going into work, I figure I'm also not spreading germs everywhere.

 

[blakerwry]

i go to work... it's expected.

 

[e_dawg]

It depends on the culture of your group. I would feel comfortable with working from home for a couple days with my current group, but not with some of my previous groups.

 

[e_dawg]

I also despise sick people coming in to work and infecting everybody else. The worst is when you're stuck in a long meeting with virulent coworkers in a stuffy boardroom. You are trapped. There's nowhere for the germs to go except to be circulated throughout the room.

 

[LunarMist]

I go in if I can function. We get no sick days per se, so vacation days are lost. The worst is travelling when sick. It's no fun being part of the global respnse team and having to fly to a site, sit around three days when the temps are well below zero, and suffer with a "10" cold virus.

 

[e_dawg]

what the heck is a "global response team"? That's kinda inefficient flying you guys all over the place...

 

[ddrueding]

I go to work for several reasons (reverse order)

3. I have no substitute...I don't work it doesn't get done..people get pissed.
2. There are no "sick days", there aren't even any "vacation days" I don't work, I can't eat eventually.
1. I usually can't tell whether it's sick or just a hangover until noon.

 

[The JoJo]

If sick, I usually stay home. I get over it faster that way, and don't spread it around at work. If needed, I'll probably work from home, depending on what the sickness is and how I feel.

 

[LunarMist]

what the heck is a "global response team"? That's kinda inefficient flying you guys all over the place...

It means that for example, say there is an incident or situation in Europe. I am in the US and some other members are at various locations in Germany, Japan, Scotland, US and England. In that case it was only a 1.5 hour domestica flight. I was standing by basically 24/7 at one of our US contractors along with their experts for any information requests. Fortunately it is a rare event, but everybody freaks out when hundreds of millions or billions of dollars are at stake.

 

[jtr1962]

Since I work at home I can work when I'm sick without worries of infecting anyone. When I worked a regular job I would go in if it was only a slight cold but anything serious I would stay home-I only missed one day of work as I rarely get seriously ill. Most jobs I used to work had no sick days or vacation days so if I was sick I lost money. In fact in one place I got hurt on the job and needed a few stitches. The company paid the doctor bills, or so I thought until I saw that they were deducted from my next paycheck. They even had the gall to tell me if I got hurt again I was fired. I quit that job without even giving them any notice. The last place I worked did have sick time and vacation (one week annually after 2 years of service going up to four weeks after ten years) but if you didn't use your sick days you got paid for them at the end of the year so taking off sick still represented lost money. Even so, I still wouldn't come in if there was a possibility of infecting my coworkers with something serious like the flu. I hate when people come to work in such a state that they not only make everyone around them sick but also can't do their job. And I hate it even more if the person needs to drive to work as they represent a hazard to themselves and those around them. Although I doubt my home business will ever get large enough to require employees, I think I would automatically fire anyone coming to work seriously ill. You can't do your job, you make every else sick so they can't do their jobs. What's the point? You're not showing your dedication, you're showing your lack of consideration.

 

[Mercutio]

Everyone I work with is a mommy with a kid between 0 and 10 years old. I swear I'm sick every single weekend. They've all built up immunities from living with verm^H^H^H^Hchildren constantly, but I can't stand the maybe two minutes of contact I have with them over the course of a working day.

"Oh, you got the same flu that's been going around Casey's pre-school. I'm sorry. I've must've given you that by not covering my mouth when I cough in that wet, hacking that I've been using all winter and pawing at your keyboard with my grubby, infectious hands."

That being said, I've called off work exactly one day of work, ever. I received a case of strep throat a few months ago from one of my entirely-too-dedicated co-workers, on a day I had to teach. That day I just stayed home.

I don't call off because, by the time I get something, either everyone in my office has already had it or is immune to it, or because I'm not working around other human beings anyway. It's not like laying in bed makes you feel better.

(as an aside: a large part of the reaon I work so much is that the obligations of work keep me from settling into full-on depressive malaise. If I didn't work all the time I'd probably spend all my free time in bed).

 

[Will Rickards WT]

Ideally I believe in staying home.
Screw dedication, a sick worker coming in is only a disease waiting to spread.

But usually it depends on whether I have paid sick days left and how sick I am. If I am just starting to feel sick put still feeling okay, I go in.
If I'm throwing up, hacking up a lung, or otherwise really sick I stay home.
If I'm out of sick days... well I don't know, it has never happened but I think I'd still stay home.

But I usually don't feel that sick when I get sick. My wife has a much harder time.