How Sick Have You Shown Up to Work?

When you’re sick, going to work is the last thing you want to do. But, with heavier workloads and fewer employees to help cover for absent employees, for some, staying home from work doesn’t always seem like an option.

When you’re not feeling well, it can be hard to focus on the tasks at hand at work and you run the risk of making mistakes or taking longer to complete assignments. This October, as flu season begins, take the advice of physicians and stay home when you’re too sick to work. Staying home can lead to a quicker recovery that gets you back to 100% faster.

Comments

  1. Melinda

    The hard part is when companies don’t split sick time vs. vacation. People don’t want to use their days for sickness…they want to use them for fun stuff. Companies should create separate banks so employees don’t feel that they are loosing vacation.

  2. Lisa

    The worst time was when I was suffering from 3 obstructed kidney stones & didn’t even know it! I woke up on Monday planning to call out but had to go in. I went to the dr’s on Thursday & by Sunday I was in the hospital! Now that’s commitment!

  3. Wendy

    I’m not sure this would be considered sick, but I had a tooth pulled and returned to work. I was in pain and had to hang my head over the garbage can so the blood could leak out of my mouth, because I could not spit. And I was flying out that evening to visit family.

  4. Michelle

    I worked 9 days with pneumonia last month. Very tough to do and it definitely delayed my recovery. Unfortunately, I am a casual employee without the benefit of paid sick days. It is definitely a tough job market out there so more people are forced to work when they are very sick.

  5. James

    As long as I can control the symptoms, its game on. I make sure to keep track of and control the spread of germs, but unfortunately, others are going to get sick anyway because of the contagious period being wider then the period I am sick.
    Its when the symptoms are uncontrollable or the sickness to horrifically contagious like pink eye (which i have never had) that its time to get the doctor to sign off on staying home.
    In the past, the lightest sickness i have had that kept me from working was a significant case of bronchitis.

  6. Randy

    I work every day no matter how sick I am Pulled teeth, root canals, flu and pneumonia at the same time etc. Why? Self employed and nobody else is going to do it.

  7. Donna Cloud

    My Job is at a food manufacturing plant and people hide it cause they say stay home but not even on your death bed will they allow a doctor’s note to save your job, it count’s as if you were calling in to have a day off in the sun. The want perfect attendance because machine’s do not stop unless broke, but if you sick and you see the nurse before you go in the plant which is procedure and she send’s you home to go to the doctor, that doesn’t even count!! you are off but it count’s agains’t you attendance which is still number one! Hipocracy!! I lost my job because I got so sick 3 time’s Once with pnuemonia and once with a flu I had 103+ temp and they sent me home but then attendance made it impossible to advance and it finally cost me but I tried to keep other’s from getting sick too!! Come in not released from doctor fully recovered with now symptom’s and they can fire you! If it hit’s you again, you get more bad attendance! so you stay home and make sure you are 100% before you let the doctor release you, and people come in sick and hide it from the nurse but other’s know and they work with food and no one would tell but me so I was a snitch and got picked on till I started trying to look for a new job, still looking.

  8. Angela

    I had walking pneumonia for 3 months and went to work early in the morning til late at nite and only took 1 sick day which was not enough…another time I had a really bad cough and I couldn’t stop coughing and got the whole floor sick! I could not take any sick time from work, I even got a warning that I better not even think about taking any sick time! So while yes it may seem “selfish” if those who are sick come into work and get others sick but at the same time we are threatened with losing our jobs if we DO take any time off, what are we suppose to do we need our jobs its not easy to find another!

  9. Mary

    I do not go to work if I am contagious. It is not fair to myself or others. I have been at work when I felt awful, but came to work because of pressure from a superior. Some companies may say they do not want you there sick, but, when you are sick, they are upset that you are unable to be at work. Many times I have felt pressured to be at work no matter the circumstances (even if sick time was available). I realize there are always the few that abuse being sick just to have a day off, but any employee who has been loyal and does a good job, should not be treated in this manner.

  10. Dan

    I won’t go into work if I’m contagious or bleeding more severely than the first aid kit can handle, but I have gone to work within two hours of being struck by an automobile as a pedestrian or cyclist four times now. I may rely on my subordinates a little more to lift and carry things for me, but as long as no bones are broken, I don’t see why I can’t do the rest of my job.

  11. butch

    Yesterday, I had a job interview. I was feeling fine,but the interviewer was sick with a cold or flu. After the interview,we shook hands ,and I departed. Before I left the building,I took advantage of the sanitary lotion first. Today I have the bug she brought to work with her. NO RESPECT FOR OTHERS.

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