The dreaded sick day always starts off the same way. You wake up and the grim realization slowly sinks in: you feel awful. Next comes the age-old argument: “To work or not to work?” This is a hard conversation for most young workers for a couple different reasons.
First there’s the economic consideration. If you’re lucky and your company offers sick leave (only 51% of American workers have paid sick leave!) this may be easier. If your company requires you to use vacation time, however, and you’re either out of vacation hours or out of sick leave days, you’ll be required to accept a smaller paycheck at the end of the month. Life is very expensive for young Americans and the thought of being sick and being broke is likely daunting.
Second, there’s the manager consideration. Depending on your manager, calling in sick will either be met with condolences or contempt. At my first job out of college, my manager made it clear that calling in sick was for the weak and it always added a new dimension of stress to being sick.
Regardless of your manager’s perceptions about working while sick, there is good reason to stay home if you’re under the weather. For one, if you come in to work sick you’ll be less productive. The Center for Law and Social Policy reports that coming in to work sick accounts for 72% of lost productivity, whereas staying home to recuperate was only responsible for 28%.
Admit it, when you feel awful your work suffers. No matter what line of work you’re in, you probably aren’t as nice to customers, detail-oriented, or creative as you normally are.
Your co-workers will probably also appreciate it if you stay home. Shared work spaces and ventilation systems all contribute to the risk of spreading whatever illness you’ve got. If you feel your work will suffer if you don’t come in, imagine how much the work will suffer if the whole office gets sick. It’s not worth it to be a martyr, despite what your boss may or may not say.
If you simply must come in to the office, however, here are some tips to prevent spreading the joy of sickness around to your co-workers, courtesy of the Herald-Sun:
- Don’t use shared telephones.
- Wash your hands frequently, especially if you’re going to be shaking a lot of hands.
- Sneeze and cough into a tissue.
- Warn co-workers that you’re sick so that they can keep their distance.
The most important thing to remember is that you are the foremost authority about you and your health. If you wake up and feel ill, you know better than anyone what you need to get better and what you are capable of doing. If what you need is a sick day, then bring on the bunny slippers. If what you need is to go to work, just slip a few tissues into the pocket of your business suit and try to take it easy.
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