Why Can't I Call In Sick?

Take a furlough day instead

 

Seriously, my eyes are watering so bad I can't see the monitor at times. And I'm so stuffed I can't sleep.

 

As for me, I can't believe this is a board topic.

Call in sick if you need to call in sick. End of story.

 

I get pissed when coworkers come in when they're sick and infect the rest of us. Grrr.

 

Call in sick.

Sounds pretty simple to me.

 

Stop the martyrdom. You're sick. Stay home already.

 

Dissenting viewpoint: It depends -- some places have a macho culture where nobody stays home. You know the environment there better than we do.

One place gave us an extra day's pay if we took only one sick day in a year and two extra days' pay if we took no sick days. You should have seen the place in December, like a hospital ward. Nobody wanted to blow the bonus that late in the year.

 

If you feel like you're too sick to work, keep your viruses at home.

The other week when I was sick, I decided I wanted to grill out because I figured the steak's protein would do me good. Running back and forth between the grill and the kitchen wiped me out to the point that I passed out/fell asleep for a couple of hours after dinner. Would've been better off going to Pizza Hut's web site and letting them deliver dinner.

Call in. Take some meds. Sleep a lot, eat regularly and drink quite a bit of Gatorade or another sports drink — seriously, your body's burning a lot of resources fighting the virus and it needs rest and replenishment.

 

Dude: get your sick ass to bed before you spread it to the rest of the newsroom. sounds like you are well on your way.

You know, come to thing of it, I'm actually surprised that some companies didn't eliminate sick days before resorting to furloughs. Like: 'every employee MUST take at least one week of unpaid sick leave per quarter'.

 

Pete: I completely respect what you've gone through the past couple of months. And in a perfect world -- hell, an imperfect one -- you'd stay home.

And you should. But just know -- in this business, and a lot of others, working under the weather is part of the business.

Not saying it's right. Just saying.

 

SF, hasn't that always been true, though? Every paper I've worked at has had people coming in under the weather because, well, gotta get the paper out. It's just part of the newsroom culture. I know I've brought in a bag full of meds, along with my dinner, because there was no one else to get the paper out that day. That's happened a number of times.

Is anybody really putting themselves at that much more risk by calling in sick when they're legitimately ill? I doubt it.

It's not right to play up the guilt card. The man's sick. He's got sick days. This is when he's supposed to use 'em. If not now, then when?

 

Pete,

You've been through Journalism Hell the past few months.

Call in sick, man.

Get some sleep. Heck, get an extra hour for me.

Do hang in there, Pete. I follow your posts often and know that you'll pull through this professional craziness.

- Ex