The sick-at-work poll
We knew it would come to this: I, the health editor and the mom editor, am sick. Sick at work.
So far, it just seems to be a bad head cold. Lots of sniffles. A headache, but no achy throat or cough. Yet.
Still, in these days of swine flu fear, I feel damned if I stay here at work sneezing into my sleeve, and damned if I go home, where I would undoubtedly be viewed from afar as a slacker. What if this is nothing and I get the H1N1 virus later, and people look at me like the lady who cried wolf? Or what if this is something bad, and I stay and infect my co-workers, despite my best attempts at hand-washing and sanitizing?
I suspect lots of you are facing, or will soon be facing, the same dilemma. So take our poll and help me figure out what to do:
Comments
I wonder if The Sun HR dept is monitoring any responses from Sun employees on this poll...hmmm.
Posted by: Peter | October 2, 2009 2:47 PM
I guess it depends on where you work. I voted "work from home" but that choice doesn't work for me personally because of the kind of job I have.
Last May, a terrible virus swept through almost the entire staff, but if everyone who had the sniffles stayed home, we'd have no staff to run the business!
It's a hard one, but if you've been to the doctor and KNOW you have the swine flu, please stay home.
Posted by: Kayris | October 2, 2009 2:57 PM
What's the deal with sneezing into your elbow? The logic eludes me. The germs still spray all over the room. Me, I like to sneeze through my open fist, like a sneeze rifle into my special sneeze bag.
Posted by: Owl Meat Germ | October 2, 2009 3:26 PM
I used to struggle with the same thing but let me ask you -- if you leave feeling like a slacker, is anyone going to remember in a month or two? No -- but if you stay, like I did once, and a bunch of your coworkers get sick and are out for the next week, how much better off are you? Let me tell you, it's been three years and my coworkers STILL bring up how I wouldn't go home and got everyone sick. It's just not worth it.
Posted by: Cheryl from Maryland Family | October 4, 2009 7:53 PM
Personal Time Off (PTO) - The concept of counting sick, personal and vacation time as one pool of hours.
Because of PTO, when I stay home, I lose vacation/personal time. As such, I don't see any benefit to my staying home, and only a penalty if I do so. Sure, coworkers may also get sick, but I don't lose time when they stay home, only when I do. The math dictates that I should do whatever I can to get into work, otherwise I lose vacation days.
Yes, I can work from home if need be, but counter-intuitively, that's when you'll be thought of as a slacker. It seems best to either be so sick that you can't get out of bed, or to drag yourself in, if at all possible, to avoid losing PTO time.
Posted by: Someone | October 5, 2009 8:13 AM
Kate, I'm curious: what did you end up doing? Hope you're feeling better.
Oh, thanks for asking! I toughed out the rest of the day, since I had a weekend story to edit, despite what the poll results said. Fortunately I got a little rest on Saturday and by Monday was feeling pretty normal. So it was just a little cold, after all.
Posted by: Betsy | October 6, 2009 10:45 AM