Work and a cold

Gold Member Joined: Oct 14 2010 Posts: 1225

How do you decide if you are sick enough to stay home?

I don't usually get the flu/viruses with fever, I get colds several times a year that are "whole-box-of-tissues" in a day or so. Right now I'm dealing with one. I feel like I'm not sick enough to stay home, but not well enough to do my job at peak performance (I'm a teacher so 99% doesn't really cut it). Cold medicines don't usually help satisfactorily. I don't really have PTO to spare if I can help it, and I had a situation at a previous job where I thought I wasn't well enough to work effectively so I stayed home for a day, and they ended up firing me in the long run for "abusing time", so I'm trying to be judicious.

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48155

I was a working mom so I only stayed home if I was throwing up or had diarrhea. Otherwise, I went to work and the kids went to school.

Diamond Member Joined: Sep 18 2004 Posts: 2600

I would say a real flu, first day or two of seroius strep, and a vomiting stomach virus are understandable absences.

Gold Member Joined: Jan 27 2010 Posts: 1437

As a teacher you need to think about getting your students sick

Gold Member Joined: Oct 14 2010 Posts: 1225

The thing is when I get a head cold, I'm a sniffling, sneezing, congested mess, but I don't get fever. My head feels like lead, and I feel weak and don't feel like doing anything. Its hard to be a preschool teacher when you are running for the tissue box every few seconds.

Do you go to work like this?

Gold Member Joined: Sep 23 2008 Posts: 1261

Have you used a lot of sick time so far this year? If you haven't, then I wouldn't worry about taking one day, especially if you're feeling awful. Have you gotten the sense from your employer that he/she looks down on people taking sick time?

Gold Member Joined: Oct 14 2010 Posts: 1225

I think I have the time, and not necessarily this place, but I'm just so paranoid about losing my job. 2 years ago I thought I had been in good standing with my employer and they fired me out of the blue for "abusing" time--which was ridiculous. Right now is evaluation time at work, and I want to look like a conscientious employee. In this case I wasn't sure what the right answer was--go to work and function at 50%-75% efficiency, or stay home and rest and come back closer to 100% efficiency. In the end I tried taking some cold medicine and I woke up at 3am and was up until 5:30pm so I was too tired to go to work--and still feeling rather lousy. Coughing, sneezing, weak etc. I just didn't think it was responsible to go to work like this. I know its "just a cold" but colds seem to hit me hard.

Gold Member Joined: Sep 23 2008 Posts: 1261

It wasn't fair of your last employer to just keep quiet and then all of a sudden say they were firing you for too much time off. Also, keep in mind that usually when employers do that, there's another, real reason they're firing you, and they just use the time off (or whatever other stupid thing) as an excuse.