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Sick Days Don't Look So Good Now That You Can Work from Home

ndtv.com

6 pointsrustoo6 comments

I do remote IT. Had a gallstone attack last month and was hunched over the edge of my bed, doing service calls with a fever.

I am so very American.

For years I watch co-workers take 1-2 sick days a month yet I take 1-2 per year (none last year).

I have a realization every year that I should be spending my worst feeling days as sick days... But I do not.

What is wrong with me. How many years have I gone feeling like I cannot miss 1 day of 'work'

nothing is wrong with you. it's not a bad thing. you are just more resilient. now, don't assume that people are taking them because they want to. a lot people hide anxiety and other problems with sick days because it's easier than the truth.

if you don't need sick days, don't feel like you are missing out. Only a small percentage actually cheat the system. the truth is, perhaps your job is your sick day - I know a lot of people who work to get away from their problems.

Hey, take care of yourself. Stop giving into this macho-ism that only benefits a corporation. Value yourself more than profit. Anxiety and mental diseases are still diseases. They're worthy of sick time. Physically being unable to work and Mentally being unable to work are both being unable to work and they both damage you when ignored.

Especially in Tech, it’s usually far easier to simply ask your manager for an extra day off than to cheat the system through sick days.

I had a period where I was going through a severe medical condition which would require me taking a day off at the last moment, and the few days off I took over a span of a few weeks caused far more consternation than the few weeks worth of extra leave that I had taken a couple of years earlier, when a combination of relocation, bereavements in the family, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time meant I ended up taking something like 2 months off in the year, simply because the latter were done with advance notice that allowed my managers and my team to be prepared for the my unavailability and to reach me if there was an emergency (which they did once and even then I had to decline staying in the call since I was in the middle of something).

Are you working from home or, are living at work?

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