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Devin is a recent graduate starting work in public accounting this July. He enjoys burritos, skiing, talking in the third person, and long walks on the beach. Visit Devin's personal website at 
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When you take a sick day, how do you feel?
- Guilty like you’ve gone and selfishly removed a day’s worth of productivity
- Worried that you’ll have so much piled up when you come back
- Anxious because you are so essential people can’t get by without you
- Relaxed because you’re helping yourself get better
- Semi-productive because you end up crawling in bed with your laptop and working anyway
I’m sick today and have been all weekend. Luckily my firm is of the “don’t come to work when you’re sick, we’ll still pay you” mindset.
But, it makes me feel guilty. That guilt leads to semi-productiveness. And that semi-productiveness leads to me sending out emails and putting out as many fires as I can from the comfort of my home. I’m still getting rest. I have plenty of tissues at hand and I’m comfortable in my sweatpants.
Unfortunately, I know people who don’t get (free, unlimited, or any) sick days. Are you one of those? Do you have a laptop you bring home?
My suspicion is you don’t. You’re not doing guilty work at home like me.
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I am a combination of feeling guilty and one that you left off, feeling entitled. Guilty sets in during those times when people consider calling in sick because they were up late, or just feel like sleeping in because they do not feel 100% healthy. When you are actually sick however, we feel Entitled because we as humans are not robots and when we break down (get sick) it is natural for us to need time to ourselves.
This is something I totally relate to. Both my fiance and I have the same problem. Even if we’re sick, we feel this compelling need to go to work. IF we do actually make the right choice to stay home, recover, and not infect the rest of the office, it takes several hours to get over the guilt.
This is something I’d like to change, but it takes constant effort to let myself be sick without guilt.
We don’t get free sick days - they come out of our measely PTO time. Which, of course, means that we have to listen to the sicky hacking and moaning through the day while the rest of us try to work. Especially around October, when everyone has used the time they could.
I got really ill this fall and actually ran out of my PTO days that I was going to use to go see family - I ended up having to miss my flight and work those days (while there was nothing to do) - and my boss took the extra days out of my 2008 PTO block.
Screwy, if you ask me.
If I’m taking a legitimate sick day (being myself or my son is ill, not a “mental health day”), then I don’t feel any of those things. I have a personal responsibility to make sure I’m staying as healthy as possible, so I can be productive.
It’s better to concentrate on getting better than the loss of productivity. Most of it is just mental anyways.
If you are legitimately sick (or have sick children), take a sick day. We aren’t products that companies buy and expect to be healthy and productive 365 days a year. We’re humans, and part of being human is getting sick and have down days.
Hope you’re feeling better soon.
I started a new job in October. Before the Christmas holiday, I took two days sick and a half day for a doctor’s appointment. When the holiday rolled around and I asked for two days off (I was told I’d have two days of vacation before the end of December when I started at the job) I found out that I had already used one of my vacation days for being sick. Why exactly? Apparently, I was given 2 days for vacation, but only 1.5 days for illness, so they took away one vacation day.
Isn’t that just, well, sick?
I wouldn’t say I feel guilty. I feel responsible for the extra phone calls my co-workers have to take when I am out of the office. So I do call in, just to see if everything is going ok, and if I can answer any questions.
For those of you complaining that sick days come out of your PTO (paid time off), maybe you are too young to remember when companies used separate ‘vacation days’ and ’sick days’. You couldn’t take a sick day as vacation unless you lied and said you were sick. Some companies even required you to have a doctor’s note (or fake one) to take a sick day.
Thankfully, most companies realized this was stupid, and simply combined the sick days and vacation days into PTO. So you get the same amount of time off, but you can use it however you choose.
I suppose if you’re actually sick, then take a sick day. At the same time, if just recently starting a job, I would suggest you only take a sick day if you are unbearably sick. It makes an impression on a boss to see an employee, especially a new one, taking sick days frequently. Let’s say one is sick frequently. In that case, that person might have to learn to work while sick. It’s not completely fair, but not everything is.
One ought to do their best to make it to work, as well as know their limits that their job imposes. In your case Devin, I can extract nothing from your post that suggests that you taking the day off was a bad idea. But not everyone has your situation, so I would advise that people be aware of their situations before they take too many sick days.
I’m lucky that I don’t get sick that often — and when I do, like this week, it was over the weekend — but when I do have to take a sick day, I don’t feel bad.
What is annoying, however, is that since I publish stories for a magazine’s Web site, I have to log on and do some work anyway. Thankfully, I can do it from my bed.
I recently started a job before the new year and I had no sick days. I was told by HR that if I did get sick it came right out of my paycheck until after Jan 1. Like I can prevent getting sick in winter?
Regarding a sick day for personal use, if I had been killing myself on a project and working long past my normal time, I don’t see a huge problem with taking a day for yourself. Especially if they do not roll over like my company. I consider my self a good employee but what’s the point of having paid time off that you don’t use?
Sick time is a benefit, don’t feel guilty about using it. If you’re sick, be sick. Leave the laptop off and focus on getting better. If you truly unplug, you’ll get better faster and if there’s work to be done, it will still be there when you get back.
I will never feel guilty for taking a sick day. However, I will be angry at the individuals who come to work while sick. Not only is it distracting but it increases the chances that everyone else will get sick. The “be a hero” and come in sick idea just causes more harm than good.
I think it depends on where I’m working. In one particular office, we were all young or of a younger mindset. We all considered each other friends and still get together from time to time, even though most of us don’t work together anymore. Here, if I was sick, I would stay home and get better. But I also think the temptation to stay home if I felt a little sick was less, because I enjoyed my job.
At another job, the environment was a little less comfortable. I would feel guilty or even worried staying home because I felt like time away from work was always scrutinized, even though we all knew none of us had enough to keep us busy.
I love when you guys ask questions that make me think about things like that. It helps me realize what kind of office I want to find myself in post-grad school.
Scott M: We understand the time-off is lumped together but when you don’t have a policy surrounding sick employees then you get situations like Lauren’s which is really beyond her control, right?
Todd: I agree, it’d be silly to abuse the privilege (one that so few people ever get).
I think this comes back to the never-ending debate around being paid a salary. If I’m salaried (as opposed to hourly with overtime) I’m paid to do a job. If I miss a day I can make up for it by working more (hours, effectively) the next day. Forty hours is a self-imposed restriction and I’d argue for free sick days in most offices.
This is a healthy discussion and it actually centers around values and a range of emotions.
I have been hearing stories lately about (well educated )Millennials who take a sick day but don’t bother to call in to tell their supervisor. Now that is sick - and not a way to make sure you are highly regarded. Of course, I am sure none of you ever do that. Whatever your personal feelings about sick day policies or allowances, communicating to the office that you are staying home is both courteous and necessary, even if you are working at home. It may put a burden on others, and people spend time wondering where you are and what happened to you.
Now that I work from home when I am sick I find myself being even more guilty worried and anxious.
I often sneek into the office or sit on the lap top still doing work.
A co-worker came in sick yesterday, really sick, contagious probably, and I was so thankful when our boss made her go home - she’d been sick since Saturday but came to work because the time off had run out. Who cares about that stuff when everyone else’s health is at risk?