co-worker sick 6 days with flu

[TimeForGuinness]

OK, where do I rank on your guys' rant meter? I've had a bad cold the past couple of days which culminated last night/this morning, so I took a half day this morning, slept in to 11:30, and prepared and went to an important 2:00 meeting. No, I was not "completely unable to come into work", but I was a coughing zombie and Dayquil/Nyquil wasn't doing the trick anymore. I would have taken the whole day had I not had an important meeting.

I'd call you a trooper...but there wasn't any way to dial into the meeting?

[TheoSqua]

The important thing was the meeting and you were there. ++

[JCShutout]

I normally don't care too much if people miss. It just happened that today was day 6 (which seemed unreal before I read the responses to my thread), and I was covering two departments by myself in what is normally a 4 person job, (1 person sick, 1 person hasn't been replaced, 1 person on vacation) and I'm overly stressed about school anyways, and I was a bit frustrated at the person who, in the 2.3 months working here, has taken more sick days than I have in the past 4 years at various jobs. (as some have said, as much as she may need to be out, its a normal reaction to be frustrated)

So yeah, I'd say trooper, but calling in would have worked too IMO.

[planet planet]

OK, where do I rank on your guys' rant meter? I've had a bad cold the past couple of days which culminated last night/this morning, so I took a half day this morning, slept in to 11:30, and prepared and went to an important 2:00 meeting. No, I was not "completely unable to come into work", but I was a coughing zombie and Dayquil/Nyquil wasn't doing the trick anymore. I would have taken the whole day had I not had an important meeting.

I'd call you a trooper...but there wasn't any way to dial into the meeting?

No, it was a sales meeting with a client and I was leading our team. It's easy to second guess and judge how sick someone is when you're sitting in your cube, posting away on GRB, completely healthy. You certainly can't pick and choose timing of when you get sick either. All I know is when you are afflicted and feel like ass to the point that your emotions are affected, you're better off not going in for your sake and your work's sake.

[TimeForGuinness]

OK, where do I rank on your guys' rant meter? I've had a bad cold the past couple of days which culminated last night/this morning, so I took a half day this morning, slept in to 11:30, and prepared and went to an important 2:00 meeting. No, I was not "completely unable to come into work", but I was a coughing zombie and Dayquil/Nyquil wasn't doing the trick anymore. I would have taken the whole day had I not had an important meeting.

I'd call you a trooper...but there wasn't any way to dial into the meeting?

No, it was a sales meeting with a client and I was leading our team. It's easy to second guess and judge how sick someone is when you're sitting in your cube, posting away on GRB, completely healthy. You certainly can't pick and choose timing of when you get sick either. All I know is when you are afflicted and feel like ass to the point that your emotions are affected, you're better off not going in for your sake and your work's sake.

I'd say you did the right thing. I hope everything went well and now you can focus on getting well.

[JCShutout]

Make that 7 days now...

I remember back when I worked retail, people constantly called in for hangovers (they would tell me so later), and I used to have to cover for them. I think that's part of what has me so suspicious nowadays.

This rant wasn't about someone taking sick days who needs them really. Part of it was just frustration over having to cover 4 people's jobs for a week with no help, and suspiciousness. To criticize someone for a lack of compassion is fair I guess, but its a normal reaction to be frustrated.

It's easy to second guess and judge how sick someone is when you're sitting in your cube, posting away on GRB, completely healthy. You certainly can't pick and choose timing of when you get sick either. All I know is when you are afflicted and feel like ass to the point that your emotions are affected, you're better off not going in for your sake and your work's sake.

Until this experience, I had never seen someone take longer than 2-3 days off for something like flu (again, I'm not talked about something bigger) and had never taken that long myself, even for things which were much worse (ugh, I caught something terrible in Nicaragua).

I mean, if you're sick, you're sick. Don't be here, but a lot of us have experiences with coworkers calling in sick with hangovers (They usually tell me about it), so I think skepticism is atleast understandable. I've been burned a lot in retail with this... hell, at my current job, I've gone out with IT, seen guys get drunk, and not come in because they were "sick". These aren't kids, these are the 30-something adults. That will lead to a general suspicion, especially when one doesn't get sick very often, and this is the vast majority of one's experiences with people taking sick days.

Hell, it took me 4 work days of getting crapped on to even start to feel frustrated and suspicious.

That said, feel better Planet! I'll probably be eating my words in a few months when I (probably) move into my new place and am constantly around a bunch of kids and catch a bunch of viruses.

[haltz]

Get trashed and take a sick day sometime and you won't have to feel like that anymore. That disease cure or rocket to Saturn or whatever can wait one more day.

[StatmanCrothers]

its possible your worker is on a secret clandestine spy mission and the flu is just a cover story.

[cardsfansince82]

I think attitudes toward taking sick days should directly correlate with the importance/scarcity of your job at your company. If there are plenty of people to pick up the slack for you then do what you want as long as you can accept any consequences with your boss. But if I'm the only person that can do the job or it would be a large burden to someone else to cover my spot I would make every effort to be there. I think PP handled that situation how I would have if I was really sick.

[JCShutout]

Boss called asking when the first day out was, actually, it was Tuesday last week, so including today, she's been sick 8 days, and 6 work days. Now I'm wondering. This has almost got to be more than flu... (see, now that I've received the psychological benefits of ranting, I can stop being egotistical)