Calling in sick to work and feeling guilty

[Sam_2.0]

I work in a cube-farm. I don't have much interaction with people during the day unless I want to as my cube is over in the corner against the windows. Usually when I am sick I still go in and just keep to myself. But by the time the weekend comes around I am completely worn out. DH, DD, and I all seem to have caught the most recent plague going around here. They both have coughs, but I don't have that part (I think it's because I don't have tonsils since my throat still seems sore). I called in to work yesterday, but still ended up logging in from home and working a bit in the morning. I called in again today and still logged in to clear out anything pressing that couldn't wait until Monday.

Why do I feel so guilty calling in to work when I am actually sick? Part of me feels like I should go in if I can get out of bed, while the other part of me just wants to rest before I crash completely. It's our slow season anyway so I wouldn't really have more than 1-3 hours worth of work to do and I have plenty of paid sick time available. I am not really pushing my work off on to anyone else by staying home since I handled most of it from here, but my boss and my co-worker did have to pick up one item each. And we all really do the same tasks so it's not like they were doing them "for" me, I just am usually the one that grabs those things first.

Just one more thing to feel guilty about I guess.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

You should read "Lean In".  She talks a lot about how women fall prey to feeling guilty for taking care of themselves and not putting others first, including our jobs.  


I remind myself the world isn't going to end if I'm not here today.  The lab ran just fine without me before I was hired.  I'm not so irreplacable that nobody can do my job if I'm gone for awhile.

Also this is a transaction that at any time my employer can chose to eliminate with no hard feelings.  So why the hell am I dragging my half dead carcass in when employers don't have to show the same loyalty to me?

[The Captain]

Oh Hell no!  If you are sick please!!! stay home.  You are doing yourself, and your coworkers, a favor.

No need to spread the "love" around.  Stay home, get better, and get back to 100%.

(Note - unless there are any major deadlines that will be missed, use your judgement of course!).

Trust me, as a manager and employee, we want you to stay home.

[tcu2003]

Stay home and don't feel guilty!

[econstudent]

I always feel guilty too! I don't know why; everyone else seems to use their sick time when they need to, so it's not like we have an atmosphere where no one ever takes a sick day. 

[thyme4change]

If the company profit drops, the company won't feel any remorse to cut heads, and that one could be yours.  Don't feel guilty.  They will keep themselves healthy at your expense.  You should do the same.

[gooddecisions]

As long as you don't abuse your sick leave policy, employers really don't care. If you want to come in and sneeze, snot and cough all over the place, they are not secretly admiring how committed you are to your company. If you choose to do that at home, they don't view you as not being committed. It just does not matter one way or the other in the eyes of a (most) employer(s).

If my direct reports take a sick day, I respond thanks for letting me know, feel better. I'm not sitting there thinking, those slackers should be working. I was an uber-dork with perfect attendance all 12 years in school and don't ever get sick enough to take a sick day at work, and I still don't judge.

[muttleynfelix]

I always feel bad too...until I was in the hospital, I didn't feel bad at all about not being at work.  But yeah, when I'm sick, I usually cry when I call my boss and tell him I can't make it in.  It is pathetic.

[Sam_2.0]

Well, I didn't leave the house for 4 days, so I would say I was legitimately sick I take that back, DH and I felt so terrible yesterday that we went to the Walgreens clinic. No flu, just a bad virus. Somehow I felt better having someone tell me I really was sick.

I think the calling in thing comes from when I was working retail or in the call center. There was pretty much no excuse for calling in unless you were on your deathbed (or had no voice in the call center, but they would put you on clerical work for the day if that was the case).