sniffleponder
There’s something so strange about the American work ethic when it comes to illness. I took Tuesday afternoon off, because I felt the ick coming on, and I didn’t have a whole lot going on at the office. My boss was on his way out of town, and looked positively panic-stricken when I told him I wasn’t feeling well, as if the world would end if he and I were both out of the office at the same time. (There are other people on our team who are perfectly capable of working if we’re not here.)
I grew up in food service, so my default setting is to work through just about any illness. I’ve spread countless germs through office HVAC systems and even waited tables with pneumonia. I grew up to settle into my fabulous corporate job, though, where using some of my (unlimited!) sick days is not a foreign concept. I understand the need, to a certain extent, of not calling out unless you’re dead in food service (*someone* needs to work that night, and food service temp agencies are few and far between), but the idea of corporate office workers showing up to work sick perplexes me. There appears to be an attitude of “we’d rather you show up and work at 30% power than stay home and sleep”. Hell, I’d take a work-from-home day, where I can be a little productive and not infect my co-workers.
The odds are, if I stayed home and rested up, I’d get better faster; 2 days at full power (after 2 days off) results in a higher rate of productivity than, say 5 or 6 days at half-power. This is not to say I got nothing done this week – in between chills and sniffles, I did a significant amount of administrative junk that needed to be done sooner or later. I didn’t get any work done on my major projects, though, because I’m too exhausted to focus on anything that important. But, for example, rather than multitasking, right now I’m watching databases compile. It’s kind of like watching paint dry, except less exciting. (Of course, I actually enjoy watching paint dry.)
I have no solutions – if I had the brain-power for that right now, I wouldn’t need to be writing this post. All I can do right now is ponder.
Oh, and why am I at work sick? It’s easier to deal with being sick at work than it is to deal with the fallout of taking a day off (and I’m not talking about my workload.)
| posted June 8th, 2007 | tagged as sickness, work |
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