Do you go to work when you are sick cold/flu/fever?

[DegenerateDish]

I work from home 100% of the time (unless I'm scheduled to travel for work). I don't think I could ever work in an office again. I love it, don't abuse it, and certainly work while sick.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I've rarely taken a sick day over 25 years of professional work because I'm rarely sick.  I have taken time off after some minor surgeries, but I never used vacation time for any of them.  When my kids were under 5 years old I did take a bunch of work-from-home days when they got sick.  My wife and I would alternate days off when they had fevers and daycare and wouldn't allow kids with fever in.

There are days I would love to work from home because I hate the constant fire drill and distractions and I deal with a lot of deadlines and just need to get things done.  My employer likes to see everyone in the building.  This only lasted a year, but I had a flex schedule where I worked 9 hour days Monday-Thursday and a half-day on Friday.  New management came in and ended the policy.   

I know people were curious about vacation & holidays.
I got 12 days vacation after 5 years and won't get 3 weeks until 10 years and you need to be almost dead to get 4 weeks.
However, we do have eleven (11) paid holidays, and one (1) floating holiday.  (Although the floating holiday is a mixed blessing.  We had a big snowstorm in early 2015 and the facility was closed ahead of time and everyone was told they would be charged their floating holiday for it.)
You can only carry over 40 hours of vacation.

[mu03eng]

I've rarely taken a sick day over 25 years of professional work because I'm rarely sick.  I have taken time off after some minor surgeries, but I never used vacation time for any of them.  When my kids were under 5 years old I did take a bunch of work-from-home days when they got sick.  My wife and I would alternate days off when they had fevers and daycare and wouldn't allow kids with fever in.

There are days I would love to work from home because I hate the constant fire drill and distractions and I deal with a lot of deadlines and just need to get things done.  My employer likes to see everyone in the building.  This only lasted a year, but I had a flex schedule where I worked 9 hour days Monday-Thursday and a half-day on Friday.  New management came in and ended the policy.   

I know people were curious about vacation & holidays.
I got 12 days vacation after 5 years and won't get 3 weeks until 10 years and you need to be almost dead to get 4 weeks.
However, we do have eleven (11) paid holidays, and one (1) floating holiday.  (Although the floating holiday is a mixed blessing.  We had a big snowstorm in early 2015 and the facility was closed ahead of time and everyone was told they would be charged their floating holiday for it.)
You can only carry over 40 hours of vacation.

Wish I could carry over vacation. When I started I got 2 weeks plus two floaters and national holidays, got my 3rd week after 5 years...I get my 4th week at the start of my 14th year(this January) and get caped at 5 weeks after 20 years. No rollover, use it or lose it. I don't do a good enough job taking days through the year so I usually end up disappearing the last two weeks of December burning up vacation.

One of the debates my wife and I have around vacation is the fact that vacation means different things to us. She works in healthcare and has an inflexible but very stable schedule, when she takes vacation someone else sees her patients or they don't come in. I have a very flexible schedule but have to travel from time to time and can be all over the map depending on how many international conference calls I have to participate in. When I take vacation, its not really a vacation, its more of a work transfer program where I either have to work harder the week before, the week after, and/or during the vacation. I never take my work laptop on vacations but I do take my smartphone and will monitor things remotely and jump in to keep things from blowing up, but try to limit it. Amazing how much easier it is coming back to work if I take 30-45 minutes over breakfast to delete, forward, and quickly respond to emails to keep the cogs moving.

[Benny B]

Wish I could carry over vacation. When I started I got 2 weeks plus two floaters and national holidays, got my 3rd week after 5 years...I get my 4th week at the start of my 14th year(this January) and get caped at 5 weeks after 20 years. No rollover, use it or lose it. I don't do a good enough job taking days through the year so I usually end up disappearing the last two weeks of December burning up vacation.

One of the debates my wife and I have around vacation is the fact that vacation means different things to us. She works in healthcare and has an inflexible but very stable schedule, when she takes vacation someone else sees her patients or they don't come in. I have a very flexible schedule but have to travel from time to time and can be all over the map depending on how many international conference calls I have to participate in. When I take vacation, its not really a vacation, its more of a work transfer program where I either have to work harder the week before, the week after, and/or during the vacation. I never take my work laptop on vacations but I do take my smartphone and will monitor things remotely and jump in to keep things from blowing up, but try to limit it. Amazing how much easier it is coming back to work if I take 30-45 minutes over breakfast to delete, forward, and quickly respond to emails to keep the cogs moving.

I wish I could carryover vacation or sick time, too.  Me, I accrue one day of vacation or sick time (my choice) every day, but if I don't use it, I lose it.

 

[naginiF]

I've worked through strep, a torn MCL, a severe high ankle sprain, dozens of colds, acute bronchitis, several allergic reactions, pink eye, shingles, and probably another malady or two I can't think of off hand.  But I have a private office and don't have to worry about getting others sick.  But I do get ill enough to necessitate staying home... it's just that most times I'd rather be at work than in bed.  So all but four or five of the sick days I've taken over the past 7 years have come when my kids are ill.  That's where I find value in sick time.

My physical injuries in my 40's - two broken fingers, a dislocated pinky, stress fractures in both feet, broken elbow, torn labrum in my right hip (diagnosed 14 weeks into marathon training finished training and ran a sub 4hr before having surgery) and shingles.  Info on the labrum is to put into perspective how horrible shingles is when i say.......i'd rather have every single other injury and rehab at the same time than go through shingles again. 

[muwarrior69]

I wish I could carryover vacation or sick time, too.  Me, I accrue one day of vacation or sick time (my choice) every day, but if I don't use it, I lose it.

 

Over the years the definition of vacation has changed. From the early '70s to about the mid to late '80s when you went on vacation we had very little contact with our bosses or workplace (no email/cell phones etc.). So we actually came back refreshed/recharged and ready to get into our next project. Today with technology the way it is you are never really away from the job. I can remember at one of the companies I worked for, our manager was constantly e-mailing us for updates and progress reports while she was at Disney World with her husband and 3 kids. When she got back, we all asked how was your vacation?  She replied, what vacation. We all knew what she meant.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

There are many people at my company who are checking e-mail etc. on vacation but I am not one of those.  I let my supervisor know that f there is an emergency call me and I'll try to help as I'll have my laptop, but I won't checking e-mail.  I have the sincere belief that if any company can't do without me (or someone else) for one to two weeks at a time then they have much bigger issues.  If I'm hit by a bus tomorrow or need surgery or cancer treatment or something, then no one will be doing my job for way much longer than 2 weeks.  Any company should be able to manage for less than 2 weeks.

That said I'm usually working OT before vacation and somewhat right afterwards, because I try to leave everything clean & settled before I go and catch-up afterwards.

[mu03eng]

Over the years the definition of vacation has changed. From the early '70s to about the mid to late '80s when you went on vacation we had very little contact with our bosses or workplace (no email/cell phones etc.). So we actually came back refreshed/recharged and ready to get into our next project. Today with technology the way it is you are never really away from the job. I can remember at one of the companies I worked for, our manager was constantly e-mailing us for updates and progress reports while she was at Disney World with her husband and 3 kids. When she got back, we all asked how was your vacation?  She replied, what vacation. We all knew what she meant.

I think some companies are starting to recognize that. My BinL works for Intel and every 7 years they get a 2 month sabbatical in which their phones and laptops are physically confiscated and unless a VP approves the employee can't be contacted during their sabbatical. I've seen other companies try to control the contact while on vacation as well.

Another issue I have is around paternity/maternity. I was lucky because I had a boss that didn't believe in following the letter of the HR law and let me take a week of "sick time" and then a week of working from home when my son was born but if I didn't have that I would have gone back to work 2 days after my son was born. Maybe it makes me an outlier but I think that's ridiculous and quite frankly sexist.

[naginiF]

I think some companies are starting to recognize that. My BinL works for Intel and every 7 years they get a 2 month sabbatical in which their phones and laptops are physically confiscated and unless a VP approves the employee can't be contacted during their sabbatical. I've seen other companies try to control the contact while on vacation as well.

Another issue I have is around paternity/maternity. I was lucky because I had a boss that didn't believe in following the letter of the HR law and let me take a week of "sick time" and then a week of working from home when my son was born but if I didn't have that I would have gone back to work 2 days after my son was born. Maybe it makes me an outlier but I think that's ridiculous and quite frankly sexist.

I agree with you, it's an outdated POV at the least.  The last large company i worked for (Sprint) gave 12 wks maternity and 6 weeks paternity.  I think companies are coming around.

[Benny B]

I think some companies are starting to recognize that. My BinL works for Intel and every 7 years they get a 2 month sabbatical in which their phones and laptops are physically confiscated and unless a VP approves the employee can't be contacted during their sabbatical. I've seen other companies try to control the contact while on vacation as well.

Another issue I have is around paternity/maternity. I was lucky because I had a boss that didn't believe in following the letter of the HR law and let me take a week of "sick time" and then a week of working from home when my son was born but if I didn't have that I would have gone back to work 2 days after my son was born. Maybe it makes me an outlier but I think that's ridiculous and quite frankly sexist.

I took two weeks of paternity leave for my son, one for the first week my wife was home and the other the week she went back to work.  The latter was one of the best weeks of my life: took him to a Brewers game one day, carted him around the zoo the next, went to the mall another, and most importantly, drove him around MU's campus.... kid did more in his 11th week than any of the other 51 his first year.  Granted, he slept most of it, but it was quality time for at least one of us... and the secondary benefit was that it really made me appreciate the job I had and gave me the motivation needed to plow through those sometimes 10-12 hour days that usually followed only 2 hours of sleep.

Now he'd just rather play on the iPad all day... I think I burnt him out too soon.

[🏀]

You're an pretty boy if you go in with a contagious sickness.

I have a two-year old daughter, and many of my co-workers have young kids. Just because I didn't get sick doesn't mean my daughter isn't puking curdled milk all over her bedsheets because you think you are tough.

You are not tough, you're an pretty boy. Stay home and be sick, don't spread it. My manager respects this and our children. If you say you are sick or look sick, he orders you to go home.

[Strokin 3s]

My companies vacation policy is set up such that we get 8 paid holidays, 4 floating holidays and then:

1-4 years: 15 days
5-9 years: 17 days
10-14 years: 20 days
15-19 years: 22 days
20- 24 years: 25 days
25+ years: 30 days

We can rollover up to 10 days per year.
We have unlimited sick time which you are supposed to just log as sick time, but am lucky enough that I have a manager that just says if you are sick you are sick don't worry about it.

Also work from home 1 day a week, sometimes two.  2 weeks paternity leave.

[Benny B]

You're an pretty boy if you go in with a contagious sickness.

I have a two-year old daughter, and many of my co-workers have young kids. Just because I didn't get sick doesn't mean my daughter isn't puking curdled milk all over her bedsheets because you think you are tough.

You are not tough, you're an pretty boy. Stay home and be sick, don't spread it. My manager respects this and our children. If you say you are sick or look sick, he orders you to go home.

If you're referring to norovirus (i.e. puking all over the place)... that's an easy one: stay home.  But for me, if I have a mild cold due to an immune system weakened by recent allergy issues - and given that I'm not working, talking or touching anything near anyone else - we're talking statistical improbabilities here.  Most of the minor stuff doesn't travel well through the air (short of sneezing or coughing directly on someone)... the virus spreads almost exclusively via direct or shared contact.  Sure, not everyone took microbiology 101, but it's not hard to keep yourself in a virtual bubble - whether sick or trying to avoid getting sick - by using a little common sense.  But of course, I hear what you're saying because the instinctive response to getting sick - for most people, anyway - is the desire to be coddled, i.e. selfishness... so at exactly the time when one should be thinking of others (and how not to infect them), most people are only thinking of what other people could be doing to help them feel better... which is the twisted irony of the OP link which found that co-workers who work while sick are doing so in many instances in order to be unselfish.  So if you're going to paint everyone with a broad brush, then yes, your advice is golden; however, personally, if I'm sick at work, I'm pretty much the same risk as someone in full quarantine.  And our company is small... nobody I work with (or any of their families) have compromised immune systems, and we all have our own offices.  We've all worked when sick when we've had (or wanted) to, and we all stay home when it makes more  sense to do so; I realize that isn't a universal solution.

Not to mention, I'm such a germaphobe myself that by the time I get infected with something, everyone else has already been exposed to it several times at least.  Example... several years ago when there was a bad cold virus or something going around Lake County, it seemed like everyone was getting sick on rotation for a couple months except me.  Except I did... 3-4 weeks after everyone else in the county had long since recovered.  In other words, the downside to not being sick is not developing the immunity.

[MU82]

I once worked two consecutive days.

Yes, I was a workaholic!

[real chili 83]

I think some companies are starting to recognize that. My BinL works for Intel and every 7 years they get a 2 month sabbatical in which their phones and laptops are physically confiscated and unless a VP approves the employee can't be contacted during their sabbatical. I've seen other companies try to control the contact while on vacation as well.

Another issue I have is around paternity/maternity. I was lucky because I had a boss that didn't believe in following the letter of the HR law and let me take a week of "sick time" and then a week of working from home when my son was born but if I didn't have that I would have gone back to work 2 days after my son was born. Maybe it makes me an outlier but I think that's ridiculous and quite frankly sexist.

You can take up to 12 weeks of paternity leave under the protection of the FMLA.

[Jay Bee]

I receive neither paid time off nor holiday pay.

[real chili 83]

I receive neither paid time off nor holiday pay.

But you have other fringe benefits where you work.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

My companies vacation policy is set up such that we get 8 paid holidays, 4 floating holidays and then:

1-4 years: 15 days
5-9 years: 17 days
10-14 years: 20 days
15-19 years: 22 days
20- 24 years: 25 days
25+ years: 30 days

We can rollover up to 10 days per year.
We have unlimited sick time which you are supposed to just log as sick time, but am lucky enough that I have a manager that just says if you are sick you are sick don't worry about it.

Also work from home 1 day a week, sometimes two.  2 weeks paternity leave.

I want to work where you do.

[4everwarriors]

I receive neither paid time off nor holiday pay.

I feel yo pain, kin, hey?

[warriorchick]

You can take up to 12 weeks of paternity leave under the protection of the FMLA.

But they don't have to pay you for it.  And depending on the culture of the company, you might get a lot of crap for taking it if you are a dad.

[chapman]

Could go back further too. Until I was a freshman at Marquette, I don't think I missed a day since 5th grade. That's what you get when you have 2 teachers as parents.

    Once I got a job, I pretty much had my parents' blank excuse note.  Heck, when they were out of town, I'd be armed in advance with a couple of notes ready to go for missing a day, arriving late, or needing to leave early. 

How many people will work from home because what they are working on is just more efficient/less interruption to work at home?

I work from home probably 20-30 days a year, at least 50% of the time it's because its just better to do so than going into the office. 40-50% is because I need to be home for something.

Curious more than anything.

Pretty much the exact same; about a day every other week/half day a week average.  Which is somewhat abnormal; my company has a ton of people who go into their "local" offices once or twice a year, and have no reason to since nobody they work with is actually there.  Same split between needing to be home for something or deciding it'll be more efficient/less frustrating.

[Jay Bee]

But you have other fringe benefits where you work.

Oh man, you're not lying!!

[WI inferiority Complexes]

I sell cars.  Don't make a dime unless I'm at work, (and some days, don't make a dime even when I'm at work).

I get two "paid weeks" of vacation a year.  Every year on my work anniversary, (which happens to be near Christmas), I receive a check for the average of two weeks of my commission.  I count this as a Christmas bonus, and rarely, if ever, take a day off.  Knock on wood, I haven't had any health problems.

[real chili 83]

But they don't have to pay you for it.  And depending on the culture of the company, you might get a lot of crap for taking it if you are a dad.

You can use accumulated PTO or vacation/sick.  Rarely does that add up, unless you are in civil service.  For example, teachers have been allowed under many contracts, to bank unused sick time.

On the crap thing, it depends on your company's culture.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

You can use accumulated PTO or vacation/sick.  Rarely does that add up, unless you are in civil service.  For example, teachers have been allowed under many contracts, to bank unused sick time.

On the crap thing, it depends on your company's culture.

CPS doesn't allow you to bank sick days anymore. My mom was saving up so she could retire a year early but that got shot down 2 years ago.