CALLING IN SICK

The problem is, there seems to be somewhere in the annuls of employment, on page 8394, a sentence that reads: “You must be ill to the point that you cannot do your job, and know it hours before”.

This double bind is where I am tonight. After leaving work early last night, I struggled with the decision today of whether or not to call in sick. I am not severely or acutely ill at this very moment.. but I was for much of last night, meaning I have had no sleep. I have had bouts with aspects of this illness today (including as recently as an hour before the beginning of my shift), and I had a real fear that going in to work tonight would make me be even sicker for the upcoming week.

The problem is, there seems to be somewhere in the annuls of employment, on page 8394, a sentence that reads: “You must be ill to the point that you cannot do your job, and know it hours before”.

This double bind is where I am tonight. After leaving work early last night, I struggled with the decision today of whether or not to call in sick. I am not severely or acutely ill at this very moment.. but I was for much of last night, meaning I have had no sleep. I have had bouts with aspects of this illness today (including as recently as an hour before the beginning of my shift), and I had a real fear that going in to work tonight would make me be even sicker for the upcoming week.

Therein lies this little nugget of a problem. Now I am here at home, feeling better with each passing hour because I am resting.. and my body needed this rest to recover. But I feel bad that I am not actively suffering for the night I am not at work.. I feel like I should be as bad or worse than I was last night (The possibility of going back to the Hospital where I work as an ER patient came up in conversation with my wife).

I guess its pointless to wonder if I would have felt better had I not stayed home to rest.. and I NEVER call in… I am glad I am recovering from this particular bug, I just second guess myself.

6 thoughts on “CALLING IN SICK”

  1. My personal take on calling i

    My personal take on calling in sick is, if you have the time available, it’s yours to use when you need it.

    Then again, you’re currently employed, and I’m not — so take what I say with a grain of salt 🙂 But I’ve found that even when I need a “mental health day” — one where I’m not really really sick, but just feeling under the weather or depressed — taking a sick day makes a world of difference in my outlook.

    As a health care worker and actor, you’re in two professions simultaneously with exceptionally high burnout rates. Take care of yourself first, your family second, and your career third. My two cents.

    —
    Matthew P. Barnson

  3. Your post inspired me…

    You know, your post inspired me to try to do further research on effective sluffing (calling in sick when not sick). I couldn’t find any! I carved through about ten pages worth of Google links, even in foreign languages, and couldn’t find a single site that covered different sluffing strategies with a positive outlook.

    Guess it’s time for me to raise the bar!

    —
    Matthew P. Barnson

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