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Are you like me and always feeling guilty for taking a sick day when you are really sick? Seriously. Like you feel terrible, your brain can barely figure out how to make cereal, and yet, you feel like you are letting down the world by not showing up to work. There’s a part of you that wants to be seen being so committed that working while sick has become some kind of crazy badge of honor. Well, I’m going to turn this argument around. (This is for me just as much as it is for you. I’m on the eve of a cold as I write this.)
What if instead of feeling guilty for not being at work we check our self-importance? Are our roles really that critical that the world will fall apart if we take a sick day when we need one? Have we not established relationships with our teammates for them to cover for us while we’re out? Is overworking ourselves and showing up sick going to help us get promoted or just make our coworkers annoyed that we’re spreading our germs? Is our need to do our jobs and prove ourselves worth exposing our sick germs to coworkers who have families with young children, or to coworkers who themselves may have compromised immune systems?
These questions remind me that a sick day is just a sick day. There is no deeper meaning than that. I take them sparingly. I need them when I take them. And I’m learning to take them when I need them. I’m convincing myself as I write that it is truly in both my and coworkers’ best interests for me to stay home tomorrow. Do I have a lot to do at work? Sure thing. Are there meetings scheduled tomorrow that I’ll have to reschedule? You bet. And it’s all going to be totally fine.