So I don’t why, but I hate making the choice to bail on something because I’m sick (doesn’t apply to work anymore; I have to do my job no matter how sick I am. But you know, other things). To be clear, the bailing part I’m okay with; being the one to verbalize it makes me feel guilty though, even if I know I’d be better off resting.
Therefore I tend to go to whatever event it is that I don’t feel up for and then just trying to project how crappy I feel. To be as stoically and visibly miserable as I can, in the hopes that someone else will say “Oh you poor thing, you shouldn’t be here! Go home and rest!”
Perhaps its residual guilt from the many times I faked being sick to stay home from school, but I always just feel better when someone else has verified my illness. When I know they know I’m really sick. Because then I’m at home with the comfort of that second opinion: “Nope, even they said I should stay home and rest.” It’s like I don’t trust my own brain to make that diagnosis alone, because maybe somewhere deep down its just plotting excuses for us to stay in bed.
I used to do this at work sometimes when my supervisors we’re getting too high on themselves and generally badmouthing everyone that wasn’t there, who wasn’t in their clique anyway. There is also some satisfaction to be had from storming in and slapping an FMLA form for a chronic, recurring illness on their desk after they’ve cussed you out on the phone.
What you need is a friend to always say that to you at (event) regardless of how healthy you look and that way you have your validation and you can leave whenever you want.
Brilliant lol
Not that it would help in your current job (and one we hope you keep at for many more years) but one of the beautiful things about having kids is you can always be an over-reacting parent and decide they need to stay home from school for the day because of some mystery sniffles… and then you are making the sacrifice of being a responsible parent and unable to come to work. slacker day, cool parent (from a kids perspective), and a responsible family man all in one excuse.
Yeah, if I keep my kids home from school, then all I’ve done is brought them to work with me XD
When they are small that is the case, but when they are older and more capable of looking after themselves, then you become the cool parent.
Tim– You’re far from alone in this opinion. The downside of this is that too many businesses have employees with severe colds or the flu come into work and get everyone else sick too. My opinion as a manager has always been, if you’re sick you’re sick. Stay home. A gray area develops when your work allows you to telecommute because you often can still participate in meetings or help out the team even while sick. I’m lucky that I’m able to be flexible with my team with this but there are many more jobs where it remains a binary… Read more »
For a lot of people, what Lunas does in this strip is what you *have* to do if you’re too sick to go to work but not sick enough to go to an emergency room. A company I’ve worked for in the past had a similar policy, and my performance was dinged and I had a verbal warning for calling in sick. Thankfully the company I work for now doesn’t do that, but I do have to use a vacation day if I’m too ill to drive. Then there are the places that will -not- send you home unless you… Read more »
Ugh, sorry – my phone has some stupid auto correct. That’s “Lucas” and “Wal-Mart”, not Lunas and WalzMart.
I worked for a restaurant once that wouldn’t send me home when i was vomiting uncontrollably… I worked in the kitchen. They changed their tune when i started to dial the health department though. I didn’t have a job the next day sadly.
I really feel like I have to chime in on this. My daughter is currently going through a bone marrow transplant (leukemia treatment), which means her immune system is at 0 and, whenever it comes back, will take about a year to be at any meaningful level of effectiveness. Going out for any kind of activity is a stress because we always have to think how likely someone sick will be there. So we always have to look for things to do at weird hours. Companies should really take a moment and evaluate if having a sick coworker getting customers… Read more »
Tim I cannot describe how happy i am to see Ethan and Lucas back as strip regulars. Thank you.
I always drive in (hour and fifteen commute) and tell my boss face to face that I’m sick then go home (Hour and fifteen back).
It’s just so they know I’m sick and I made the effort. I also always tell them that sometimes you don’t know if you’ll feel better once you’re up and around.
(I should also note that my boss was the owner of the company and I was the manager, so it was worth going the extra mile… Or extra 100 miles as the case may be)
I got to say this is a terrible philosophy, I get it but it really just gets a lot of other people sick. I have a friend that does the same thing with social engagements and the one time during the holidays when he got our entire group sick because he felt like he “had” to be their has never been forgotten 🙂
Don’t get others sick to assuage your guilt, know when you are sick and call in man.
Oh boy, do I hear you! I feel like that when I’m sick too, especially if I feel really badly but I’m not exhibiting outward signs of being sick. In fact, that happened to me yesterday. Felt like garbage, cancelled going to church with the kids, then felt guilty (even though I took like a 3 hour nap so obviously I was not feeling very good.)
I’d make a comment, but I don’t feel good enough about the subject to bother making one 😉
Um. You made one anyway? Why?
Woosh…. That’s the joke going over your head
I’m not doing this.
I miss having a job that would care enough to look at me and realize I need to be sent home because I am too sick. These days, I am lucky if I don’t get written up for taking a sick day… Working for corporate sucks.
“Mr. Anderson, why weren’t you here yesterday?”
“I had a surgery scheduled for my Appendix, if I had waited until Saturday I might have died”
“NO EXCUSES, I’M DOCKING PAY BY 4 DOLLARS AN HOUR FOR THE NEXT 6 WEEKS!”
guess the way sweden does it helps with not getting written up for taking sick days, here your first sick day every time your sick you wont get paid anything, the purpose of it is preventing people from calling in sick when they are not, however the problem that creates id say is that there are people like me who think that it wont matter how sick we are, were still never sick enough that its worth not getting paid for one day, so well drag ourself to work no matter how bad we feel.
So Lucas is one of those dickheads who comes to work sick and proceeds to get everyone else sick.
You suck, Lucas. ?
Historically, it’s been Ethan who’s the dickhead who comes up with a mysterious illness in order to play the highly-anticipated game.
Yes, but Lucas actually was ill.
Poor, poor man, no one deserves that.
Stuck in bed having to play Shadow of War.
fak u