Going to work... and being sick.

Image credit : http://barrynewtonmarketing.com/ through Google Image Search / I looked for "Going to work" pictures

Hello everyone! 

     I will be honest here. I dread being sick. There was a time when I hated my job so much I would do a little victory dance when put on medical leave. Right now, not so much. I will be very clear: no matter what I say about our customers, I love my job, I love my team, and without even trying to be cheesy, I love my bosses. YES I said it, I love working with those people and I am thankful for being surrounded by such awesome people.

    I got sick over the holidays. BAM, two days medical leave. I hated it, but read my work e-mails everyday anyway to keep up with information. And then The Boyfriend got bronchitis and BAM, I started being sick again.

     When you only have a "case of the sniffles" it's easy to handle working in a call enter. Tissue, and voilà, you're good to go. Apologize to customers on the phone, and all is fine.

     When you start coughing a little, it's still easy, you get cough drops, and everything you can think of to help. After all, it's nothing much, right ? Surely it will go away on its own ?

     WRONG. After four or five days, you find yourself coughing so much you can't even be on the phone with family and friends without coughing. Then you think BAH, surely a doctor's visit will do ? On Saturday, I tried to go to work, lasted on the phone about an hour, and had to head home. The doctor put me on leave for that day (necessary in France with most companies, if you're out sick, you HAVE to see a doctor and you HAVE to have a note) and I thought it would be easy. I followed his orders, got plenty of rest on Sunday, and headed to work again this morning.

     But nope, of course it wasn't going to stop there! Yesterday I realized the cough had gotten worse. Way worse, in fact, so much that it would be impossible to be on the phone without sounding gross. On the métro this morning I even had to get off at one stop to cough in peace on the platform before taking the next train (thank Goodness I always plan to be 20 minutes early!) , and when my team leader saw me he knew right away I wouldn't last. He thought I should have stayed home, but I said I really wanted to try coming in because I was scheduled. He still signed me off for the day soooo here I am, headed back to the doctor in a few minutes.

     Lesson of the day, you might ask ?

     If you're sick, it's a nice sentiment to try and go to work anyway. If you can handle it, fine, as long as you don't inconvenience coworkers and/or customers.

     But by all means, please don't do it like me. When you're sick, you're sick. It does suck to risk being fired. It does suck to miss pay. But it does suck even more to risk getting worse and lose all hope of working anytime soon.

     Let's cross fingers !