Cold and Flu — To Work or Not To Work?
It’s hard to make ends meet especially when the economy is struggling right now. There are bills that we have to pay. There are day to day expenses that we need to take care of. It seems that no matter how hard we work, our salary continues to plummet (thanks to taxes as well). Because of this, some of us take on two or more jobs.
When we feel sick, some of us have this sense of obligation that we must fulfill, as taking a day off from work seems to be an apocalypse coming down from the wrath of God or something . At the same time, taking a day off from work may very well mean lower paycheque for some.
However, should we really constrain ourselves to a sense of pretence duty at the risk of infecting our colleagues and everyone else around us?
A saying goes: Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer…when you are sick though, please don’t
During the change of seasons, the fluctuation of temperature combined with an unsettling weather pattern can bring about sicknesses — some of them commonly known as cold and flu. Yup, it’s definitely a horrible experience of having your nose running, your throat scratchy, your body shivering and sweating at the same time. So with this in mind, I feel that if you are sick then you should take a day off. There’s no need to possibly make your colleagues and friends fall ill as well because of the following reasons:
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1. Productivity will suffer. Imaging an office of 10 people with half of them fallen sick because patient zero has refused to stay home to recover. Other people may have to pick up the extra workload to ensure a smooth day to day operation of the company.
But we all know how well that goes — a person with extra workload will feel stressful. The extra stress will result in lower productivity as that person has to juggle between different responsibilities within a very tight schedule. An entire platoon of soldiers can’t be sacrificed because of one person. At the same time, if you are sick, concentration will be impacted and your work quality will decrease. This may negatively reflect on your image in the office. So be that honourable hero, sneak behind the enemy line and work from home if you can!
2. It’s not fair to others around you. Yes, we’d like to see our enemies suffer as well. Oh, how glorious it would be to see that specific person feeling just as miserable as you are after all the hellish things that they have done to you at work.
However, as a person with higher standards and great ethics, we don’t need to be on par with such people! While you may inevitably accomplish your goal of infecting that stuck-up individual who takes all the credits of your hard work, the innocent bystanders may become unwanted collateral damage.
3. A quiet place to rest will make you recover faster. Your body needs to be cared with nutrients, fluid, and most importantly — rest. When you are sick, your body becomes a battlefield riddling with dead cells and obliterated foreign viruses. Coincidentally, if you have recovered faster than anticipated, you can head back to work early to make more money! It’s a win-win scenario.
It’s war, yo!
In order to drive in the importance of staying at home when you are sick, here’s a quick breakdown of what happens to your body when you are ill (don`t worry, I’m not going to turn this article into an academic thesis paper). Assuming that the rate of fighting infection is faster than the rate of infectious cells multiplying, you should be able to recover within one to three weeks (roughly).
When the nasty bugs first entered your body, they slide themselves through the walls of healthy cells inside you and replicate like cockroaches. Once enough viral cells are scattered throughout your body, they raise their flag in domination and claim sovereignty at multiple locations. White blood cells immediately get to battle stations. They are little soldiers that fight the invaders that are making you sick. They release antibodies that stick to the viral cell to prevent further infections of healthy cells.
At the same time, the natural killer cells are deployed. These cells destroy the viral cells with no moral regards. Finally, the T cells are called in and they are responsible for boosting your immune system with a memory of what the invader looks like for a certain period of time — sort of like a Wanted poster. Next time when the same cold or flu virus invades your body again, the T cells will be ready with the big guns.
Here’s a quirky, yet extremely entertaining, video about our immune system:
Cold or flu?
In many ways, cold and flu symptoms are very similar to each other. To make it short, common cold usually associates with sore throat, runny nose, and coughs. Occasionally, minor fever may break out for some people.
Flu is more severe with sore throat, coughs, headaches, body aches, and fever. Common cold usually is gone within a week and flu may make you feel miserable for more than a week. Best way to check if you have cold or flu is to take your body temperature. Usually common cold doesn’t have temperature higher than 38 degree Celsius or 101 degree Fahrenheit.
Possible reasons why bosses don’t like employees calling in sick
It’s probably because quite a few people called in sick when they are feeling fine. A study done by CareerBuilder has shown that roughly “38 percent of employees have called in to work sick over the past year [(2015)]when they were not really sick. That’s an increase from last year when 28 percent of healthy employees called in sick.”
Of course, psychological stress may contribute to employees not wanting to come to work. I’m sure that many of us have one of those days where it’s raining outside and the amount of work waiting for us are making our morning miserable. But be warned that as more and more people calling in sick for non-legit reasons can result in bleak future for everyone.
According to the survey, “67 percent of employers say they asked to see a doctor’s note. 49 percent say they called the employee and 32 percent say they checked a worker’s social media posts to see if they were telling the truth.”
So unless you are really ill with cold or flu, please try to go to work and make some money for yourself. 🙂
Finally, here are some strange reasons for calling in sick that I found:
- employee just put a casserole in the oven;
- employee’s plastic surgery for enhancement purposes needed some “tweaking” to get it just right;
- employee was sitting in the bathroom and her feet and legs fell asleep; when she stood up, she fell and broke her ankle;
- employee had been at the casino all weekend and still had money left to play with on Monday morning;
- employee woke up in a good mood and didn’t want to ruin it;
- employee had a “lucky night” and didn’t know where he was;
- employee got stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store and couldn’t get out;
- employee had a gallstone they wanted to heal holistically;
- employee caught their uniform on fire by putting it in the microwave to dry; and
- employee accidentally got on a plane.
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Originally published at https://www.vitactivate.com on April 12, 2016.