How to tell if you're really too sick to pitch for work

Sometimes you wake up feeling slightly sick. On the one hand, you do feel weak. On the other hand, you aren’t sure if you’re too sick to miss out a whole day’s work. So what do you do?

We all know that one colleague that comes to work despite being a walking incubus of viral plague. They sit only two seats away from you with a spectacle of snot and tissues, non-stop sniffs, throaty coughs and gooey germs jumping from their seat to yours... Yuck! Before you reach for your anti-bacterial spray, spare a thought as to why some of your colleagues feel compelled to come to work even when they’re clearly too weak. After all, you may have done the same thing at some point in your career.

Some experts believe it may have to do with the pressures of our jobs.

“Most of my patients have reported that they cannot stay at home when they’re ill due to their work loads and deadlines,” says Dr Lindi Raschke, a GP based in Pretoria.

She also suspects that, in some instances, managers frown upon employees staying at home, so ill workers feel compelled to go to work rather than taking two days to recuperate.

Work pressures have inadvertently created a global trend known as “presenteeism” (when someone goes to work when they shouldn’t be there), and South Africans stats prove we’re no better. 8 in 10 South Africans go to work even though they’re feeling under the weather.

“We live in a world where work doesn’t stop, so people try to work through their illness. They don’t think they’ll make their colleagues sick, but instead think about all the work that needs to be done,” says Jeannine Scheltens, divisional  HR manager for a leading South African media company.

Unfortunately, our conscientiousness sometimes has a downside. Apart from endangering your colleagues, you may also be putting your own life at risk. Flu, and many other diseases, can be life-threatening under certain circumstances.

So, when are employees too sick to work?

If it’s gastro:

Stay home for at least 24 hours after symptoms (e.g. diarrhoea, nausea, stomach cramps, headache, fever and vomiting),

Stay at home for 48 hours if you live or work in a high-risk setting, such as a health-care, residential care facility, or a child-care facility, and also if you work with food.

If it’s the flu:

Stay home for at least 24 hours after the fever has subsided.  If you don’t rest, you may be slowing down your recovery process.

If it’s a cold:

You don’t need to stay home.  But you are contagious. So please always mind your hygienic manners to prevent yourself from spreading germs.

If it’s bronchitis:

Your doctor will most likely book you off for a couple of days. If this is the case, stay home and rest.

As long as you aren’t faking your illness, the best advice is to call in sick, and not go to work.

Are you too sick to go to work? Or is it your work that’s making you sick? Whatever the reason, you need to look after yourself and Health24’s Daily Tip is the perfect way to fine-tune your health with insider tips on everything from fitness to fungal infections. Sign up now and find out how you can live a great life.