Why Can't I Call In Sick?

It's like Dan Jenkins wrote...you gotta play hurt.

I don't know why this is an issue. No one should be out because they have the sniffles, even if your job that night is to be out in 35 degree weather with rain and wind covering podunk high school soccer. Take some sudafed, grab a hankey (tissue will get soaked), grab some coughdrops, and go do your job. Got the runs? Take imodium. Got a headache? Take some tylenol, drink some fluids. Take more if it keeps up.

We expect athletes to play with a bruised thigh or even minor fractures. We can handle some head colds.

But we also understand if they tear up a knee or have a concussion. If you've got a migraine, and you're supposed to man the desk that night, take a day. World doesn't end. Just give your boss enough notice so they can pull someone else in to work that night, can assign your duties to the others in the office, or so they can prep an intern to do something to help out.

Vomiting up a storm? Take a day.

I remember Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick talking about Eric Lindros in their book about SportsCenter. I think it was Olbermann who criticized the Flyers center for being soft, for missing multiple games for relatively minor injuries. He ran into Lindros, John LeClair, and a couple other Flyers at a post-game get together and LeClair pulled him aside. Fully expecting the veteran to roast him for calling out Lindros, LeClair instead thanked Olbermann for helping Lindros to realize that, yes, injuries were a part of the game, but you have to play hurt.

Same deal applies to us. Our business makes us more susceptible to illnesses. If you battle through head colds and other minor maladies, no one is going to slight you for taking a day when you can't see straight because of the migraine.

And if they do, you can sue their ass and help your paper go out of business faster than it already is.

 

Not for a migraine. You get a migraine, you are fucked. Dark room, compresses.
Only time I haven't worked is with flu that made me puke nonstop for half a day, chills and migraines. Can't work with any of those three. I have worked with severe coughs and high fevers.

 

We had a desker who got severe migraines. He had injectable Imitrex. So it was kinda weird seeing a guy have to shoot up to get through a desk shift.

 

I've called in sick twice.

I fully intended to come in the first time. I'd been coughing for about a week and was starting to generally feel shitty, so I decided to go to the doctor to get some prescription-strength cough syrup so I could sleep better. Turns out I had pneumonia and had to miss about three days plus my regular days off that week as the antibiotics forced me into days-long coughing fits. I felt guilty, but I also figured as much as I was coughing, no one would let me near enough to them to interview them. I made a few phone calls to arrange game coverage of things I'd miss, but other than that I basically coughed and slept for five consecutive days.

This year, I had strep throat for the first time since middle school and was told I'd be contagious for 24 hours after starting antibiotics. I figured the people in my office wouldn't appreciate it if I came in and gave it to everyone.

My threshold is this - if you're contagious, stay home, if only to spare everyone else in the office. If you're so sick that you physically won't be able to work - high fevers, true migraines, persistent vomiting, etc. - stay home. You won't be any good if you come in and can't do your job in even a half-assed fashion.

But a lot of things people consider sick in other businesses, particularly severe seasonal allergies and nagging headaches (I know them far too well), are not good reasons to call in.

 

you guys kill me. does the rule book also say i have to work the day one of my kids is born?

 

boy or girl?

 

girl.

 

eh. take a half day.

 

And while you're off the half day, Twitter about the birth for your paper's Web site.

 

I've worked with deskers like that before. Except I told think he was shooting Imitrex.

 

Here's another issue I expect to know the answer.
Has anybody ever demanded they take the day off for a religious holiday? Has the request been granted quickly?

 

since you demanded an answer, i refuse to participate.