Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
Speaker 1: new world of work, where location and hours are more
Speaker 1: flexible than in the past. Today's tip is about how
Speaker 1: to figure out when to call in sick when you
Speaker 1: work from home. Recently, a listener wrote in that she
Speaker 1: had had a fever over the weekend. It didn't seem
Speaker 1: to be the coronavirus, and she powered through the first
Speaker 1: three days of the work week, popping into her Zoom
Speaker 1: meetings and the like. As she noted, it felt silly
Speaker 1: to call in sick even though I didn't feel well.
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to infect anybody else, and I didn't
Speaker 1: have to leave my house. But she said, on Wednesday afternoon,
Speaker 1: my fever spiked again, and so she let her colleagues
Speaker 1: know that she couldn't be on her calls on Thursday.
Speaker 1: She worried that she was letting everyone down, though she
Speaker 1: noted that her colleagues responded graciously, offering to bring her
Speaker 1: food and medical supplies. In any case, she wondered, what
Speaker 1: I thought about taking sick days when you're working from home.
Speaker 1: It's a good question. People who work from home take
Speaker 1: significantly fewer sick days than people who work in offices.
Speaker 1: Now that's not necessarily because they're healthier. It's just that
Speaker 1: if you aren't exposing other people to your germs and
Speaker 1: you don't have to go anywhere, you can, in fact
Speaker 1: work when you are moderately sick. You can also work
Speaker 1: if you are caring for a moderately sick family member,
Speaker 1: Since little kids get sick all the time, this is
Speaker 1: one reason that parents in particular appreciate the option of
Speaker 1: being able to work from home. But note the qualifier
Speaker 1: moderately sick. Sometimes we're really sick, and just because you
Speaker 1: could technically take a zoom call from your bed doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that this is a great idea. You can tire
Speaker 1: yourself out when you should be resting. If you're a chy,
Speaker 1: or feverish, or vomiting for that matter, you probably won't
Speaker 1: be able to think straight. If you're caring for an
Speaker 1: extremely sick family member, well you're probably best off watching
Speaker 1: that person rather than trying to mute the phone around
Speaker 1: their needs too. So here's my rule of thumb. We
Speaker 1: all have good days and bad days in the office
Speaker 1: or at home. Evaluate how you're feeling and ask this question,
Speaker 1: what percent capacity can I perform at today? If the
Speaker 1: answer is over, I'd say go ahead and work. This
Speaker 1: is within the realm of a mediocre day, the sort
Speaker 1: we all have from time to time. But if the
Speaker 1: answer is less than six, then go ahead and take
Speaker 1: a sick day, and yes, really take the day off,
Speaker 1: turn off the laptop and the phone, and focus on
Speaker 1: healing yourself or your family member. If you focus on healing,
Speaker 1: you'll probably you feel better more quickly than if you're
Speaker 1: just trying to model through. If you've worked from home
Speaker 1: for a while, I'd love to hear your thoughts on
Speaker 1: when you decide to take sick days. You can let
Speaker 1: me know at Laura at Laura Vanderkam dot com. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: the succeeding in the New Corner Office. The New Corner
Speaker 1: Office is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your favorite shows.