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  • Posted by lostinamerica 7 years, 11 months ago
    I tend to go to work unless very ill. I own my own business so I am responsible and if I want to keep clients, I need to perform

    Regardless, I am not staying home with the sniffles. On the other hand, if I have full blown flu, I am neither sharing that nor in any shape to perform.
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  • Posted by Mamaemma 7 years, 11 months ago
    Yes. The main reason is that if I cant go to work then the whole office has to shut down (I'm a dentist, and by law noone can treat patients unless I am in the office). So a good number of patients would have to change their appointments, and a lot of them have taken off from work to come to the office. Also, if I call in sick all the employees still get paid, and all the overhead goes on without any income.
    So, unless I am too sick to do good work, I will go in! It works out that I average about 1 day a year off due to sickness.
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    • Posted by Ben_C 7 years, 11 months ago
      I do what you do except on pets. I too have exactly the same concerns you do. I blew out a lumbar disc one evening in my back, thought I was going to die, and still went to work in the morning. In my field we are exposed to every pathogen known to man so I rarely if ever get a contagious disease. Besides, I enjoy what I do - every case is different and I get to treat a wide range of species - from a Jamaican fruit bat to polar bears and most everything in between.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 7 years, 11 months ago
    I have missed one lecture in 18 years of being a professor, and had never missed a day of school or work prior to that. I was sick often. Going to work takes my mind off my illness, and usually helps cure the illness.

    There is nothing I would rather do than the work that I do.
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    • Posted by $ jbrenner 7 years, 11 months ago
      The one missed lecture was for the surgical removal of a kidney stone. I taught my other lectures earlier that day.
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      • Posted by $ blarman 7 years, 11 months ago
        Dude, you've got serious stones. (pun intended) ;)

        I have had a couple of friends who suffered through kidney stones and they were in such pain they thought they were going to die. I salute you for your fortitude!
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        • Posted by $ jbrenner 7 years, 11 months ago
          I have gout (kidney stones outside the kidney) more often than not. You learn how to deal with it.
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          • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 7 years, 11 months ago
            Hello jbrenner,
            You know about cherries right? I used to have some pains in my big toes occasionally. I introduced more cherries and other berries into my diet while watching the amount of food high in purines, like asparagus and I am doing much better. Apparently foods high in purines are tied to high uric acid levels. Worked for me.
            Regards,
            O.A.
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  • Posted by $ SarahMontalbano 7 years, 11 months ago
    Although I don't have work, I do go to school when I am sick unless my fever is above 103 degrees F or I'm barfing my guts out. It's just way too much hassle to miss so much. So many things are assigned each day I can't afford to miss.
    I did miss one day this year due to illness. I toughed it out the day before and was picked up at the end of Science Olympiad with cold sweats and the tears rolling down. I had a fever of 104 and stayed home the next day. Never went in to the doctor to see what was wrong.
    I'm currently sick with a cold, but as I've stated before, I'd have to be barfing my guts out to stay home. :)
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  • Posted by eddieh 7 years, 11 months ago
    I have worked 54 years in a small family business and except for 6 (yes six ) hip surgeries and a kidney removal I have not missed any work. I love what I do and have no plans to retire. I am 69 and I have the false idea that my business will not run without me.
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  • Posted by Wifezilla 7 years, 11 months ago
    in 10 years of running our family business, we were only closed for half a day due to illness. Both my husband and I contracted the Norovirus... most likely from one of our customers.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 11 months ago
    I think the last time I was sick enough not to go to work was in about 1978. I have had elective surgery since then but chose a time when it did not negatively affect my clients.
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  • Posted by Joseph23006 7 years, 11 months ago
    Though retired at this time, I managed a store for the Pa. Liquor Control Board. I was lucky to have only minor sniffles but major sinus headaches, but I worked through it, the employees under me and the customers took my mind off myself. The only time lost was for two surgureys. Only in retirement did all that catch up with me.
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  • Posted by kddr22 7 years, 11 months ago
    Not sick very often but I do go in and wear a mask if needed. As a pediatrician, the schedule is not easy to adjust or for rounds newborns do not exactly schedule themselves...Luckily rarely if ever sick probably from overexposure to viruses
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  • Posted by $ Susanne 7 years, 11 months ago
    If I can function (mentally and/or physically), and if I won't risk getting others sick, I'll go in. On the other hand, if I would get others sick (thereby putting the whole office down) then no, I'll sacrifice my time so the mission keeps getting accomplished. Personally - I get so bored doing nothing I can't wait to get back when I am off. I HAVE been so sick my boss has sent me home - but usually it's after a long argument why I shouldn't be off, that work has to be done...

    Yet, there are many where I work of the following camp (some I have had the honor of being able to terminate...):

    "Being a good civil servant, and as one who unashamedly takes their unearned graft from what the government loots from the people and wheedles through government subsidies and contracts, I take off as much paid time, sick or not, as I can. It's because I deserve to get every unearned dime from the suckers who employ me, if I could sue them to get even more money for doing even less, I would. Because you owe me, and I got my eyes on the prize."
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    • Posted by $ 7 years, 11 months ago
      Good you could can them.

      Our whole staff has the same thing, brought in by a member of the staff. This morning the office manager sent an all hands text to see who was going to make it in.
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      • Posted by $ Susanne 7 years, 11 months ago
        Hopefully... what the member brought in was something less dangerous, such as Hemorrhagic Fever or Bubonic Influenza... than the highly contagious (and likely to take out the whole organization) disease of Moochengrabbers Looterism (otherwise known as Kroney's Disease...)
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        • Posted by $ 7 years, 11 months ago
          Oh the Moochengrabbers Looterisms are our patients. Medicaid was expanded by 70K this year, and some who didn't want it were forced to either take it or pay a really high premium for a private insurer. Everyday I have to bill Medicaid for the 'free glasses and eye exam'. At least I finally got the rest of the staff to understand that they are paying for it. 1 staff and 1 doc are both bleeding heart lib/progressives. After 1 meeting one of the other staff members asked me if my head had exploded yet because what the 1 doc was saying about how the grubment needs all our information to decided how to spend the money. The doc that owns the practice was trying to decide if he should pass out the popcorn or not.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 11 months ago
    When I was the sole proprietor of a struggling business, there was no question that unless I was on the verge of total immobility, I'd go into work. In my entire working career that only happened once, for one day with a case of spewing flu.It took me a while to get used to retirement. I finally came to the conclusion that it was my brain, not my rickety body that was making me miserable. Pain I could deal with, but boredom, never. So, I got my brain in gear and piled on as many activities for it as possible, one of which is "gulching."
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 7 years, 11 months ago
    Lots of fluids, sweat a lot, lots of vitamins, stay away from me. The four rules. I didn't come back to the US for my$1200 flu shot (what medicare costs me for providing nothing.) but the no charge shot in Mexico worked fine came two months later and did stop the flu., they like expats we spend a lot of money into their economy.
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  • Posted by TheOldMan 7 years, 11 months ago
    If it's not debilitating, then I go it. If it is, I can work remotely. My customers count on us. They never knew that I was in a hospital a few years ago for a week in a cardiac care room.
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 7 years, 11 months ago
    When I was a young man, I used to go no matter what. I'm sure I hosed some other people in doing so, an prolonged my cold. I can't think of an ailment besides a cold/flu I've stayed home for, except surgery recovery.

    At some point I took a work friends recommendation to "burn off" a cold, by getting in bed, under a pile of blankets, and get hot to exacerbate your fever. That works, so i do it when I feel one coming on.

    Since I can work at home often, it is less relevant.
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 11 months ago
    I set up my home office so that I have the ability to do almost anything I need to from home, including answering questions via Imessage from any of the employee computers.

    I generally come into the office so long as I wont infect the workers there. I was out for about a month with an ankle replacement surgery, but we didnt miss a beat because of my preparation and ability to use computers and remote access through gotomypc and apple's Imessage and filemaker remote access.

    I think planning goes a long way to dealing with illnesses. I try to delegate everything I can and then monitor what happens. My job is really to be the inspiration for what we do, anyway.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 7 years, 11 months ago
    It depends on how bad I feel. If I'm throwing up, I'll stay home. But there isn't much TheraFlu or DayQuil doesn't take enough of an edge off to allow me to function. I may not be 100%, but even if I stay home, I inevitably get buzzed with critical IT issues I have to fix, so it isn't as if I'm just getting the day off anyway...
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 7 years, 11 months ago
    I haven't been sick in over twenty years but before that I often did go to work when I was sick.

    Figured that work would keep my brain from thinking about being sick.
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  • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 7 years, 11 months ago
    No. I do not go into work when I am sick. And I resent when others do. I went around on this last December, as especially, our work rules specifically stated that you cannot come in when you are sick. I pointed out one employee to HR; and HR said, "Oh, it's just allergies." So I asked him how the cedar allergies were - it being December - and he replied that he was sick. He did not come in the next day.

    Coming in when you are sick is like waving around a loaded gun. ... Oh! but I am trained by the NRA and licensed by the state, it is perfectly safe for me to wave around a loaded gun!....
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    • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 11 months ago
      Hope the safety is on when you wave your bang-bang machine around.
      I suddenly recall a NRA qualified security guard who got canned for being caught twirling a loaded revolver to impress little kids.
      I read the following somewhere a long time ago.
      There was a dude who annually received an award for his perfect attendance in an office setting fulla cubes for work stations.
      A coworker pointed out that whatever contagious ailment Mr. Perfect came in with, others would catch it and call in sick as a result.
      Heck of a way to handle the attendance competition, eh?
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FORMATTING HELP

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