Asked to work while sick

liljellytot

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I'm looking for feedback on a situation.

I rang in sick to work yesterday - I have the flu and am quite exhausted. I'm not surprised I got sick and feel run down to be honest because I have been working long hours and work is pretty stressful. Last week for example, I worked my contracted 39 hours + about 10 hours extra (unpaid). More fool me I guess...

Anyway, I called in sick to work yesterday and my manager was fine with it. I still wasn't feeling better today so I contacted her again this morning, before 9pm, telling her I was still feeling ill and wasn't up to coming in. She said ok, but then sent me a messages asking for an update on a number of things.

In order to produce this update, I had to go through my work emails and collate information from a number of emails I have received over the past few days and then send her a report.

So I'm just wondering, is it OK for my manager to ask me for something like this when I have called in sick? After contacting her this morning I really wanted to just rest and focus on getting better.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but this doesn't feel right.

postitnote

I guess you run the risk that if you're well enough to work from home, it gives the impression you're well enough to be in work.

Personally speaking i'd politely decline the request. I know a girl who was off sick, a teacher. She still managed to send in notes for the supply teacher. Feedback from the principal, heard through someone else was exactly as i described above, he doubted her illness.

TallGlass

liljellytot wrote: »

I rang in sick to work yesterday - I have the flu and am quite exhausted. I'm not surprised I got sick and feel run down to be honest because I have been working long hours and work is pretty stressful. Last week for example, I worked my contracted 39 hours + about 10 hours extra (unpaid). More fool me I guess...

In order to produce this update, I had to go through my work emails and collate information from a number of emails I have received over the past few days and then send her a report.

Politely decline to do either, your not talking 30/40 mins extra your talking 1hr or more a day doing unpaid overtime.

Do what my manager does and what your manager more than likely does when there off sick or just off in general. Switch off the phone!

Hope you get better soon.

intheclouds

You just have to learn to say no.

I had a manager once ask me if the laptop cable would stretch into my loo when I was off with diarrohea so that I could still work from the toilet. I asked him to confirm that query via email and Id respond if the cable reached. Needless to say he wasnt going to put that in writing.

liljellytot

postitnote wrote: »

I guess you run the risk that if you're well enough to work from home, it gives the impression you're well enough to be in work.

Personally speaking i'd politely decline the request. I know a girl who was off sick, a teacher. She still managed to send in notes for the supply teacher. Feedback from the principal, heard through someone else was exactly as i described above, he doubted her illness.

Yeah I was worried about this alright.
I carried out the task this morning as I was afraid to say no, afraid of repercussions on my return. It took me longer to complete than it would if I was feeling well, but I did it none the less. But I don't know whether I should mention it to someone tomorrow e.g. a higher manager.

Aimeee

Chalk it down to lesson learned. You did 10 hours free of charge last week. Now you are sick and still expected to deliver. And you did.
I was you in a previous life. Never said no, always available and always reliable. Always got sick too in first few days of annual leave.
Start saying no more often, leave work on time etc. Your life is important too. All about Balance.

nuckeythompson

Depends really, what is your job description?. Does your manager have access to your emails?

liljellytot

nuckeythompson wrote: »

Depends really, what is your job description?. Does your manager have access to your emails?

I'm a Marketing Exec (although feels like a personal assistant sometimes), no she wouldnt have access to my emails.

Czhornet

liljellytot wrote: »

Yeah I was worried about this alright.
I carried out the task this morning as I was afraid to say no, afraid of repercussions on my return. It took me longer to complete than it would if I was feeling well, but I did it none the less. But I don't know whether I should mention it to someone tomorrow e.g. a higher manager.

If you're sick, you are sick. What ever it is, it can wait, you are just a number at the end of the day, and busting yourself and not getting paid overtime is a definite no no. I'd put your phone on silent and relax for the afternoon, forget about work, it will still be left for you when you go back (from my experience anyway).

nuckeythompson

With my work I would have to give a handover. So when I rang in sick I would follow up with an email handover and tell them to access my work email for any further information. Then turn my phone off. I also don't have a voicemail on my phone. Chances are they won't email you looking for answers

hardCopy

intheclouds wrote: »

You just have to learn to say no.

I had a manager once ask me if the laptop cable would stretch into my loo when I was off with diarrohea so that I could still work from the toilet. I asked him to confirm that query via email and Id respond if the cable reached. Needless to say he wasnt going to put that in writing.

What a ridiculous question!

Laptops have batteries for a reason! :pac:

drunkmonkey

You do not have the flu, you have a cold, that's not enough reason not to turn up for work.

secondrowgal

intheclouds wrote: »

You just have to learn to say no.

I had a manager once ask me if the laptop cable would stretch into my loo when I was off with diarrohea so that I could still work from the toilet. I asked him to confirm that query via email and Id respond if the cable reached. Needless to say he wasnt going to put that in writing.

You need to see this thread!

OP, I am an employer and would no way expect, or ask, any employee to do work whilst sick. Just turn off your phone.

davo10

The indignation at being asked to check an email while off with a cold. How precious do you have to be to be offended by the mare question of checking an email? Out the door for you my dear.

skallywag

I can understand that your manager may need to have an update and I've been in such a situation myself in the past where I have needed to have information from a colleague who was out sick.

However I wouldn't expect a team member to have to delve through emails and send me a detailed report, it would be more the case that I would give them a call and either ask for a very brief update over the phone, or else just ask them to forward any important emails etc directly to me. Hence I agree that your boss is behaving unreasonable here.

imitation

Jobs are about mutual agreement and getting along, especially if you are doing a well payed job with more responsibility. I dont know your job op, but for me, if something had to be done while I was sick, i would do it if it was something vital that could be done quickly. If it wasnt important or just too much while I was sick I would leave it off. You have to make the call yourself. Its easy to get taken for a ride, but on the flipside, you don't get be called an executive or a manager without some inevitable after hours tasks that are needed to keep the business running.

secondrowgal

davo10 wrote: »

The indignation at being asked to check an email while off with a cold. How precious do you have to be to be offended by the mare question of checking an email? Out the door for you my dear.

Of course, it might help if you actually read the original e-mail. She wasn't asked to just check an e-mail, she was asked for updates which needed a report and took over an hour.

And love the condescending attitude at the end too :eek:

davo10

secondrowgal wrote: »

Of course, it might help if you actually read the original e-mail. She wasn't asked to just check an e-mail, she was asked for updates which needed a report and took over an hour.

And love the condescending attitude at the end too :eek:

Still involves just opening a lap top while lying in bed. The op isn't being asked to get dressed and come into work while sick, just check emails for updates. Ya, out the door as soon as possible, if that is too much to ask while out with a cold, I'd find someone with a bit more gumption.

screamer

Pretty sure it's illegal to ask you to work when sick even if it's a cold.......

Kimbot

If you are unable to go to work then you are unable to carry out work no matter what. If you fell down the stairs while doing the task at home is your jobs insurance covering you?
I was off work for a few months and my boss was on my back over and over to get back in to the office because he couldnt do my work, when I came back to work I complained to his manager who told me he should not have been in contact with me while I was off sick.

davo10

jonny24ie wrote: »

If you are unable to go to work then you are unable to carry out work no matter what. If you fell down the stairs while doing the task at home is your jobs insurance covering you?
I was off work for a few months and my boss was on my back over and over to get back in to the office because he couldnt do my work, when I came back to work I complained to his manager who told me he should not have been in contact with me while I was off sick.

You were on certified leave, op has a cold which I'm guessing is not certified as it is only 2 days. If you think being contacted to check emails is putting someone at risk while they are off with a cold, then its a mad world.

davo10

screamer wrote: »

Pretty sure it's illegal to ask you to work when sick even if it's a cold.......

Link please.

Kimbot

davo10 wrote: »

You were on certified leave, op has a cold which I'm guessing is not certified as it is only 2 days. If you think being contacted to check emails is putting someone at risk while they are off with a cold, then its a mad world.

If you read the OP you will see where the OP states "Flu", you have changed this to "Cold" to suit your argument. Are you a Dr?

If you are not in work due to illness then they cant expect you to work from home!

witchgirl26

I think for something like this it depends totally on what is expected. I've rung in sick before & been asked would I drop an email letting the team I was working with know where I was on certain pieces. This was so there wasn't duplication of efforts & they could get on with things in my absence. I sent off a few bullet points in an email & all was fine.

For me the question would be - did your manager expect a detailed report like what you spent time doing or just the brief overview? Also was there any question of when you might be well enough to be back? Your manager may have been trying to make sure that things were covered if you were still off for another few days. I've been guilty of sending too much when an outline would do myself which is why I ask.

Might be worth having a chat with your manager when you go back in.

intheclouds

davo10 wrote: »

The indignation at being asked to check an email while off with a cold. How precious do you have to be to be offended by the mare question of checking an email? Out the door for you my dear.

Oh lovely, I do love a manager with a medical degree. Try telling me the above and Id have you hung over the HR coals quicker than you could say "can I get you a lemsip?".

Who'd want to work somewhere if a manager had an attitude like that?

runawaybishop

davo10 wrote: »

You were on certified leave, op has a cold which I'm guessing is not certified as it is only 2 days. If you think being contacted to check emails is putting someone at risk while they are off with a cold, then its a mad world.

If you are off sick then a 5 min transition call is grand, generating reports for an hour is not.

westcoast66

Where I work its about 50% contractors and 50% full time employees.

The contractors (who get paid by the day) are rarely off sick while FT employees are always taking sickies. Makes you wonder!

Mrs OBumble

jonny24ie wrote: »

If you read the OP you will see where the OP states "Flu", you have changed this to "Cold" to suit your argument. Are you a Dr?

If you are not in work due to illness then they cant expect you to work from home!

If the OP had the flu (as per their initial post), then they would not have been physically able to do what was asked, and they would not be even contemplating returning tomorrow.


OP, by doing what was requested, you have actually demonstrated to your manager that you weren't really that sick. This may not have been a clever move on your part. Best of luck with whatever happens next.

hardCopy

IMO it's a judgment call. There are certain jobs where one person's work is easily covered by someone else and nobody is dependent on their individual knowledge. In jobs like this the employee will most likely be left alone as there's nothing they can do to help from home.

In other jobs the business can't always carry on as usual around an unplanned absence. Being too sick to come to work doesn't always mean you're too sick to pick up a laptop. Both sides need to be reasonable and go with the employee's decision. There are some project or customers that can just be asked to wait until the employee is better, other tasks are business critical and can't wait.

Obviously there are some illnesses that can't be worked around. In our company if somebody said they were so violently ill that they couldn't open a vital email we'd just change their password and log in to their email account, it is company property after all. We'd probably put a forward on the account while they're off.

Nobody can physically force you to do the work from home but they are your colleagues and you will have to work with them in the future so if I was well enough to help out in some way that wouldn't make me sicker, I'd try to avoid leaving them high and dry.

davo10

jonny24ie wrote: »

If you read the OP you will see where the OP states "Flu", you have changed this to "Cold" to suit your argument. Are you a Dr?

If you are not in work due to illness then they cant expect you to work from home!

Yes.

neonman

I have always gone to work while having a cold but this year it came back to bite me. I worked through a week of feeling really sick (bad cold) and 3 weeks later ended up in hospital over night with pneumonia for my troubles and ended up out of work for the rest of the week.

From now on I think I'll listen to my body and take a day or two off for my immune system to recover. Yeah sure I could work through it but at what cost.

Lesson learned.

Yawns

The employer didn't ring on the first sick day to ask for work done. Day 2 and the OP rang in sick again. Perhaps the manager is waiting on this report for other work to move along and thinks the OP may ring in sick again tomorrow.

If you have the flu, then you won't be out sick for only 2 days. A cold yes, the flu no.

OP just switch the phone off in future.

intheclouds

neonman wrote: »

I have always gone to work while having a cold but this year it came back to bite me.

I hate when people come in while sick and infect everyone else in the office.

Alf Veedersane

You don't have to work but (a) sometimes it's better to just do it and save yourself hassle/foster a decent relationship with the manager and (b) it's not a huge deal to do it.

It doesn't necessarily mean running to do it.

You helped your manager out when sick. You put in a lot of overtime so it's unlikely to create the perception you're a skiver.

I've done the same OP and it's never resulted in questions about how sick I was and it's never been taken advantage of. It's always just been well received because I helped someone out when I was sick.

There's no need for extremes like 'work to rule' or 'out the door'.

Kimbot

davo10 wrote: »

Yes.

That good you can diagnose without seeing the patient!!

Enigma IE

liljellytot wrote: »

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I'm looking for feedback on a situation.

I rang in sick to work yesterday - I have the flu and am quite exhausted. I'm not surprised I got sick and feel run down to be honest because I have been working long hours and work is pretty stressful. Last week for example, I worked my contracted 39 hours + about 10 hours extra (unpaid). More fool me I guess...

Anyway, I called in sick to work yesterday and my manager was fine with it. I still wasn't feeling better today so I contacted her again this morning, before 9pm, telling her I was still feeling ill and wasn't up to coming in. She said ok, but then sent me a messages asking for an update on a number of things.

In order to produce this update, I had to go through my work emails and collate information from a number of emails I have received over the past few days and then send her a report.

So I'm just wondering, is it OK for my manager to ask me for something like this when I have called in sick? After contacting her this morning I really wanted to just rest and focus on getting better.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but this doesn't feel right.

OP, I guess it depends on how critical (or not) the items you needed to provide a quick update on. It's possible your manager needed to provide an update or your colleagues were waiting on something specific.

If the items were not important, then I would have politely declined and they would have to wait.

If the items were important (to someone), then I would have simply logged in and forwarded any relevant emails and added a comment if necessary. Let's say it took 10 minutes, I think that's ok.

I would not have spent an hour going through emails and producing a report.

Hoboo

You're not too sick to be on boards ......regardless.

If you're too sick to get some updates say so. You weren't, you completed it, fair play. If anything that shouts professionalism and dedication, not 'well enough' to be in work. If that's even questioned tell said manager you did it out of professionalism, even though you were unwell, and in future don't request again.

If it was business critical today I would say there's nothing wrong with being asked, if you're that sick you would say no.

The fact you do 10 hours plus will probably mean they don't question your illness in the slightest.

Regarding overtime, depends on your contract. Salary, bonus's etc may cover this......the more senior you are the less likely you'll get overtime, it's simply expected. You don't like it, leave. Harsh but true.

If you want a day off in future, and aren't sick, ring and tell them you're taking a force majeur day. No reason required, just off with the phone immediately.

Enjoy your afternoon!

bucketybuck

jonny24ie wrote: »

That good you can diagnose without seeing the patient!!

If the OP had the flu he/she would damn well know it. He/she has a cold and is feeling rundown, it isn't close to the same thing and you don't need to be a doctor to know that.

Fact is, the world doesn't stop because somebody feels poorly. The company still needs to continue on, so it isn't really unreasonable for the manager to ask for certain information to let it do so. They didn't try and force the OP to come in, or try to deny him any sick leave they simply asked for a few updates.

A little bit of perspective on the part of the OP would do no harm at all.

KomradeBishop

Read your contract with your employer in full, and see what it says about unpaid overtime.

If you did not agree to work unpaid overtime, then calculate how much money you are short by, for those 10 hours of missed work - should help motivate you to do something about it (including motivating trying to change your contract, if they are taking the piss with overtime - which it sounds like they are).

For example - at minimum wage, you would be down €86.5 for giving 10 hours of work for free - that's a fair chunk of money, and if it's a regular occurrance, it could start adding up into the thousands/tens-of-thousands over the years.


If you are not contracted to do unpaid overtime, then this is wage theft (unfortunately, not well supported in law) - and it might be worth talking to someone for legal advice (or even just querying Citizens Information or ICTU) if it's going to be a regular thing.

Don't let yourself be exploited by a crappy employer.

Mrs OBumble

Hoboo wrote: »

If it was business critical today I would say there's nothing wrong with being asked, if you're that sick you would say no.

If it was really business critical, then the OP would have had to have it documented in a central place, from where someone else could have picked it up, and done the necessary extra work, before they last left the office.

_Brian

Only OP can really answer if it was the right thing to do...

If the request was business critical and real heavy **** that affected the business long term then I think unless I was unconscious I'd hash something out. If the business suffers big time over this it will never be forgotten and OP's position is on limited time..

If it wasn't absolutely critical then I think I'd decline, offering to do it immediately on return to work... I'd probably immediately after declining go get a doctors cert to re-enforce things a bit though..

In more than one business I've been in, saying NO for near any reason is assigned to company memory to be hashed out during some management meeting, be that redundancies, promotions or performance reviews

Mr.Carter

I never knew the 'work problems' forum had so many medical experts that can diagnose illness through the internet!!!!

drunkmonkey

Mr.Carter wrote: »

I never knew the 'work problems' forum had so many medical experts that can diagnose illness through the internet!!!!

We're around long enough to know the difference between a cold and the flu, op has never had the flu by the sounds of it.

Youngblood.III

No one here can or can't diagnose the OP unless they are a doctor and visit her.
Would you like your co-worker snotting all over you in work? No i don't think you would...so stop been so judgmental!!!

Stheno

Mod: Alright enough nonsense. No more discussion of flu versus cold.

imitation

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

If it was really business critical, then the OP would have had to have it documented in a central place, from where someone else could have picked it up, and done the necessary extra work, before they last left the office.

You would think that, but very few businesses are that organised, and often times there is vital current info sitting in peoples email inboxes. It can be a case that business grinds to a halt because one person who was a vital link is unexpectedly out sick.

byhookorbycrook

intheclouds wrote: »

I hate when people come in while sick and infect everyone else in the office.

Welcome to the world of primary teaching. Seriously, folks, teach your child how to use a hanky, cover a cough and wash their hands after being to the loo so they can grow up to NOT infecting people in their work place.

Wanderer78

you're not overreacting op. your unwell and require time to heal. if i was you, id be ignoring all work related communications until you return to the office. if work persists with this behaviour, you could always pay a visit to your doc and request some 'stress leave'. it sounds like you may require and deserve it. best of luck with it and i wish you a speedy recovery.

intheclouds

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Welcome to the world of primary teaching. Seriously, folks, teach your child how to use a hanky, cover a cough and wash their hands after being to the loo so they can grow up to NOT infecting people in their work place.

Ugh!

They're kind of strict about it where I work because people travel a lot so if someone comes in coughing and spraying about they get sent home.

CaoimheSquee

A few years back I had an operation, an emergency procedure under general anesthetic. I was really struggling after it, mentally and physically. I was signed out with a sick cert from work from the surgeon for a week at the least and to check in if more was needed. I called work to explain to be told my manager to keep a eye on my emails. I didn't the day after the op but looked the following day and realized a meeting previously arranged for both of us to meet a client had not been rearranged and he had sent me an email to say he couldn't go and I had to. I hurled myself in, did the meeting with two lovely clients. I had done myself up as much as I could and smiled through it but they knew I was quite obviously not ok.
After they had gone I went into the HR manager and reminded him of the sick cert and I physically just could work at the moment. The really annoying thing was also was that my manager could have easily rearranged the meeting but chose to tell me by email that I had to go instead of him.

That job culminated in me having to go to A&E with severe stomach pains.After a full day there and many tests they let me go with painkillers. Again I rang my boss after I left and told him I should probably take the next day off that I was exhausted, still in pain and had been prodded and poked for hours. His reply was that he was pissed off!
Turned out the pain was all stress related.

I still have nightmares about that place. It was a big lesson in learning to say no!!

Youngblood.III

I think the main thing is to go with your gut instinct when sick, people are not robots and you cannot be fired for been sick.
By taking a sick day there is a better chance of recovering faster and been able to return to work at a 100% rather than spending 3-4days in work at 10% productivity.