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Comment by patatino | Hacker News Reader

Sick, seriously? If I would call my boss and tell him I'm working from home because I'm sick he would say no you don't.

Eh, the other comments are overreacting. If I was vomiting constantly, of course I wouldn't try to work.

But if I felt contagious-but-not-really-impaired, just sneezing or whatnot, I don't see any reason personally why sitting (at home) at a computer and watching Netflix is going to help me recover faster than sitting (at home) at a computer and working.

> But if I felt contagious-but-not-really-impaired, just sneezing or whatnot, I don't see any reason personally why ...

Also, possibly save your coworkers from the infection. I'd rather have my coworkers take a WFH than come in if they feel low.

Clarification for the sibling commenters (assuming I understood you right): sitting at a computer _at home_ and working.

Ah yes, updated.

> But if I felt contagious-but-not-really-impaired, just sneezing or whatnot, I don't see any reason personally why sitting at a computer and watching Netflix is going to help me recover faster than sitting at a computer and working.

Cold and flu kill old people. By going into work you are spreading disease to your co-workers, who then spread it to their family, who then risk death because you didn't want to work from home.

He is saying he can just as well work from home as not work from home, not suggesting that he goes into work.

The flu also kills healthy adults. Get your flu shots. Etc.

But yes, I have great distaste for people who could work from home while sick and instead ruin the productivity of the entire office for what can be months afterward.

Same here - in fact, I've had to say this to members of my own team recently. It's strictly forbidden by HR - if you're sick, you take days off until you're better, so you are not putting yourself at risk of getting worse/prolonging the issue by not getting the rest you need. WFH is not there as a handy tool to avoid recording sick leave.

What a shitty place. If you feel under the weather, you're starting to get some sniffles or a little bit of a sore throat, just work from home. Sick time is for when you are actually sick, work from home is a tool for when you might be getting sick so you don't spread it.

Personally, I don't need excuses, I work from home whenever. It does seem that it is a rare place that treat's its emplpoyees as adults though.

I think it matters a lot whether sick days are tracked. If they aren't, taking a sick day when you're under the weather, so you're on your feet tomorrow, is entirely reasonable. If they are, then you're wasting an allocated sick day, yes.

Does your employer not treat its employees as adults? Shouldn't adults be able to be honest about how many sick days they need, without tracking?

Sick and I don't feel the best are different things. Sick I need to stop and rest, I don't feel the best could be I didn't sleep much the night before or I could be coming down with something. Neither of the latter requires me to stop working, causing work to pile up for myself and others on the team. I do however, have the option of playing it safe and trying not to infect others while also not causing a back log of work.

Forcing a sick day because I woke up with a headache and a sore throat that could be nothing is not going to endear the company to an employee, on the otherhand that same situation that turns out to be something but I have to come in because I'm not sick yet is prettyshitty to everyone else you come in contact with. In both cases, working from home is the safe course of action.

Now, where I work, that option is fully supported. I, and basically every full time employee, has a vpn and a ip phone. There is nothing about my job that requires physical presence in the office on a normal day, and with the team spread out accross the US anyway, my being in the office or remote really are the same thing as far as everyone else is concerned. I can work from home (doing it right now) simply because I felt like it that day.

> Shouldn't adults be able to be honest about how many sick days they need

Yep, but I'm talking about when you're not sick, but you feel like you might be coming down with something, or you're feeling like you're over it but we all know you're probably still infectious. A fully supported working from home environment allows you to be far more conciderate to those you work with. Hell you can also get more rest, since that appears to be what many are hung up on, because you no longer have a commute those days, but still get stuff done because you don't feel like you're dying.

> Does your employer not treat its employees as adults? Shouldn't adults be able to be honest about how many sick days they need, without tracking?

Should they? Yes.

However, by your definition the vast, vast majority of employers do not treat their employees like adults. Even those in this industry, which seems to be the only one to adopt "take as you need" sick and vacation time in any significant way.

This is mostly a reaction to the incredulity I (perhaps mis-)read in your statement.

It mostly seemed odd to say/imply "My employer treats me like an adult" about permissive WFH, but then turn around and assume that sick days must be carefully tracked. And it seemed like a number of people were talking past each other based on having opposite assumptions about both of these.

Your boss is stupid. Does he want you to come in and cough your filthy germs into the rest of the office, or to take the day off entirely? There are plenty of states of "sick" where I'm not going to the office (contagious, constant need for the bathroom, headache exacerbated by fluorescent lights) but could get most or even all of a regular days work done at home.

No, his boss isn't stupid, he's exercising the "duty of care" part of being a decent boss. If you're sick, you should stay home and recover, whether you think you can be as productive or not (from personal experience of breaking this rule - you probably won't be).

Meh. From personal experience, taking motor transport makes me throw up if I'm at all sick, but I'm otherwise usually fine. If my choice is "do nothing, or spend 90 minutes commuting to and from work" then I'll do nothing. If I can work from home, I'll pretty much have a normal work day.

I think patatino's point was that his boss would say "You're not working" not "You're not taking time off to be sick"

I think they might have meant "don't work - just rest and get better"

Exactly what I meant!

I think the point is that if you're going to be sick, you should be sick and not shouldn't work at all. Not that you have to come to the office and work rather than work from home.

There are legislations about sick leave in a lot of countries.

I don't believe that any country has laws against "allowing employees to work from home on request" so I don't see how that's relevant.

Show up wearing a surgery mask. That'll give them a clue.

In Korea they do this, and no one so much as blinks. Sick days also don't exist in that country. If you're not literally in the hospital, you're expected to show up for work.

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