Many months ago (and 2 blog software iterations ago), I did an experiment which involved waking up every morning at 5AM. It was difficult, but I made a video podcast every morning, and it was fun. At the end of the 30 days, I went back to waking up around 7AM, and life went on as normal.
Ironically, my work schedule recently changed, such that I now wake up every morning at 3AM, and go into work at 4. Yikes. Today, I woke up with a huge headache at 3, and tried to get rid of it, so that I could at least go in for a half day at 8. By 6:30, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to manage, so I called in sick. (I still had to leave a message, because no one else gets there before 7:30, but the deed was done.)
I crawled out of bed around 10:30AM, and still felt miserable. Donna had brewed a pot of coffee (she doesn’t drink coffee — it was just for me, awe…), and I felt it was time to move on with the day, headache or not.
The problem I have with sick days, is that I can’t rest. I have this cursed work ethic that gnaws at my soul when I’m home instead of at work. I even have that problem on vacation days. It’s 1PM now, and I feel the urge to go into work and do the things I didn’t do earlier. How sad is that? With my contractually accumulated sick days, I could take off a month and a half STRAIGHT, and no one could complain. I could never do that though. Is that admirable, pathetic, or possibly a little of both?
So how about you, lone reader, do you have sick day guilt when you stay home?
Well, since my work day IS at home, I guess that my opinion might not really meet the typical workers opinion. I guess I feel more frustration that the time that it took me to get better, I could have been accomplishing so much around the house (like keeping up with the three girls and their little messes here and there).