Calling in Sick: How to Guide

If you are reading this I am assuming that you are a human being and not a robot or a machine. Part of being human is that you will eventually fall ill with a health issue; and sometimes it will be at the most inconvenient of times in your work schedule. It may be that you are dreading calling in sick, all you can think of are all of the deadlines you are under or business coming in, etc. and you want to try to make it in; but if you are just too ill, you will have to come to terms with calling in and making arrangements for someone else to help out or just reporting to someone that you will not be in today.

There are some things you can do that make it easier on you and on your work associates when you know you are going to be out with an illness:

Do not call in sick in the morning and then show up at the office at noon carrying a flu or cold virus or even if what you are ill with is not contagious it doesn't matter; we have all cringed when someone does this thinking that they are going to "martyr" it through stoically. What usually happens is you're sick and so your energy level is down, your judgment is impaired, someone has to pick up after you, and it could have been that you may have infected the whole office.

Make sure you call/email the office as soon as you know that you will not be in. Waiting till the last minute puts everyone in more of a bind, as people are already planning their work out the night before and in the morning. If you know for sure you have the flu Sunday night at 9 p.m. it's not likely that it is going to be gone by 6 a.m. the next morning. And even if you can take drugs to improve how you are feeling, you are still contagious.

One of the hardest parts about calling in sick when you are truly too ill to make it into work is that you don't want to give in knowing the consequence that can result. You may worry something will get botched up without you there. Sometimes you just have to let go. Don't overload your guilt bank or your control locus; there are just times when have to sit out on the sidelines for a day or two and when you get back to having more health and strength, you can deal with things then.

If you are a responsible person, you don't want to inconvenience anyone by calling in sick. But there are just those times in life that we all have where you have to take the time to rest and recuperate. If you don't your health problems don't go away, they become larger. When you have to call in sick, just know that we have all been there and you will be back up and running in no time if you take proper care of yourself.