A reader writes:
It surprises me every time I have a cold and I thought I’d get your opinion. My company’s work is hybrid; We are expected to be in the office three or more days per week. I have a cold, so I told my manager I would be WFH on Monday and he cooperated with me. I was still feeling unwell on Tuesday so told her again I was WFH, and she was again supportive but less enthusiastically. So now it’s Wednesday, I still have a cold but the cold medicine is getting the symptoms under control, and I feel like I need to go inside. I plan to wear a mask, but even then I would be more hurt than allowing WFH with all its amenities to protect me from the cold. My boss didn’t explicitly tell me I needed to come in, but working from home for three days in a row just because I have a cold seems ridiculous to me.
I haven’t seen how many days off my coworkers take when they’re sick, but my boss rarely calls in sick and I’ve never seen him take more than a day. I know you’re supposed to stay home when you’re sick, but when does it become too cautious for me? (This is different from sick days; I wasn’t feeling so sick that I couldn’t work. Although if we took three sick days in a row, we were required to provide a doctor’s note! Although I can’t see my boss actually asking for that.)
Ideally, when you have Capacity To work from home, you need to be able to work from home when it’s winter – at least at the beginning of it. Some colds last for weeks and working from home full time may not be realistic, but taking an extra day or two off your normal two WFH days that week shouldn’t be a big deal. It’s better for everyone – you’re more comfortable if you don’t have to drag yourself to work (and can get more work done as a result) and you’re not exposing your coworkers. If you can do your work from home, as recognized by your hybrid work policy, this makes perfect sense. So no, you’re not being dramatic in wanting this!
However, in reality, some managers/employers are more strict about this than others.
So one option is to simply ask your manager: “I’m very sick of this cold and I feel like I’d be able to get more done if I could work from home today, even though that would make me work office days for the week. I also don’t want to expose people. What is your general feeling about working from home a few extra days during the week when we’re under the weather – is it OK to do that or do you strongly prefer that we not do this?”
Alternatively, if your understanding is that she will tell you ‘no’ if you ask, whereas if you simply announce that you are doing it she will not interfere. And You have enough capital that it won’t be held against you in any long term way, so even though she would prefer you not to do so, in some situations it is the better course of action. I like to ask direct questions, so you know where she stands and you’re not guessing, but sometimes the value of that outweighs the value of just doing what you need to do.
