Either Your Sick Coworker Goes Home, or You
If you work with someone who refuses to take sick leave, the personal finance website Money has a great idea: take yourself a day off so you don’t get sick .
If your employer has a good sick leave policy, everyone should use it. Sick people should be at home where they cannot spread their disease. If the sick do not stay at home, then the healthy should. So if you can, stay at home and say so without naming anyone, “I work from home so I don’t get sick.” It is polite, albeit passive-aggressive, to remind patients that their actions affect others.
If your employer isn’t smart enough to know that your sick day is better for the company, try Money’s tips:
- Just get yourself a sick leave.
- Work from home and say that you are doing this to focus on a specific project.
- Find an excuse to work in another corner of the office.
Not every workplace has sound sick leave policies; don’t blame your co-worker if they actually have to show sick. (Blame your employer, insist on better policies, and unionize .)
But every time the sick person works harder than his boss asked him, it is your duty to make up for his weakness by relaxing.