"Never missed a day of work"

[sasha_feather]

Today I read an obituary which said, despite the person's chronic disease, "he rarely missed a day of work."

As someone who has often called in sick, I'm always bothered by this common phrase; it praises people who put work before health. Not just their own health, but the health of others: coming to work while having a communicable illness puts others at risk too.

This phrase serves to enforce our place in a capitalist, production-oriented society, where work is the most important thing, and health and rest are distant followers. Workers are granted sick days, but to take them is some sort of indulgence rather than a necessary part of being a human being with a body. We also forget that sick days are something that unions have fought for.

Because I'm always sick to some degree, I often struggle with deciding whether I am sick "enough" to call in, sick "enough" to stay home and rest. Typically I will feel guilty if I call in sick, even though my body demands rest. Having a chronic illness means that I need much more rest than the average person, and something like a migraine or cold will add to my need for rest. Language valorizing people who don't call in, ever, doesn't help to alleviate my guilt.

As I saw someone say on twitter: self care is a radical political act.

Comments

[isagel]

TRUTH. My workplace recently became part of a larger company that runs many places like ours. We were at their yearly conference/party last month and there were awards given out for best this and best that, and also there was one for workplace with lowest employee absence rate. And that just seriously pissed me off. So much hate for the values underlying such things.

[sasha_feather]

You are absolutely right, it's about values. At my workplace sick time can also be used to take care of other sick people (ie kids), which should be encouraged, one would think.

[isagel]

Absolutely. In Sweden there are special "care of sick child" days that parents can take and those are a separate category from their own sick days, counted differently. All those things are legislated on a national level and very little of it is up to the individual employer. (Though of course the attitude in the workplace can still be more or less positive to people actually taking their days.)