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[marcellinafuriosa]

Poll #6478 Presenteeism

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

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Dragging your feverish, aching carcase into work when you're ill is:

View Answers

Foolish and irresponsible.
3 (60.0%)

Heroic.
0 (0.0%)

Sometimes unavoidable.
3 (60.0%)

Just passing the misery along; after all, the bloody twerp who infected *you* did it, didn't ze?
3 (60.0%)

One thing if you're an adult, but sending your sick child to school/daycare should be punishable by flogging. Both the person who sends the child and the person preventing the sender from taking the day off.
3 (60.0%)

Comments

[tim]

In fairness, whoever infected you probably did so before they knew they were sick. And, of course, you probably already infected someone else as well.

So if I've already done the Typhoid Mary bit I might as well carry on?

[marcellinafuriosa]

Well, perhaps it's better that we all get it now before it mutates and turns into superkillercold. And at least it means we're popular: http://hms.harvard.edu/public/news/2010/091510_christakis/index.html?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DG_09_16%20%281%29&utm_content= And it does seem to be everywhere: Thursday night I was in a place waiting to order dinner when I heard someone sneezing ferociously in the kitchen. I left, but all in vain, apparently.

Damn! I was so good at not getting sick, or getting sick in summer/January when there was double coverage, for the first two years, and then this whole academic year I've been going down before infections like a drawbridge, from Labor Day weekend on.

Re: So if I've already done the Typhoid Mary bit I might as well carry on?

[tim]

Heh, to think that I was vaguely proud of myself because I can't remember the last cold I got. It's actually because I'm unpopular! *snif*

Actually, I have a theory (okay, more of a hypothesis) that every time I've felt like I've gotten sick lately, I've crushed it by going for a 50-mile bike ride or so. Exercise boosts your immune system. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Re: So if I've already done the Typhoid Mary bit I might as well carry on?

[marcellinafuriosa]

Now I have an idea for a sci-fi story in which a plague wipes out the entire population except for lonely people. There would be some kind of Twilight Zone-like twist by which some of them meet and become friends and this makes them get plague and die. Lovely cheerful idea, isn't it?

I used to be able to beat what felt like oncoming colds with raw onion sandwiches and a stiff g & t before retiring. This time I tried the onions but couldn't do the other because we've given it up for Lent (also I have no sauce at the bolt-hole because my landlady disapproves of it.)

I had thought I was getting exercise by running around after my niece (and pushing her in her stroller, carrying her around, etc) but maybe it has to be more strenuous? (Of course, it's likely she was the one who gave me the cold in the first place: she was saying something about "I have boogies in my nose. That means I have a cold," and we were all like, "Oh, you can those without having a cold." HOW WRONG WE WERE!)

Re: So if I've already done the Typhoid Mary bit I might as well carry on?

[tim]

Yeah, try pushing her in her stroller for 6 hours or so straight :P

Is your new residence in a 19th-century novel? 'Cause I didn't know you could find a place where one's landlady would vet one's beverage choices otherwise :P

Re: So if I've already done the Typhoid Mary bit I might as well carry on?

[marcellinafuriosa]

Given enough bottles, a dipy change or two and something to keep the sun off, she'd probably actually love that :) The sad thing is that I probably have an extensive enough repertoire that we could sing different songs together the whole way.

The little ad I replied to said "You do not smoke, drink or use drugs."* And I figure a small amount of abstention isn't such a bad price to pay for four hundred a month and all found (and a half-hour walk from work.) Also I have my own little staircase and I'm over a porch and next to an empty room, so I can watch "The Avengers" at night if I want to without bothering anyone.

And *of course* I live in a nineteenth century novel! Whose blog have you been reading all these years? ;)

*Oddly, she didn't mention sacrificing kittens to Moloch, so I suppose that's still on the table, or would be if it weren't a morally repugnant thing to do.

Re: So if I've already done the Typhoid Mary bit I might as well carry on?

[tim]

When a housing ad talks about drinking, I usually assume it means "you don't have raging drunken parties at home every night" as opposed to "you never, ever have a glass of wine with dinner." But YMMV...

And *of course* I live in a nineteenth century novel! Whose blog have you been reading all these years? ;)

Well, there was some irony in that remark :-)

Re: So if I've already done the Typhoid Mary bit I might as well carry on?

[marcellinafuriosa]

This is the lady who sends out a house-wide mass email when she finds anonymous undies left behind in the dryer. You never know what will push some people's buttons.

The room itself is smaller than some vans, so I'm not sure if it would even comfortably accommodate the sort of tea party Sara Crewe and Becky have in "A Little Princess", let alone a raging drunken one, but it might be fun to find out.