You may not realize it, but I’ve been sick most of this week. I caught his cold, which isn’t fair – he flies home from warm places and I get to keep the germs he’s shared on the airplane.
The last three days have been spent trying to keep my lungs from exiting as the coughs wrack the body. I feel cruddy in the way that coughing uncontrollably and taking too much medicine makes you feel cruddy. Feverish only when I breathe (which is obviously pretty often), but thankfully not stuffed up. Nevertheless, the cough and ensuing laryngitis meant I had to cancel all phone calls for fear of sounding like I was choking Kermit.
Usually if the symptoms are mild, as they are today and were for the most part yesterday, I’ll work through it. No one here is catching it – he already gave it to me and the goldfish is immune, lucky bastard. But the laryngitis/coughing fits caused one client no end of upset. The client’s client needed a call that day so we could wrap up a project. Sorry, but I can’t talk to my husband without a five-minute round of Phlegm Wars. It wasn’t happening and I told the client so. The client was upset. Sorry again, but sickness happens. I’d have been of no use without the power to interact or ask basic questions without breaking his eardrums coughing.
It’s one of the oddest things we freelancers have to deal with. When we’re sick at a 9-to-5, we stay home. Yet when we’re sick and work from home, we try to press through. And clients sometimes don’t care that we’re sick. It can cause some pretty odd upsets and interactions when your physical health isn’t regarded by your client. While I’ll apologize for the inconvenience, I won’t push myself beyond my own abilities. I know my limits. I honor them. Most clients will, too.
Do you allow yourself sick days? Sounds like a silly question, but I bet a lot of you don’t. How do you handle your workload when it happens?
Whether I work sick depends on when my next deadline is. For quick-turn projects, I work at least a little even if I don't feel well. If I have more time, even if it will throw off my self-imposed schedule, I'll take a day off. Luckily, I haven't been extremely ill since I began freelancing full time (knock wood), so I haven't had to push back a deadline for health reasons yet.
Having just had surgery on Saturday, I can talk from experience… trying to recover from illness while worrying about deadlines sucks! I know I'm not in the mindframe to do the job properly, but feel guilty for not doing it. Not to mention the Freelancers Fear ("this could be my last job! Ever!"). Next time I'm considering asking my doctor for a medical excuse note. To myself.
Absolutely. I never used to, when I was starting out and scared of losing every single client. But when I realised I got better quicker if I gave myself a day off? Absolutely.
PS Hope you're feeling better soon.
JMS, this is my first full-on sickness in three solid years. Migraines don't count – I can usually get a few hours rest and get back to it, albeit shakily. I guess no germs, no swine flue, huh? 🙂
Joseph, I hope your recovery goes well! Yes, give yourself time. If you need to, tell folks you've had surgery and may need an extra week on those assignments. Most people will understand.
Thanks, Diane. 🙂 I can't wait to stop coughing uncontrollably. Once I medicate myself past this phone call today, I'm taking the rest of the day off.
I have never been able to take a full day off. The client I have now says "Oh, you're sick? Do less work today," but that doesn't really help when you're feeling awful.
It depends. If it's a cold or something, and there's a deadline, I push through. Deadlines are deadlines, and it's part of the gig to get the job done on time, whether you're sick or not. That's the way it's always been, no matter where I worked.
If I feel myself starting to come down with something and there's a deadline looming, I try to clear it off early, and then take the time. If I feel myself getting sick and I'm not on a tight deadline, I try to take the time off early and short circuit the illness. Taking off a day when I'm just starting to go means I don't have to take off a week because I pushed too hard and got sicker faster and stayed sicker longer, and, therefore, lost more work.
Some things are so bad you just have to say, "sorry, I'm sick, have to reschedule." And then, as soon as I'm able, I work for as long as it takes to make the deadline. Again, me being sick is not the client's problem. It' s up to me to get the job done on time.
When I worked as a swing (sub) backstage on Broadway, it was part of my job NOT to be sick when they called, because I was filling in for people who were sick. That's the gig — you want the work, you better be up to par when they call. And it was part of the job to stay healthy.
I get sick much less often now that I don't have to commute in to the city on a regular basis, and for that I'm grateful. It's much easier to stay healthy when you can keep away from others, to a certain extent.
And I rarely take anything, so the times I am sick enough to have to take medication, it works fast, throughly, and I'm up and about again because I haven't built up a tolerance.
I hate taking medicine at all, Devon. Hate the way it makes me feel, hate the way it prolongs the cold, just hate being sleepy or overly excited. I'd much rather push the fluids and take something only to sleep without coughing all night. So it has to be pretty bad when I take NyQuil during the day (and only to get through this phone call).
I'm of the opinion that if I'm too sick to sit up, it'll all wait. Unless like you said it's a deadline that's looming, the world can do without me for one day.
Mei, I think you're able to push back, aren't you? If you're truly sick, there should be some consideration. FYI, the client is NOT your employer. Treating you like an employee is a dangerous precedent they set. I understand deadlines, but sometimes things can't be helped. If you'd broken your arms, would they expect you to type with your feet? If so, reconsider them as clients, I say.
Since I'm in charge of caring for four little ones, I don't get sick days. Most of the time I just push on, though I might make it a "light" day and just focus on simple tasks like marketing as long as a deadline's not looming.
Thankfully I don't get sick too often, but I spend lots of time caring for sick kids;yet another reason why freelancing from home suits me so well.
I tend to get sick around New Year's Day, so thankfully illness hasn't interfered much with work. I'll work when sick, just not as hard. I'm from a family that never really coddled sick kids. Sick? Unless you were delirious with fever or totally incapacitated, there was no lounging in bed all day. To this day, just getting cleaned up and dressed helps me feel better.
But when I have a bad cold or the flu, I pace myself, rest more, start late and quit early. I've had to do a couple of phone interviews when I've had laryngitis, so I e-mailed the questions in first, explaining that my voice might go out mid-conversation. One guy pretty much wound up conducting his own interview, using my questions. He also ordered me to make some tea and get some rest, if I recall right.
Last summer I had to do an interview about ten minutes after breaking my toe (possibly two toes). Hey, it got my mind off the pain a while, and the adrenaline was still flowing, so better than that an hour or two later!
Okay Paula, you get the award for the most diligent freelancer! Broken toes and you still interviewed? Damn, you're good! You and my mother would get along well – she's pressed on with a broken foot, sprained knee, whooping cough, you name it. We lounged when we were sick, but she didn't. You sound like you schedule your sick days – are you a Capricorn?
Kim, that's a lot! So many kids are bound to spread the germs here and there.
I'm not in the same position but I can understand. I suppose it would depend on how bad it was. Hope you're feeling much better soon, though. Don't over do things – that's what my old mum always says. 🙂
I have a laptop, so I work in my comfy bed doing whatever I need to do. If I'm so miserable, I listen to my body. If it's a cold, I do what I can.
For the latter half of this week, I've been coughing and feel uncomfortable. So I got pressing things done and spent more time on non-writing work.
Last year, I was recovering from hand surgery. I tried to type with my regular hand and use one finger on the other one, but it caused my hand to swell. Thankfully, I got hurt and had surgery right before Thanksgiving when I slow down anyway and couldn't do much for six weeks including not sending my annual holiday note.
Key is to listen to the body and have a set up in a comfortable place, if possible.
I'm a Taurus – too stubborn to let a little thing like pain stop me from my appointed calls.
Chronic foot pain is something I've had most of my life, so a couple broken toes won't stop me. (As a kid I'd complain that my feet were too sore to keep up with everyone else on vacation, etc.. and they thought I just wanted my dad to carry me. Once I was diagnosed, they all finally slowed down if I asked them to.)
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Lori- Hope you're into recovery by now! I don't work from home (I DO work from home, but am not a WAH) and do nothing that involves having clients, so I can and do occasionally take a sick day from both my day job and the work I do from home. However, that's a recent thing.
I used to sit around with my laptop on even if I wasn't working so that I'd feel as if I were. It kept me from resting and recovering, and I wasn't able to function. I've learned since then- if I'm not going to be productive AND I'm not intending to play online, the laptop gets turned off. If I need to be entertained, I can always read or watch a Jane Austen movie. Result? Much less stress, about the same productivity, and have memorized every inch of Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy. 😀
Paula- I've always had that problem too… Never actually thought of seeing a doctor about it! I'd break down crying in the middle of the mall because it hurt to keep on walking (since I got Crocs, I can make it much farther/longer).