Dont Be a Hero! Take Your Sick Days!

Dont Be a Hero Take Yur Sick DaysSomewhere in between convincing our parents that were sick enough to miss school and landing our first professional role where its actually worse to miss work than to go in sick, weve lost sight of something important about sick days. Shane Ferro over at the Huffington Post recommends we all learn from a recent BMW CEOs collapse onstage and change our attitude about taking days off. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) Full disclosure, my husband is on his third straight week of pink eye. Three weeks of discomfort and upsetting visuals and being too contagious to go in to workbut he hasnt taken a single sick day. Instead, hes worked from home constantly, sometimes with one eye closed, Skyping in for meetings with his web cam turned off and generally getting exactly zero rest despite years worth of accumulated sick days and a seriously gunked-up eye. How did he get like this? .Thats a topic for another column. Lets look at the public examples set by the 1% insteadHarald Krueger, BMWs new CEO, collapsed at the Frankfurt Motor Show on stage last week due to a moment of dizziness. Chances are in a new role, at an important public event, he knew canceling welchesnt an optiondespite the fact that hed been traveling extensively and was feeling ill before it happened.A recent studyby researchers at Harvard and Stanford estimated that more than 120,000 deaths per year and approximately 5-8% of annual healthcare costs are associated with and may be attributable to how U.S. companies manage their work force. The study looked at factors including long hours, job insecurity, and work/family conflict.Americans in particular think of their jobs as extensions of themselves. Even when theyre too sick to do their jobs, that high-stakes feeling is what sends them to work with colds, flus, and worse. We like to prove were dedicated, essential, and stoiceven though germs dont know from bravery and just want to find a new host whose life they can ruinOf course what people dont realize when theyre trying to play the hero is that refusing to give your body a day to rest upchoosing instead to power through and suffer at your desk while your immune system struggles to defeat the germs that are making you (and trust me, everyone around you) miserableactually has more long term health consequences than we knew. Stress at work can exacerbate illness or even affect your life expectancy.So if youre lucky enough to have them, make sure you take your sick days. Get your flu shots. Stop infecting your neighbors and go lie down and drink some fluids. The work will be there when you recover.Now, can someone please print this out and go put it on my husbands desk?Taking A Sick Day Is Not A Crime. So Why Do We Feel Weird Doing It?Read More at Huffington Post

Setting Friendship Boundaries at Work - Fairygodboss

Setting Friendship Boundaries at Work - Fairygodboss Having friends at work can improve your overall sekretariat experience. Just having someone to eat lunch with or talk to before a big meeting can make your days seem shorter and more meaningful.But regardless of how well you get along with someone at work or how close you think you are, you have to remember that she is your coworker.Creating boundaries for workplace friendshipscan be difficult, but they are necessary. Think about it Keeping a little distance can prevent you from sneaky unwanted repercussions on your professional life, like an embarrassing secret getting out or a schwimmbad reputation forming around your blurred lines.Weve outlined a few easy steps for preventing your workplace friendship from crossing dangerous boundaries you definitely want to avoid. You know, without it being super awkward. You dont need to wear a keep away sign. Just do these things.1. Dont gossipWhile gossiping about other colleagues can be tem pting, avoid doing so with your workplace friend. She could have a relationship with the other coworker you are mentioning, which could cause friction between you, your friend, and said coworker. But even worse,you could get the reputation as an untrustworthy employee, or worse, the office gossip.2. Dontbad mouth your bossOr any superiors, for that matter. Frankly, you shouldnt be bad-mouthing anyone at work, but you should especially avoid saying negative things about those who could, uhm, fire you? While we all feel the need to vent about work every once in a while, do so on your own time. Talk about your frustrations with your friends, family, or spouse essentially anyone who isnt employed by your company3. Be cautious about divulging partieal informationAs cool as your work friend may seem, she may not take kindly to the fact that you were out at a concert until 2 AM the night before work, regardless of how well youre functioning that day. Every person has different hobbies, in terests and lifestyles and they may not understand those of others. Try to maintain a divide between your work life and your personal life. Talk about light things, like your cute cat or her obsession with chocolate.4. Be cautious about posting on social mediaIf your work friend follows you on social media, beware of what you post and how it could reflect on you as an employee. While screenshots and screen-recordings are amazing technological developments, they can also be used against you.5. Be clear about remaining unbiasedYour work friend should never assume you will take her side in meetings or support a professional venture of hers simply because youre friends. And you shouldnt assume shell behave this way, either. Make sure you treat herthe same way you treat your other colleagues.6. Be realistic about your relationshipConsider the most negative outcome possible a falling-out. Never reveal information you wouldnt want to be used against you if your friendship ended on bad ter ms. Dont forget to put your career first and protect your position at the company, along with your professional relationship with your boss and other colleagues. Use caution in your interactions and realize it might not work out.7. Be professionalThe most important rule is to always maintain your professionalism. If youre questioning whether or not to act a certain way with your work friend, the answer is probably no. And on that note dont drink too much alcohol around them Come on, everyone.