Hi all,

I'm curious to know how everyone works when they're sick. Do you take the time off completely or work from home or would you insist on coming into uni coughing and sneezing and fixing mugs of Lemsip in the communal kitchen? I've been struck sick when I should really be in labs testing. I tried coming in all last week but realized I might as well have stayed at home regarding how productive I was there.

I've decided to work from home today (I woke up looking the like crazy cat lady from the Simpsons!), but the lack of lab work is not motivating me to do even that :s

Cheekybint

I usually work from home, so I rarely stop work completely if I'm sick. I might go down and sit on the sofa with a laptop though. I do keep lemsip in my uni office desk, and have been sick a few times, but only been in on those occassions where I've made a committment e.g. I will run a workshop/lecture, where if I cancelled 50 students would also have their schedules messed with, and the course director would get REALLY stressed!

If you are feeling sick, then u cant force your self to do work, your body needs rest, even if it is just for one day. Dont feel bad about it either. We all get sick now and then and it cant be helped. And if u are home today, forget your lab work dont worry, and if u can enter some of ur data on to EXCEll or something like that. Just do something easy but which will come in very useful.

Hope u get better soon :-)

I'm doing my Masters so still being taught, as we don't get a lot of taught hours I always go into uni if I have a seminar, even if I feel terrible! Normally I just dose myself up with Lemsip and drink loads of coffee and I'm ok, having something to concentrate on seems to help. I work from home the rest of the time, if I'm unwell I sit on the sofa with a blanket and read, rather than stare at a computer screen...sometimes I just need to sleep it off though.

I agree with Amanda - find a task to do that doesn't require much concentration if you really feel that you should work, but remember that every one is entitled to a holiday and to be sick, so take a break....it might help you get better more quickly.
M

I'm very good at ignoring my uni work, so no I don't work when sick. I don't seem to have that guilt mechanism that other PhD students seem to have!

hi cheekybint!
when I'm sick I like to watch a movie or TV; do something else other than work:-)
hope you're feeling better :-)
love satchi

Firstly, LOVE the username!

And as said below, just stay at home and do something that doesn't need you to be in the lab - find some journal papers to read, type up some notes, do some data analysis.

Or watch rubbish daytime TV 8-)

Ooooh I'm awful for working when I'm unwell. I just try to battle on regardless, although I have to be a bit careful because my participants are quite a vulnerable group of people, so if it's anything that's catching I would have to cancel my visits. I mean really people shouldn't come into work when they've caught something in case they pass it on to everyone else, but if everyone took a week off whenever they caught a cold then the country would grind to a halt, so most people seem to grin and bear it and keep going in our department. To be honest even when I've been ill in hospital I've taken bits of my work with me, I just can't stand being away from it for too long and I hate having nothing to do...I'm a sad case! Best, KB

No I Dont and i dont care what will happen if i didnt ! I always think that i get ill when my amune system is down and most likely because i am doing a PhD so it is an excuse to have a break :p

I have been working when full of a cold, although my supervisor did have some pity on me and said I should go home early as soon as the experiments were finished. I don't think I would go in if I was feeling physically sick or had tonsilitis though!

Ha - sometimes I don't even work when i'm well so fat chance of anything happening when i'm unwell ;-)

Take a break and get back to it when you feel better.

CB,
Think its a bit of a toss-up between how sick you are and how much time you can actually afford to take off. I suppose if you are taking time off, you have to actually use that time to actually recover and be proactive in this i.e. if you are meant to rest, rest! Don't spend the time window-shopping or web-browsing. Ok, you'll miss a day or two but if a cold/flu or just a run-down system is about, you need to take time to recover. Maybe, as one of the others suggested, use this time to read a few journal papers.
Put it this way - if you don't have a clear head taking results, can you stand over them? A day or two off now is worth not having to repeat tests at a later point.

Thanks guys for your replies. I've been taking it easy this week (by easy I mean coming into uni but being fashionably late)!