Sick Days and Work Ethic

Today was the first time I called in sick from work since arriving in France. I'm not perfect or anything; it wasn't the first time I missed class due to missing a train or a communication error with a prof, but it was the first time I consciously decided not to go.

I've been feeling the slow onset of a cold for the past couple days, and this morning I woke up with absolutely no voice at all -- a rather inconvenient symptom for someone whose job it is to speak English all day. A bit of selfishness factored in as well, since with the marathon in 3 days I want to be feeling as good as possible (also, the prospect of going back to sleep at 6 in the morning was very tempting). But as soon as I sent out a couple text messages to let profs know I wouldn't be coming in, a huge wave of guilt crashed over me, and I couldn't even get back to sleep.

I'm wondering why I had such a reaction. I grew up watching my parents run their own company out of our house and then later from a real office, and they simply had no time for sick days (though I certainly faked enough of them in elementary school ;). Even now that my mom works as a high school teacher where it's possible to bring in a substitute if you're feeling unwell, she hardly ever calls in sick. With such hard workers as role models, I guess I took up the practice of slogging through the work/school day as well unless I was absolutely out of commission.

I'm not on my deathbed today. I actually feel pretty fine, aside from an increasingly runny nose and an inability to make any sound other than a croak. I guess I always feel like there's an intangible quota of sick days, so to take one when I still could physically manage to go means I couldn't take one tomorrow or next week if I was feeling even worse.

From casual observation, this is not at all how it works in France. I don't know if French concepts of the work week and vacation time (40-50 hours in the US vs. 35 hours here and 1-2 weeks of vacation vs. a month (at least) here) carry over to the way they look at taking sick leave, but it's possible: a little while ago I overheard a conversation in the teacher's break room criticizing one teacher who was coughing and sneezing, saying she should have stayed home so as not to infect everyone else. I can sympathize with the sick teacher, though -- unless you make up your hours, they're docked from your pay, so I'll have to make up the three classes I missed today. Sometimes it seems like the easier way out just to get through the day feeling unwell rather than to face the obligation of finding the time to make it up.

Outside the realm of teaching, there seems to be a certain penchant for milking the system for all it's worth. One of my roommates came home from a weekend skiing with a tweaked shoulder and wound up taking a week off work -- I can't imagine that being acceptable in the US. Maybe the first day or two back, okay, but after that you man up, take some Advil, and get back to work. Then again, if he was offered paid sick leave for it (I don't know if he was or not), I can imagine that being hard to resist as well.

Alright, time for me to brew some tea, go hunt down some throat drops, and try to ignore my guilt. Here's hoping this little cold runs its course quickly so I'm feeling better before the race Sunday!