If you have a high fever or are recovering from a heart operation, it is difficult to use mechanical devices or tools. And if you have a nervous breakdown, mechanical devices or tools are best avoided altogether. The solution is to take a few days of sick leave. Their purpose is to prevent people from getting hurt, hurting colleagues, customers or passers-by while at work.
However, working from home has overturned this logic. If you can work from the kitchen table, today’s “hybrid” workers are increasingly concluding, then why not from the bed, as long as the brain is on and the Zoom camera is off?
The home-based revolution has raised the bar for what can be considered an illness. At the height of the pandemic, people were working from home even with unpleasant symptoms like fever, shortness of breath, or nausea. Many still do.
Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University tracked home work habits even before the covid-19 crisis made this practice widespread. In a recent working document he presented the results of a random sample study conducted at a large Chinese multinational, where sick days fell 12 percent for employees who worked from home two days a week compared to those who they worked full-time and on-site.
A lifestyle
Whoever writes to you, the story of Bartleby, knows what we are talking about. In the past, if I was recovering, I had no qualms about wrapping myself in a blanket with a hot alcoholic drink, toast and handkerchiefs. When I got sick with covid-19 in the early summer, however, I continued to work with my phone and laptop sunk in bed. My managers have insistently asked me to pass my job to a colleague. But it was unthinkable to me, at least until I nearly passed out.
Staying in bed doing nothing is synonymous not only with physical discomfort, but also with cognitive impairment. For employees, who are often rated more on the energy poured into the work than on the results, it is difficult to call themselves out of action for a few days now that working from home allows them not to worry about spreading germs. At the office. For those with high productivity, working overtime is not a chore, but a lifestyle. Sudden pauses are incompatible with ubiquitous performance anxiety. As the recession looms, challenging future job security, proving you are useful becomes even more important. The rules of conduct for mixed, remote and face-to-face work are fluid and many companies have not yet updated their rules on sick leave to the new era.
All of this is understandable, but also worrying. Fiddling around with a laptop and phone in the awkwardness of the bedroom when sick is not as dangerous as driving a forklift. However, it carries risks, both for the sick person and for his employer. And it’s not just about covid-19, with cognitive fog being one of the most common symptoms. Any disease involves fatigue.
Even mild illness can impair brain function as much as high altitude, the effect of which can be similar to a bad hangover. It is difficult to exercise correct judgment if you cannot concentrate on the task at hand. This is why people with lower oxygen concentrations sometimes take off their protective clothing on top of Everest; and some of them freeze to death. Sending emails while feeling dizzy and weak puts the body under additional stress and risks producing inconsistent results. Continuing to work when sick can make the employee sicker and less productive for longer. Digital presidentialism – because this is equivalent to insisting on working when you are sick – is not in anyone’s interest.
It is therefore important to resist. It is not necessary to have had a blood transfusion or a liver transplant to feel that you have deserved some free time. Sleeping soundly can restore body and spirit. Staring at the ceiling gives you time to take stock of your busy life. Don’t worry about being considered lazy. True laziness cannot be disguised: if a person tends to pretend to be sick or tired, it is likely that their bosses have already noticed this.
In the world of flexible work, executives can lead by example by taking a day off in case of a cold. Why not take advantage of it to delegate your tasks? This tends to build trust in the team and helps assess the strengths and weaknesses of the employees.
Work habits in the hybrid era, in presence and at a distance, will eventually be clarified. As for disease, it is hoped that they will return to being treated more or less as they did in the pre-Covid 19 era. Getting sick is part of the human condition. It will not disappear. Not even sick days. Your Bartleby remembers lying on the sofa to recover from gastroenteritis in New York 17 years ago, without interference from colleagues and without thinking about work. Next time I’m sick, I won’t use Slack. Instead, I will listen to the opinion of my bosses and disconnect a little.
(Translation by Federico Ferrone)