Such guilt about calling into work; is it a generation thing?

Grace123

Hopelessly Obsessed
O.G.
Nov 12, 2006
8,355
1,102
I had to call in today because of weather. We live in the country and are getting snow and high winds, which makes the visibility 0 and driving is dangerous. Usually on bad weather days, my husband will drive me but today even Mr. Fearless wasn't happy about having to venture out into this stuff.

So I called in. First time for me since I started this new part time job last summer. I feel SO GUILTY about it! :nuts: There are a couple other part timers who started with me and they've already called in a couple of times each, and it doesn't bother them, but I'm just racked with guilt about it.

Maybe it's the age difference, I'm middle-aged and they're in their 20's.

What do you guys think? I'm curious to know if you feel guilty when you have to beg off work and if so, what your general age is. My curiousity is peaked about the generational difference.
 
Weather? Psh! When I was your age, I'd walk to work...barefoot and pantless...in a snowstorm...through fields of sawgrass and cotton that were riddled with razor blades used to deter rabbits from eating the crops...then I had to fjord the Whiskey River...do you know what it feels like to pour alcohol on your frostbitten sliced up feet and legs? I doubt it! So I don't want to hear your whining!
 
I'm not sure actually because I too HATE calling in to work sick. I usually don't do it unless I have a medical emergency about myself.

Maybe its a generational thing + the way you were raised? and I'm 21 btw
 
I used to feel the same way, even when I was obviously sick. I felt terrible about calling off. Maybe it's a generational thing, as I am 40 (is that middle aged, LOL?)
 
well im in my 20s and had to call off three times in the past two months of sickness...felt horrible about it, maybe i actually value my job and love it and thats why i feel that way because i don't want to lose it.
 
LOL Normally I have to be bleeding from my eyes before I'd ever call in.

I think I'll try to ease my guilt by making cookies. That should do it, right? :graucho:
 
I'm closed to middle aged:amuse:, but I also hate calling in. I have driven to work in an ice storm that cause the state police to declare all roads closed. Unless I am really sick and afraid of passing it on to someone else, I go to work. I think a lot of it has to do with the way a person was raised. My dad believed in hard work and made sure his children also believed in it. I've called in once during the past two years, but I had the H1N1, so they were more than happy to tell me to stay home.
 
i'm 27 and i've always hated calling in sick. normally i'll go to work and then go home sick. i can't even fake sick. at my current job its mainly because our boss will guilt trip us BAD and i'd rather just not deal with that.
the first time i ever felt the need to go home sick (migraine). i went to my boss and said "i think i'm going to go home at noon,i don't feel well" and she went into this HUGE long thing about allllllll this stuff she had planned for me for the afternoon. so i said "well then give it to me, and i will do it before i leave" and she's all like "oh no no... you can't help that you're sick" ugh... so then i learned to work around it...

the next time i went to her and said 'is there anything you need me to do today?" and she said "no, i don't think so" and i said "well then i'm going to go home at noon because idon't feel good" HA! totally threw her off. she looked flabergasted that i beat her at her game.
 
I always feel guilty about calling in sick, but honestly, people appreciate that more than they than they appreciate having nasty germs coughed all over them. Even so, I'm always uneasy when I stay home and usually I constantly checked my work email and never am able to fully relax. I'm 29, BTW.
 
I work in a hospital so the place never shuts down and patients need to be taken care of. I always feel guilty calling in but I don't drive in snow well and am scared to death. Last time it took me 1.5 hours instead of 10 minutes and I ended up with my car on a sidewalk due to ice. I have had to stay many many times in my years there. So...what can I do.
But there is always guilt. What kills me is being out there and trying to get out there when time and time again people call off continually on a weekend due to hangovers....or Superbowl parties.....birthdays....and they even proclaim they are calling off work before it happens.
 
I feel guilty about it but that's mostly because I hate for other people to have to pick up my slack. I am very rarely sick but I feel like people's first assumption anytime someone is sick is "Oh they're just faking." Maybe cuz that's always my first thought? I am kind of a cynic though and have worked with people like that in the past. :P

BTW I'm 32.
 
When I called in sick I would feel guilty as well. There were always the people that took advantage and would call in just because they were hung over, or faking, and I guess I didn't want to be perceived as one of the fakers.
 
I try absolutely everything to get work before I call in because I always feel guilty about it afterwards. Usually it's because I end up being really really sick and I know in the back of my mind that it's better for me to not work, but still. There are a lot of people that I know that call in for every little thing and I don't ever want to be lumped with them in that group.

I'd rather end up going to work and then getting sent home versus having to call in in the first place.
 
When I did work, I would feel guilty about it...until I worked at a place that sent people home who were sick. The whole company culture came down from the boss, who always said:

We will survive without you, so we don't want it spread around and everyone sick...plus if you stay home, you will get better faster, so you can be 100% when you're here, rather than barely able function.

It changed my whole perception and even my husbands, now he does the same thing...now if some one really isn't sick, that's a whole different topic.