My husband woke up this morning and said to me “god, my throat is on fire.” I called into work today for the same reason and I said to him “well come back to bed and rest with me”, to which he replied “I'm not that sick, I'm not sick enough.” I messaged a good friend and asked “what's sick enough to miss work?” She replied “I have to be vomiting with a fever and know I am viral to call in sick to work. One day I actually went to the hospital at 5am and went to work right after. I had too many meetings I couldn't miss.”
No. Just no. The sentiment that you need to be a certain level of acceptable “sick” to miss work is fucking propaganda. I don't need to be in the hospital receiving an IV before my absence from work is valid. I don't need to have violent chlorea level diarrhea and exorcist style vomiting to justify a day off work. My health, comfort, and happiness come before my fucking job.