Do you work through injuries?

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I have medical insurance through my job. The job is quite physical. I have worked through a number of injuries since starting including:

- muscle strains
- minor bone fracture in one of my fingers
- bruised knee
- intermittent lower back pain
- jammed thumb

Now I generally take a "wait and see" approach with injuries. That is to say, I'll give the pain a few days to recede on its own before seeking any medical attention. About 99 percent of the time, it does just that.

I do get paid days off and while I am within my rights to use them to take a day or two off to heal, I understand that in a physical job like this, getting slightly banged up comes with the territory. I don't want to seem like a wuss or someone who can't handle a bit of pain and discomfort.

On the other hand though, I'm not sure I like this mentality we're expected to have of "work through any pain you can and only see the doctor if it's really serious". I know I'm not alone. I know a lot of other workers in America are working through injuries and chronic conditions because they either cannot get or cannot afford medical care.

I've even gone in with colds, bad nausea. It takes a LOT to make me stay home. But the truth is, it's like that with everyone I work with too. You get looked down on if you take too many days off due to injury or illness and, since this is an at-will state, they can fire you for doing so (I know they legally CAN'T, but they can make up some other bullshit reason as a CYA, we all know this).

Anyway, I'm curious how many fellow SCers are troopers like me who work through a lot (sometimes unnecessarily).

IMPORTANT: I know there are some aspects of this, particularly the health care angle, that could veer off into Fratching territory. Let's try to stay away from that.

[Draper Mel]

I just recently finished a gig where I got tendinopathy in my left Achilles tendon from standing too much. And I was on a stress mat, too. That takes so long to heal, though, that there's no point in taking time off. When I'm free lancing, I don't get sick days, anyway.

I don't start my next job until Thursday, so I've been cooling my heels, as it were. It still bothers me sometimes, but it's much better.

In general, if I'm not too wiped out and don't have a fever, I will go to work. Even when I did have sick days, I didn't have the luxury of staying out for the duration of an illness.

[MoonCat]

Well, I work in a union environment plus I'm a steward, but I can tell you that that doesn't always protect someone who takes a lot of sick days. My job doesn't involve lifting but people still get sick, and in my case, I know my limits....how much I can put up with in terms of illness.

I have worked through bad colds, even bronchitis a few times (I refuse to do that anymore) and nasty toothaches until I had that taken care of. I don't take sick days for every sniffle and cramp, though (well, cramps aren't a problem anymore thank god!), only when I really feel like I can't function, or when I know I'm really contagious

[csquared]

As a desk jockey, my job is not physically demanding. If I can get to my desk, I'll go to work.

It also helps that I can telecommute. If I have a cold or something, I can stay home and keep my germs to myself.

For those of you who are hourly, I understand the desire to go to work. Seeing the doctor not only costs you the fees, but also the income you lose.

That being said, if you are sick, please stay home. You may cost a coworker a few days pay and a doctor's bill also. It is not fair to them. Although, odds are, one of your coworkers gave it to you.

[fireheart]

Let me just start off by saying that in Australia, jobs are not linked to insurance or medical benefits.

In my current training spot (not a job, just training) the general rule of thumb is that if you have certain illnesses, you can't teach otherwise it'll spread to the students. (usually it's things like gastro, urinary tract infections, conjunctivitis, German Measles, rubella and so on, more so with German Measles because most babies aren't vaccinated with the MMR until 12 months and we start swimming programs from six months)

I've seen people work through migraines and knee injuries here.

[sevendaysky]

November of... 2010, I was working in a military dining hall as a ... well, "whatever" person. When I got in at 8 am I started washing dishes, and then at 9 when the real dishwasher arrived, I was sent out to shuttle trays. Basically the soldiers would put trays on these big rolling cabinets. My job was to bring these cabinets (2 per dining room, and there were 2 dining rooms at the end of each leg of an "L" shaped building, with the dishroom in the "elbow" of the L. I also had to wipe off tables and some other odd jobs between meals. Point is, I was on my feet and moving a lot. About 2 weeks in, I developed severe pain in my right foot, to the point that walking brought me to tears. I tried limping on it for a couple of days, and got a scolding from my supervisor because I was being too slow. I went to the doctor after work that day and she diagnosed me with plantar fascitis, gave me like 3 days off. Fine. I did everything she said - and yet, didn't stop hurting. Kept working... limping, and getting scolded, even though I had a doctor's note... went to specialist, got a few shots in the foot which helped in an extremely short term way.

They finally made me stay home and then eventually laid me off when I could not return to work at the levels they expected from me. Even with exercises, night boots, etc - it was more than a year before the pain finally stopped - and it still hurts if I ask too much of it exercisewise. The doctor said if I had kept working, it would have required extremely heavy dose painkillers - to the point where I could not drive and would have other issues - and would have taken even longer. It sucked, because that job paid really well and I needed it. >< I haven't found another job since.

[BlaqueKatt]

I've seen people work through migraines

I'll work through a migraine, but cold, flu, stomach bug-my job* REQUIRES we stay home, we can contaminate samples, and give a customer a false positive. Though one of my cow-irkers brags about coming to work sick, gets us sick+ and then calls us "weak" for complying with policy and staying home


*microbiology lab

+he had Strep, and refused to see a doctor(we have insurance, and he had four days off, and two days he didn't start until after noon), instead chose to gargle with listerine and "tough it out", meanwhile 5 other people got strep and had to stay home-needless to say, we all hate this man.

[trailerparkmedic]

If I have a sore muscle, I'll work one shift to see if it gets better. If I'm improving, I'll keep working. If I'm not improving--nope, I'm going to the doctor. I want to be a nurse for many years to come and moving/repositioning patients can do a number on your body.

When I'm sore, I'll also do my best to swap tasks with someone to save myself--I once spent a day cleaning up C. Diff on a patient who could turn herself in return for another nurse doing the lifting on an incontinent patient who couldn't turn himself.

Now, working through illness? If I can medicate myself to almost ok, I'll go in. I rarely call out for colds and the like. I won't go in if I have something really nasty or if I think I have something that is working its way through the department. Lately the shared bug is a stomach virus that leaves you puking for 3 days; if I get it, I'm not coming in because I am a mess and can't think straight when I'm nauseated. I also won't go in because almost half of the department has had it and I won't contribute to the spread.

[Mishi]

When I was working, I tended to tough it out unless it was serious or worrisome. I didn't go home early the days where I was bitten because that's just part of the job. Rugz does that as well, which is where I picked it up from because other than my sister, the rest of the family calls out sick for the smallest things.

In fact, I've had to force Rugz to seek medical treatment a few times (eye injury and burns) because otherwise he'd just have tried to ignore it. There's been a few times where he probably should have headed in to get some stitches or some glue, but since it was clean and not bleeding too much, I didn't argue the point since he'd had a recent tetanus booster.

[PepperElf]

I'm use to working sick.

A lot of it was from the military. You can't call in sick - you have to go to work for the doctor or corpsman to determine you're too sick to work.

Most times they'll just toss pills at you and send you back to work. Got to the point where that's pretty much what I expected.

Now as a civilian... My last two jobs haven't had sick days so, being home sick means losing pay. So fuck yeah I'll work sick. Most times it's just a bad cold for me tops and... um I'm use to working with those.

I'll work through a migraine, but cold, flu, stomach bug-my job* REQUIRES we stay home, we can contaminate samples, and give a customer a false positive. Though one of my cow-irkers brags about coming to work sick, gets us sick+ and then calls us "weak" for complying with policy and staying home

That I can completely understand. Or with anyone else who has specific clean-room requirements etc.

I mean sure I'll work with a cold but I'll try not to spread it. But I'm not working jobs with such requirements either.

though... the navy's take on things ... eh dunno if it really helps or costs cos i've seen colds pass through like wildfire. and gastro. that one i'm surprised i actually got SIQ for on my last ship. for a while they were having to send people back to work cos we'd already reached the siq quota on the ship and people working engineering & food service were first pick. engineers cos you don't want the people running the engines to get hammered and food service cos they handle food.

i guess they figured anyone who actually eats rice crispies and water for breakfast (had to write what i ate after getting sick) must be serious. no one in their right mind eats that unless they're sick

[Kaylyn]

Last year I sprained my wrist pretty bad at work, basically wound up wrapping my wrist around the landing gear crank of a trailer when I slipped trying to put pressure on it. I went home early, actually worried I had broken something, and was scheduled off the next few days. I wrapped and splinted my hand to keep it as immobile as possible until I could get to the doctor, which I did under worker's comp. The doctor basically said I could go back to work if I felt I could handle it. Which I did.

I wasn't up to 100% for several weeks, but I worked through that sprain. And of course the company grumbled that I wasn't working at full capacity...I guess they'd rather me sit at home and get paid to recover and do nothing for them (in addition to them having to pay someone to cover my shifts), rather than work and do maybe one load short of what I'd normally do? I should've done that anyway...that happened during a slow point when I got called off quite a bit, I would have actually made MORE under short-term disability than I did working through it.

[fireheart]

I'll work through a migraine

My very very awesome supervising instructor went through this. I was at the stage where I could run a class on my own and have her guiding me if needed, but she went through the entire shift with a massive migraine. Ouch!

[telecom_goddess]

I almost never call out sick. I could count the times I've done it on one hand. I just work through it.....too much of a work ethic I guess. There are co workers here who call off for every little thing. And we have pto so I don't lose money if I do call out or take time off for whatever reason.

The one time I was out for a significant amount of time, and that was only a week and a half, was when I broke my arm.

I came back to full time after that and I shouldn't have, I had no idea that I would feel so tired during that time.

[suburbandecay]

When I used to do a manual labor job, I always worked through my injuries. I just warned my manager if there was a chance I might need to see a doctor. That way I didn't have to worry about the company fighting a worker's comp claim since I also took the wait and see approach to my injuries. I had a couple though that I really wish I had seen a doctor for.

[wagegoth]

I'm a desk jockey now, but I've done retail, too. I used to never take time off unless I was close to non-functioning, even with sick leave. Now that I'm single with kids, most of the time I take off is when my kids are sick, so I tend to still work through most illnesses, unless vomiting is involved. And because I'm at a desk, and as my pain reactions are screwed up due to chronic pain, I've worked through a broken toe and migraines, as well as the usual flus and colds. (I should invest in an echinacea farm/factory, I use so much of it.) I've needed carpal tunnel surgery for years, but I keep putting it off.

Now that I feel comfortable enough to take the time off and get the surgery done, we've been too busy (let's hear it for job security) and shorthanded.