I Feel Guilty Filing A Sick Leave

Not all work-from-home employees or freelancers get paid leaves, whether it’s a vacation or sick leaves. It’s not always the case but not a rare event in the freelancing world. 

It’s been a year since I started working for an SEO company in the comfort of my own home, and I seriously can’t remember the last time I took a vacation or sick leave. The main reason is that we don’t get paid time off. It’s unfortunate, but I’m still thankful for my current job. It allows me to provide for my family even with the ongoing pandemic. 

I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels guilty for not going to work even though I simply need to turn on my laptop and instantly work. Sadly I’m feeling a bit exhausted, and stress seems to have caught up. I took time off yesterday, but I feel like I should have just gone to work instead of thinking about the lost income for the day. LoL! I don’t know if you can call this being a workaholic or just being silly with the thought of money flying away as I sleep.

I tried searching for ways on how to make sick leave less worrisome and guilt-free. Here are some helpful tips I found out:

Don’t Over Share

Your boss will surely understand when you feel sick. There is no need to overly throw in details to make him/her visualize or somehow feel what you’re going through. If your boss doesn’t believe you, then you really can’t do much about it. No need to stress yourself into making others believe you’re sick.

You Work Better When You Feel Better

Now is the time to recover from overworking, stress, fatigue, sickness, or anything that’s holding you back from performing your best. Sure, you’ll lose a day or two worth of money, but your performance improving by resting wouldn’t be a bad trade. Health should always be a priority. 

Be prepared

It’s always important to let your manager or supervisor know in advance when you won’t be able to work so that they can allocate your workload to one of your teammates and prepare some action plans to make sure no work will be left undone. This not only puts a sudden burden on your company and team but also helps when you get back from your leave. 

With all these said and done, the most important thing to do is sleep! Sleep and recover from your sickness, stress, fatigue, and forget all your worries.

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