Did you ever call in sick at your day job? I certainly did, including once from the back of an ambulance (but that's another story). We've all had days when we simply could not function, when our bodies refused to cooperate with our work schedule, or we were contagious and didn't want to risk taking out our entire workplace. (I have been known to start conversations with my doctor by saying, "I don't want to be Patient Zero.")
But how do you determine when to "call in" on your creative pursuits? How do you take a day off when your whole life is days off?
This tram went past my hospital-room window. Waiting until I had to be here was not a good choice!
It feels like we are back to the highly-motivated individuals here, and perhaps we are.
Maybe you were the kind of employee that listened to your body and responded appropriately; you took time when you needed it and got the care you required to return to the task at full strength. But from the studies I see it sounds like most of us were not. More and more the workplace values soldiering on in spite of physical or medical issues. We glorify the person who is back at their workstation mere days after major surgery, we praise the ones who get to the end of the year with perfect attendance, we reward those who do not use sick days. Secretly some of us feel like things will fall apart if we are not at work. (I hate to break it to you, but that really isn't likely. Much as we want to believe we are indispensable, it just isn't so.)
To be honest, it feels like we have elevated the work ethic, the perfect attendance, above the health and well-being of the employees. And each and every one of us has internalized those values to the point where we consider calling in sick as a sign of weakness, of laziness, of not caring about our jobs.
How could I possibly take a day off when my schedule looks like this??
We have allowed that attitude to rule us for all our working lives, and it has spilled over into our private lives as well.
Don't think so? Take a look at any national ad campaign for over-the-counter medications. Cough syrup, cold or flu medicine, pain relievers, and so on. Do they say "Take two tablets and go to bed"? No! Take two of our miracle tablets and you can keep going, do your job, work through it.
Got a nasty head cold? Take this drug and you can go to the office and power through a pile of paperwork like the superhero you are. Flu? Our non-drowsy formula will let you continue operating heavy machinery. Mom has a headache? Take two tablets and go cook dinner.
It spills over into our non-work, non-chore lives as well. Too tired for a night on the town? Forget about a quiet evening in and an early bedtime, there's a pill for that. Allergies making you miserable? Take our gelcaps and get out there and mow the lawn.
There are times medications are appropriate. Allergy medicine allows you to function outdoors during high pollen counts, even if all you do is loll in a hammock with a good book. It allows you to work in the garden, if that is where your creative passion lies.
Other medications help you to continue functioning when there is something you absolutely must do (Hint: That isn't going to work. Or mowing the lawn).
It's the underlying message, "Work, even if you're sick, or in pain" that needs to go.
So how many times have you thought about your creative pursuit and said to yourself, "I need to" or "I should"? At that moment you have just moved your beloved creative outlet to a chore, to something you have to do.
You have taken away the option of a sick day.
You are your own boss now, so don't be like this guy!
Sick days are not an indulgence. Especially, much as we hate to admit it, as we get older. Our bodies are aging and no matter how hard we fight it with diet and exercise and proper medical care, no matter how many miles we log on the treadmill or the running track, we cannot perform the same way we did at 25.
You've heard the saying "It's not the years, it's the mileage"? So true. But routine maintenance is important, too.
We all know what happens if you ignore a small leak in a pipe. It becomes a big leak, maybe even a rupture that floods the bathroom and requires major plumbing work. Your body is the same way. Ignore a minor problem, force yourself to continue to work through the pain, and eventually it's going to become a major issue.
We all know what will happen if we let this go, so why would you pay attention to a leaky faucet but not your own body?
Over the years I based my creative sick days on the measure of whether I would have called in to the day job. If I'd call off the day job, then I was justified in taking a sick day from my creative pursuit. Even that was putting a work frame around my creativity - but note that I was under contract, legally obligated to produce a book within a specified time, so in that sense it was also a job.
I carried that mindset into retirement, essentially turning writing into a job. If I wanted a day off I felt I had to justify it, and being sick - especially when there weren't co-workers to infect - wasn't enough justification. Even in retirement I was still glorifying perfect attendance.
We all need to stop making perfect attendance a badge of honor. We need instead to give ourselves the care we need, and sometimes that care is simply a sick day. A day of rest.
So many times the doctor's advice is to rest, get plenty of fluids, and take a couple aspirin (or your OTC pain med of choice). Usually we take the aspirin, maybe even up our fluid intake, and call it good.
But do we, do you, actually rest? Do you crawl back in bed after breakfast and take a nap instead of washing the dishes and sweeping the floor? Lay on the sofa with your favorite blanket (admit it, we all have one) and snooze through a familiar movie rather than spending a couple hours in your workshop? Go back to bed hours before your usual bedtime instead of stretching just one more canvas?
I'm guessing that most of us answered no, even though rest was exactly what the doctor ordered.
It's time to change all that. There's no reward for powering through and there never really was - except perhaps an even worse illness - but there's a great deal to be gained from listening to our bodies and taking care of them, allowing them to rest.
Take care of yourself.
Follow the doctor's orders.
And take a sick day once in a while.