Inquisitive.me

I thought I had made it through the dark and cold season without getting sick.

I failed.

Unfortunately, it happened right in the middle of my half-marathon build-up phase, which makes it twice as frustrating. The days without training feel endless. I want to move, but I know I can’t push my body right now. The risk of being sidelined even longer is too high.

What makes it harder is that my body isn’t used to doing nothing. Normally I take around 20,000 steps a day and train five times a week. My body wants to move—even when it’s sick. Resisting that urge is surprisingly difficult.

But that’s not really the point of this post.

The point is that I called in sick when I felt the illness building up. My throat had been hurting for three days, my sleep was terrible, and although it improved a little during the day, something felt off. I thought: Let’s sit this workday out. Maybe if I rest now, I can dodge the bullet.

I couldn’t. It got worse anyway.

The interesting part is that I didn’t feel bad about calling in sick.

A few years ago, I would have.

I used to feel like I had to justify staying home, as if being sick required proof. Sometimes a cold sits in that uncomfortable middle ground—not sick enough to stay home, but not well enough to work.

But if the COVID years taught us anything, it should have been this: spreading a virus is not a good idea. Staying home early is far better than dragging yourself to work with a mild infection and passing it on to everyone else.

And yet many people behave as if that lesson never happened. They go to work coughing, blowing their nose, touching every door handle and piece of furniture along the way—effectively turning the workplace into a distribution center for viruses.

I wasn’t going to do that.

And honestly, I wasn’t always like this.

In the past, I worked full days as a ski instructor when I should have been in bed. I ran around as a waitress with a fever so high that at one point it felt like I was floating above the floor. And once, after a snowboard accident tore through my quad and my reinforced snowboard pants while I was preventing a child from getting hurt (yes, hero moment), I still kept working as a ski instructor, even on the same day!

Looking back, that level of stubbornness wasn’t admirable. It was just unnecessary.

I know that some people genuinely worry about consequences—being fired, judged, or pressured by colleagues for staying home with a cold. But very often the biggest pressure comes from ourselves. That inner voice telling us to push through.

And pushing through always carries risks.

Sometimes those risks are small. Sometimes they aren’t. Post-viral complications exist, and while many of them are still poorly understood, we know that infections can have longer-term consequences. Conditions like ME/CFS are still not fully explained. We don’t know exactly who develops them or why. Starting work or training again too early might have nothing to do with it—or it might contribute because the body is still under stress.

Who knows.

This isn’t meant as scientific advice. Just a thought.

Some risks, however, are well documented. For example, returning to intense exercise too early after an infection increases the risk of heart inflammation such as pericarditis. That’s not speculation—it’s established.

So sometimes the smartest thing you can do is simply rest.

When I feel guilty about calling in sick, a few thoughts help me keep things in perspective.

First: you don’t own the company. The company’s profit does not rest on your shoulders. In my case it partly does—I work one and a half days per week in my own practice—but realistically, will one or two missed days destroy my business? Of course not. But if I push through now and get even sicker later, I might lose far more time.

Second: you are not responsible for your colleagues’ workload. If others have to cover for you, that’s a management problem, not a personal failure.

Third: there will be no inscription on your gravestone that says, “Always showed up to work even when sick.” There will be no eternal “Employee of the Month” badge waiting for you.

And finally, the uncomfortable truth: no matter how important we believe we are, if we disappeared tomorrow, the business would continue.

We are all replaceable. Even Steve Jobs is.

None of this means you should stay home with every tiny cough or scratchy throat. When I first felt the symptoms, I still went to work. But the moment it got worse—even though I technically could have gone—I decided to stop and rest.

I hoped a day off might help my body recover over the weekend.

It didn’t work this time.

But at least I tried.

🧪 Let’s Experiment

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Showing up sick rarely makes you a hero—it usually just spreads the problem.

If you’re someone who tends to push through sickness or guilt yourself into working anyway, here’s a small experiment.

🎯 Try This:

Next time you’re debating whether to work while sick, imagine the situation reversed. If your colleague showed up coughing and clearly unwell, would you admire their dedication—or wish they had stayed home?

🧠 Final Thought:

Taking care of your health is not selfish. In many cases, it’s the most responsible choice you can make.

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Keep it simple, stay curious, and keep learning—you’ve got this.

Take care,

Carina 🦊