Hello everyone!
Ok, so I just (after two years, without a full-time job) got hired for a sales position in Tel Aviv, roughly a 45 minute bus ride from the central bus station in Jerusalem.
My first and second weeks, I was there early, helping to get the computers up and running properly, and to work out the final kinks in the internet connection.
Two of the girls that i was working with had bad flu’s, and so does my son, so I really had no chance of NOT catching it from them. Between my close proximity to the girls at work, and having to hug and kiss my son, well, pretty much a no brainer.
But I have responsibilities, right? I have responsibilities to my job, to my wife, and in the house hold. Being sick, and I mean really sick with the flu does not allow one to a.perform at peak levels at work, and b. does not exactly endow the sufferer with great amounts of energy to be able to even perform the most mundane of tasks; give me a couch, a pillow, something warm to drink, and a movie, right? Right.
I have missed three days of work this week, and of course since I have a doctors’ note, I will get paid, but this is besides the point.
Yet what is one to do when they are so physically ill that they can not even climb a staircase without losing so much breath that they feel like they will die?
I absolutely LOVE my job!
I absolutely LOVE my manager and work team members, but what about taking this virus in to work with me, and spreading it around generously to everyone else, thereby shutting effectively shutting down the office for a week while everyone else recovers from the flu that I inadvertently gave them.
My boss, without a doubt the best that I have EVER had the privilege of working for and with, and he is quite simply an amazing person as well.
He has called me everyday, simply out of concern for my health, and to make sure that I am ok. Does your boss do that, when you’re home sick? Probably not.
Yet still I have the responsibility to be there, to not just be making my minimum salary, but to be making both the company and myself money via the making of sales, at which I am VERY good B”H (Thank G-d).
So the question is, do I go in today, when I am still really feeling very well, or wait until my next shift, which is on Monday; sleep today, get good rest over the weekend, and start healthy and fresh then?
I will have to go to the doctor to get another sick note of course, because I was overly optimistic thinking that i was going to return on Wednesday, but that should be no problem.
The problem it would seem is coming from within.
Self-conflict is a bitch.
My body tells me to stay home today, and return on Monday healthy Be”H (with G-d’s help), but my mind says GO, you have a responsibility to be there.
Oy, what an internal conflict.
Responsibility is what keeps us motivated, and keeps us geared up and ready to go.
Still, I think in this case, that I am going to have to give my body the last word.
I would hate having it on my conscience that I spread this flu around the office, and thereby cost the company even more money by, again a. just going through the ropes, and b. spreading this horrid thing and possibly stopping the flow of work all together.
Boy, responsibility sure is a pain in the ass
Mordechai
