I never call in sick. I mean, I have gone months and months without calling in sick. One day last week, however, I was legitimately sick, with nausea and vomiting and a low grade fever. I felt like I had no other choice but to call in sick, but I spent the entire day feeling incredibly guilty for not making myself push on and go in to work, especially since I work within a small department where it is very keenly felt whenever someone calls in sick and generally leaves the department short handed.
Has anyone else dealt with this? I guess what I would like to know is how you can NOT feel guilty if you call in sick when you truly are sick. I think part of it is because so many nurses are burned out and hate their jobs and call in sick when they're not necessarily sick, which makes me feel that my boss thinks that I, too, am just playing sick to get a day off.
I always feel really weird after I go back after calling in sick, almost like everyone is thinking, "Liar, liar...how was your day off?", because they had to pick up the slack from me being off, even though they never actually say it and are very nice.
I am not this paranoid in other areas of my life, so why is this such an issue for me? Any thoughts?
