Public Service Announcement
Too often people work when they are sick because of economic necessity and cultural mores. In academia there is this attitude of YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BE WORKING. And with the realities of the job market and increasing emphasis on conspicuous production, the default setting should be "productive." But guess what, when you are sick, usually the most productive thing you can be doing is getting well- at home, with soup. And the second most productive thing you can be doing is not germing up the lab, office, and classroom. I learned this the hard way. As a post-doc I caught a cold. Convinced that my contribution to the research was so important that it could not afford me taking a few days off to get well, I "pushed through" working half days, feeling crappy and infecting and then being re-infected by my lab-mates. This lasted for weeks until one weekend night I ended up in urgent care with a serious bacterial infection. Lame Lame Lame. Since then when I start to feel t