should I work from home if I have a cold?

A reader writes:

I wonder this each time I get a cold and thought I’d get your opinion. My company has hybrid work; we’re expected in the office three or more days per week. I have a cold so told my manager I’d be WFH on Monday and she was supportive. I was still feeling crummy on Tuesday so again told her I was WFH, and she again was supportive but less enthusiastically so. So now it’s Wednesday, I still have a cold but symptoms are manageable with cold meds, and I feel like I have to go in. I’m planning on wearing a mask but will still be more miserable than if I was allowed to WFH with all my creature comforts for surviving a cold. My boss hadn’t explicitly told me I need to come in but I kind of feel ridiculous working from home three days in a row just because I got a cold.

I haven’t noticed how many days my coworkers take when they’re sick but my boss is very rarely sick and I’ve never seen her take more than one day. I know you’re on the side of stay home when you’re sick, but when does that turn into me being overly cautious? (This is separate from sick days; I wasn’t feeling sick enough that I couldn’t work. Though if we take three sick days in a row, we’re supposed to provide a doctor’s note! I can’t see my boss actually asking for that though.)

Ideally, when you have the ability to work from home, you should be able to work from home when you have a cold — at least at the start of it. Some colds last for weeks and it might not be realistic to work from home the whole time, but tacking on an extra day or two to your normal two WFH days that week shouldn’t be a big deal. That’s better for everyone — you’re more comfortable than if you had to drag yourself to work (and might get more done as a result) and you’re not exposing your coworkers. If you can do your work from home, as recognized by your hybrid work policy, it just makes sense. So no, you’re not being dramatic about wanting to!

In reality, though, some managers/employers are more rigid about this than others.

So one option is to simply ask your manager: “I’m pretty miserable with this cold and I think I’ll get more done if I can work from home today, although that will put me under my in-office days for the week. I also don’t want to expose people. What’s your general feeling about working from home a few extra days during a week when we’re under the weather — is that okay to do or do you strongly prefer that we not?”

Alternately, if your sense is that if you ask she’ll tell you no, whereas if you just announce you’re doing it she won’t interfere and you have enough capital that it won’t be held against you in any long-term way even though she’d prefer you not do it, in some situations that’s the better course of action. I like directly asking the question, so you know where she stands and you’re not guessing, but sometimes the value of that is outweighed by the value of just doing what you need to do.

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