Traveling While Ill

Having to cancel my trip to NYC last week has really made me think about how one positive outcome from the pandemic is that we typically do not travel or (if possible) go into the office when we were sick. Prior to covid, I would have had to be REALLY sick, like have a high fever, to not go into work. Working from home was not widely accepted back then so you came to work, even if that meant spreading germs to your co-workers. These days, I stay home if I am sick because what is the benefit of being in the office if I am going to risk spreading my germs?

It made me think of a series of conferences that I spoke at in the fall of 2012. I had to present at 3 different bank conferences in the state of Pennsylvania. I think I was healthy for the first one, but had gotten sick by the time the 2nd one rolled around. But I still went because what else was I going to do? I remember I was absolutely miserable. To prepare for the conference and create my presentation, I had to read long and detailed laws on how banks had to change the way they funded themselves. That is not a typical thing that I present on in my job, but it's what they wanted us to talk about. So that meant that it was not easy to transfer that knowledge to someone else. 

So I slogged through a 1.5 hour presentation (which is also longer than typical for me - usually I present for a max of 50 minutes!). After the conference, I remember that one of the conference organizers reached out a couple of days later to see if I was doing ok because it was clear I was not well. I was losing my voice and coughing a ton. I was supposed to present at one more conference, and my health had declined further in the days leading up to the conference. I had a fever and just felt like death. I remember talking to my mom on the phone about how ill I was and she flat out told me I could not do this business trip. I tried to argue and say I could. But sometimes, even when you are 31 years old, you need your mom to tell you what to do. So I contacted my boss, told him I could not do this final conference, and wrote up detailed notes for a colleague so he could present my section. 

I went back and read some post from that time period. Like this post titled, I Survived. You guys, I was on 18 flights in 7 weeks! Back then I was traveling a ton for work. Besides all that work travel, I was in a wedding in St. Louis and ran a marathon in Des Moines. What in the actual world! It's kind of eerie to read that "I survived" post because I mention that I was asked to move to Charlotte on a trip that month for the 3rd time that year. Little did I know I'd find out 3 months later that I would have to move to Charlotte to keep my job... (It's also funny to read this post about getting back to dating - which I posted the week I went on my first (blind) date with Phil! Sometimes I wonder why I keep blogging when so many of my former blogging friends have stopped, but when I read old posts like these, it reminds me that my older self will appreciate all the things my current self is capturing on my blog.)

It's also worth noting that I can vividly recall getting what I now know was my first RA flare in November - so a month after I was super sick, traveling all over the place, and running a ton in preparation for a marathon. I know the flare happened in November because I traveled the day of the 2012 election. I remember voting that morning, getting on a flight, talking to Phil (who I had been dating for about a month at that point) about the election results that night in my hotel and then waking up the following morning with a hand that was so swollen and painful. I wouldn't find out I had rheumatoid arthritis until the following summer when I kept getting all these flares and was in so much pain that I felt like a decrepit octogenarian when I got out of bed each morning, couldn't get my suitcase in/out of over head bins, couldn't carry my suitcase upstairs at my parents, etc. Is it a coincidence that I started to see signs of RA shortly after putting my body through so much in a short period of time? Stress and autoimmune disorders are very closely linked. No one knows for sure why autoimmune diseases can lurk in your body and then rear their ugly head all of a sudden, but my rheumatologist thinks being under major stress is a significant factor in when your disease presents itself. 

But I'm getting off track here! I would not want to go through another pandemic like we experienced, but at least it taught adults that you DON'T GO TO WORK OR TRAVEL WHEN ILL. I got zero push-back when I canceled my trip. People pretty much said - thank you for not coming, please take care of yourself, we will see you next month. 

But why did it take a pandemic for our thoughts about working and traveling while ill to change? It's common sense. Why, as adults, were we going about our days even when we are very ill - particularly those of us who can do our jobs from home? Perhaps this is not the case in every workplace, but it was certainly the case in my industry where people are high strung performers and the expectations placed on you are high. It was almost a badge of honor to come to work when you felt awful. Like, 'look at me and how hard I am working and how dedicated I am since I am coming in even though I look like death warmed over!' 

What do you think? Has your perspective on working or traveling while ill changed?