Mental Health Days: What do you think?

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I work at a school, but I mostly do pretty well with it...except that today was a "half-day." It has taken me hours to recover from this, because on half-days:

a) no breakfast is served
b) all classes are shorter
c) more misbehavior/more sensory overload
d) no lunch break
e) a 2-hour workshop, usually explaining some simple (to me) piece of technology

That made me ponder something: I have plenty of sick days, because I hate to miss work. Would it be ethical to take one in order to avoid this situation? Should I use a personal day instead, or "grin and bear it?"

Thanks in advance,

Fred

In the States, we "Take a Vacation". In the U.K., they "Go on Holiday".

I've taken sick days when I don't feel physically ill - just emotionally overwhelmed. Then I go to a park or the beach. Sometimes it's the library, a museum, or even a shopping mall (essentially deserted during a school day).

Ethics? Which is less ethical: Taking a sick day off when you're not sick, or not taking a sick day off until the work makes you sick?

I say "Go for it!"

In my experience, everyone has particular kinds of days in the workplace that reqiure recovery time during their off time. Everyone.

Sick days are for illness. Since we can't predict when we'll get the Flu, or a bad cold, or a migraine headache, or a sprained joint, it's wise (and ethical) to save those days for when we're actually incapacitated.

Personal days are specificly designated for personal option. Using a personal day to opt out of half days is the ethical choice.

That begs an interesting question: What, technically, is the difference between a syndrome and an illness?

I thought I clarified that what I specifically refered to as illness is an an unpredictable temporary condition which incapacitates the worker, such as the Flu, a bad cold.....

You asked for advise and this is what I have to offer: Meet the chalenges of your work to your capacity. If there are times that are more challenging than others, meet those challenges even if they require recovery during your time off.

That's because when we cannot meet the challenges of our work we may find ourselves out of work. I need my job and am grateful to have it, don't you?

I'm indeed thankful for your advice, but I think you're attempting to mind-read me. I simply asked the difference between a syndrome and an illness. I looked it up and found this:

"Syndrome: a collection of signs and symptoms known to frequently appear together but without a known cause."

Basically, an illness has a known cause and a syndrome doesn't. I learn something new every day!

Mental, Physical, and Emotional health all effect each other and create your overall wellness. So In my opinion it is perfectly ethical to use a sick day for your mental or emotional health.

I actually took a sick day for that reason last week because I knew my work performance would suffer, and so would my mental well-being.

I agree with MountainLaurel that using personal days would seem more ethical than using sick days...but I just found out that I can't use personal days, as the half-days are considered "inservice."