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Is it OK to blog while off sick?

• Richard Fair
• 7 Dec 06, 09:52 AM

It鈥檚 not something I really thought about until earlier this week when I was taken to my bed with a near-death inducing .

Counting the tiles on the bedroom ceiling was driving me insane (13x12 = 156 plus a few part tiles round the chimney, so I鈥檇 say round it up to 160).

Despite the weakness of my arms and legs and uncontrollable urge to sneeze the contents of my nose on anyone within spitting distance of me, I needed to blog. But what if the boss looks at my site. 鈥淭oo ill to work鈥�, he鈥檒l think, 鈥渂ut not too ill to blog. I鈥檒l sack that slacker when he gets back in the office. That鈥檒l put an end to his .鈥�

So I don鈥檛 blog anything for fear that if the virus (that really was leaving me at death鈥檚 door) doesn鈥檛 get me, my boss will. Of course by not blogging I鈥檓 unable to share my real life experiences with my reader and thus render part of the ethos of blogging redundant.

It was the same, only slightly different, when I went through a spell of .

I was a slave to the computer and the house. Not daring to step outside for fear that it would be at the precise moment the boss would want to speak to me about writing something about . Then, not getting an answer on the phone, he would immediately presume that I was not in fact working at all, but off out to the park all day walking the dog or shopping for antiques or bread. While actually I was just in the toilet. (Of course I avoided using that too in case the phone rang and the whole 鈥榖eing out鈥� nightmare would become a reality).

There were many pluses working from home. I could get up fifteen minutes before starting work and be home before the computer had logged me out. There were days when I could work in my pyjamas and slippers and I could choose what to listen to - music or the radio or next door鈥檚 dog howling (except I didn鈥檛 have much choice in the latter, but the radio drowned him out).

Actually I think working from home meant more time working. None of the distractions of working in an office. And there were days when I was feeling under the weather a little and may have thought twice about dragging my aching limbs into Manchester, but was happy to sit and suffer at home alone. Without any sympathy. At all. (Actually, what was I thinking? I could have been really ill and no one would have known).

Anyway, blogging when you鈥檙e sick. Is it allowed? Is it ok to just post 鈥楽orry I鈥檓 sick and can鈥檛 update the blog鈥� 鈥� or is that contradictory? Writing that you can鈥檛 write is like drawing a picture to illustrate that you can鈥檛 draw. Plus the boss may read it even though he doesn鈥檛 read blogs or know that you write one. But there鈥檚 always the chance that he鈥檒l stumble across it while checking for spares on Ebay.

So, blogging while off work being really, really ill 鈥� playing with fire or a part of the convalescing process?

(Just in case the boss does read this, I wrote it in work time, but had the original idea while at home fighting off the . I鈥檓 happy for him to see my germ-infested notes at any time.)