How long is reasonable to rest when you're sick?

And who says?

Hi! My name is Bree, and I write about how to make work more joyful and less everything. Subscribe for weekly essays on everything from rewiring organizations to cozy teams to living a Portfolio Life.

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I have a cold.

If you had a cold, what would you tell yourself is a “reasonable” amount of time to rest?

a) 2-3 days in bed

b) 1 day in bed

c) carry on but cancel an inessential meeting/errand or two

d) um… do people really rest for colds?

I’m usually a c/d girl myself, because some things just need to keep getting done like caregiving, and because it feels like more work to reschedule stuff than it does to just power through. But I have to say, my body disagrees. My body would prefer we’re an a/b kind of girl.

And if I’m honest, caregiving and rescheduling hassles aren’t really why I don’t power down. I don’t know why I just said that. The real truth is that it feels incorrect.

Like I’d be embarrassed to tell others I’m resting… I imagine them thinking:

“It’s just a cold! Not typhoid.”

“You don’t look that bad.”

“Can’t you just work from bed?”

Now no one actually says this. SYP is a particularly “Take care of yourself—the team’s got you!” kind of place. This is me estimating what’s “reasonable” in the larger culture around me. But who decided what’s reasonable? Who decided colds aren’t worth resting for?

Probably the same goons that decided on the 5/2 weekday/weekend split, and I don’t like those people.

I tell myself things like, “If I just take a day and really rest, I’ll probably be back on my feet tomorrow instead of dragging and feeling shitty for a whole week of semi-productivity.” and “Bree, your health comes first.”

But I don’t know still doesn’t seem right.

A cold feels closer to a paper cut than the flu. But is it? How do we draw our own subjective lines of what’s “working condition” and what’s not? I remember having a stomach bug one time that had me vomiting all day and I thought to myself with relief, “At least I know for sure I can’t work!” It’s like some weird imposter’s syndrome / hypochondria mash-up that I worry I’m overstating my sickness and that surely I’m fine and can keep going.

Do you ever feel this way??

Anyway, I’m writing this from bed. Going to transition to Love is Blind and bone broth now…