Wednesday 28 April, 2004
Morals or work morals?
Thor told me off for working today. According to him if I was ill, I shouldn't work. At all.
I thought that since I'm capable of working, I should work. But because I wasn't feeling quite well either, I chose to work from home as I have that possibility. I know if I hadn't worked, I know I'd have felt guilty and couldn't have relaxed properly. It's not like I'm that ill - if I take painkillers I'm pretty good. Then I discussed the issue with Chu who said that I was absolutely right - if I felt like I could do some work why not. (She's a bit of a workaholic herself though, although taking a sickie today as well - we had a nice long lunchtime chat.)
But that got me thinking - is it my moral (I shouldn't lie to my employer - if I'm not ill I shouldn't say I am), or is it English work moral that forces people to work even if they are not 100%? For me this was a very natural decision to make, but I'm starting to doubt myself... has English culture warped my sense of duty out of proportion?
Posted by kolibri at 28 April 14:45, 2004Working at home, a day or two, may be more effective and profits the employer even more than work in the office. You have more space to organize old and new ideas in you head. From the point of view of utilitarian moral, this is OK. But many Finns (like myself) see moral as duty, and have often bad conscience.
Today I am on holiday, and ill (not very ill, no fewer), staying at home. This is typical for Finnish civil cervants. The last days of holydays of the year have to be taken in April. Last year I was ill, too. My body deceived me again.
# 2 - Laalaa (on April 29, 2004 08:58 AM):
In the Finnish work ethic, in my experince, people tend to work way, way too much. This is the lutheran upbringing/culture working, "Kärsi, kärsi; kirkaamman kruunun saat". Still, Finns tend to try to work efficiently as supposed to just sitting at the office because that's what one is supposed to do. On the other hand Finns do have a lot more vacation days and a much healthier attitude towards sick leaves.
So in my limited experince Finns go to the office when they are sick because they feel that they should as opposed to Britons who go to the office even sick because they must according to the feodalist legistlation.
So Finns are locked in a cage of their own making.
# 3 - Chu (on April 29, 2004 05:08 PM):
Darling dear, I did also say that you could work if you felt like it - but that you didn't *have to* since you were on a sick leave and needed to recover.
You were ill the previous day - it was hardly likely that you would have been back to 100% the next day. The point was not to over-exert yourself with the false ok feeling given by painkillers.
The bottom line in my opinion is do what you're capable of, no more. Take care of yourself. I'm sure that was Thor's point too :).
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