18 February 2009
by 
One of the things I hate most about freelancing is sick days. Now, in a traditional job you have an acceptable number of days when you can opt to take sick leave and still get paid. Freelancers however, often find themselves needing to work right through all kinds of illness. We have deadlines to meet and the money doesn’t come unless we’re putting in those hours.
This week, I have the flu. I feel like I’ve been kicked in the nose by a very angry horse. Everything aches and I just want to sleep. I know you’ve all been there. Year after year the flu does it’s rounds and no one is entirely immune. When illness strikes, creativity, focus, and motivation flee. We’re left with looming deadlines, an unhealthy pile of tissues, inordinate quantities of orange juice, and children who are clever enough to stay away from our eroded tempers.
How do you handle sick days as a freelancer? Do you attempt to take a day to sleep it off or do you work twice as hard to get everything done that would have taken half the time were you well?
Hi Rebecca,
I tend to try to work through it, until it gets too tough and I have to sleep. It is stressful, knowing that we don’t have many options for sick days.
Thanks for this great post!
~Kimberlee
Aw, get well soon Rebecca!
It is difficult, isn’t it?
I do my best to plow through…
I’m another who tries to work through it. Sometimes I just have to go lay down. Or force myself to bed early. But since a lot of my deadlines are newspaper related, sometimes there’s nothing I can do but live on Dayquil and work through it. Then I sleep for a couple days after I’m done. LOL
Hi Becca,
sometimes I try and work through but if you’ve really got the flu rather than a heavy cold it can be almost impossible. The other thing that stops me in my tracks is migraine – and as you say there is no sick pay for freelance writers. Hope you feel better soon and can get back to writing
suejeff
I know exactly what you are talking about. I gave birth to a little girl last Thursday. Because of this I did not do any work on my current projects from Wednesday evening until Sunday night. On Monday morning I had no option, I had to start working and what’s more I had to double my efforts to try and get back on track.
Fortunately the baby still sleeps most of the time so I am managing to get quite a bit done. There has got to be an easier way of making a living than freelancing. Right now I would love a break for a week or two. Unfortunately I cannot afford this, no work, no money.
First, I hope you get to feeling better soon!
I, unfortunately, have it both ways. I work full-time for an eLearning company, and I freelance on the side. For the past 2 weeks I’ve been fighting my second sinus infection since January. If I take a sick day from my first job, I always feel compelled to try and sneak in some freelance work while I’m home. I really should just go to bed!
Seems like all freelancers will soldier on as far as is possible, me included. Wish you better, Rebecca.
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http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your Goals (for business but also in other areas of your life), Projects and Tasks. It has a Checklists section, for the routines and repetitive activities that any business has to do. Also, it features a Schedules section and a Calendar, for scheduling you time and activities.
Features from GTD are also present, like Contexts and Next Actions.
And it’s available on the mobile phone too, so you can access it from anywhere.
While not a Freelance Writer, I was a full time mum and house wife. While not officially getting paid for either being sick was sure not fun for getting that job done either.
Now I Work but I am casual so if I’m sick I don’t get paid either. I suppose that is like with Freelancers.
Do get better soon. But in the meantime rest when possible. Heeps of honey and lemon. Don’t over do it.
You will be back on track very soon.
Cheers Stephanie
Hope you feel better soon. I tend to work through it whenever possible, otherwise I get too far behind. I’m experimenting with different ways of planning my work. I keep a stock of draft posts (complete with images) for the clients I blog for, so I can load them up with a couple of clicks if necessary. It’s one of the toughest parts of freelancing.
Thank you all for wishing me well. I am feeling better.
It seems like we all push through illness to get the work done on time. I’ve been digging into James and Mason’s The Unlimited Freelancer and one area, that of outsourcing, caught my eye. Perhaps illness is the perfect time to practice outsourcing. We are one person but to truly grow a freelance business it can help to release a little control and ask for help. In fact, how about I turn this into an article.
[...] I asked how freelancers handle their workload when sick it seemed unanimous, we all do our best to work right through illness and fatigue. Ultimately, [...]
In my early days, I would work while sick and take frequent breaks. Nowadays, I don’t have a problem taking a day (or two) off. I’ll either play make-up later, or borrow money from savings.