thinking about that post about how at work, “sick” is a category constructed as a temporary condition with the assumption that when not sick, you’re fully well and at maximum productivity. when i got covid people were very sympathetic. for three days. then they started getting frustrated that i wasn’t keeping up with all my work remotely. now i’m back but i seem to have lasting fatigue. why does “don’t worry about it, your health matters and you need your rest” only apply for three days? i’m literally doing nothing at home, just trying to recover before the next day of work. but because it’s a persistent condition, i’m just supposed to deal with it. it’s not even that they want me to push through, it’s this assumption that if you’re not sick, you’re basically well, so you ought to be performing. this weird idea that a condition can either be debilitating or persistent but not both. and this is less than two weeks after a disease that my workplace fully recognizes as serious. i can’t imagine having a chronic condition that takes some explaining. if someone implied i wasn’t trying just because i wasn’t up to “well” standards i think i’d throw hands
