The conversation that Dr. Raper facilitated last Tuesday was one of the most successful Zoom classes I have ever been a part of. Our conversation tackled topics that I’ve seen many people tip-toe around with grace–suicide, domestic violence, depression, hopelessness, and ways to deal with those things in non-destructive manners.
However, one topic that I feel often gets forgotten in the conversation of Covid-19 and mental health is the way that the pandemic “did away” with the sick day. In fact, as I write this blog post, I am sick (though I’ve tested negative for Covid). My past few days have been filled with sending e-mails to professors all but apologizing for daring to fall ill, and attending Zoom meetings for classes that I would much rather be sleeping through. In fact, to get over whatever bug I’ve caught, I probably should be sleeping through them, but the fear of having my Zoom box called on keeps me awake.
My head is cloudy, it is an immense struggle to conjure up an intelligible sentence, yet I feel guilty for even thinking about the prospect of some extra rest when I could be doing an assignment. The fear of falling behind in my classes is outweighing my body’s call for rest. After all, how can I rest when the pandemic lifted any chance of taking a full sick day? Everything can be done online, so why wouldn’t it be?
Resting while ill is imperative for making a full recovery as quickly and gracefully as possible. Although this is anecdotal, I’ve found that trying to do work while sick makes me feel horrible, mentally. I find it near-impossible to focus, and the difficulty that I have in producing coherent work makes me feel useless. I often find my already sick mind begin to tumble down thought loops of “not being good enough,” when all I need to do is get some rest while I’m fighting off whatever ailment is affecting me.
However, calling for the disbandment of Zoom classes while things “return to normal” is an ableist thing to do. For many students who are dealing with chronic illness, Zoom sessions are their chance to not be forced to take time off from school. I certainly understand the benefit of having a Zoom option; nevertheless, I wish that sick days would be re-normalized.
I think you offer some really interesting insight. I think that health in the United States is influenced greatly by two factors.
Firstly, we like to ensure that our bodies are at “peak” capacity at all times. As such, we undervalue groups like the disabled. To make everybody a high-performing instrument, we encourage them to take an entourage of pills or undergo a plethora of treatments. In a sense, our bodies are likened to machines. Medicine is the tool that fixes any dysfunction. The second driver is our capitalist structures. Human labor is a form of capital in business, and most of us could be replaced in our jobs. Due to fear of being fired, there becomes a pressure to perform well at every moment. This manifests in individuals refusing to take sick leave. Furthermore, our workplaces also mandate that we come to work, even in the case of illness. For example, many employers ask workers to provide a doctor’s note if they will be out sick. This procedure requires employees to physically get an appointment and meet with a physician. We view our bodies as commodities that are no more than a cog in the capitalist machine. As such, we work our hardest to make sure our cog is highly functioning to ensure that we can fulfil our “role” in society, thereby seeking treatments and procedures that we think we need. We overvalue being both functional and productive, and as a result we are undervaluing rest. Thank you for sharing this, and I hope you get some rest!
Thank you Makalee, for your post. It’s funny because for me, as a teacher, the pandemic completely made me RE THINK the sick day. Before COVID, I would give students two “free” days to miss class and not have to explain it but after that, without a doctor’s note, you would lose participation points. Now, I was all sick folks to stay the heck away from class. Keep your germs to yourself. It requires faculty to re-think how we deliver our content, how we think about participation, and how we hold students accountable for their work, but I agree that it is a much less ableist approach.