Latest news with #cold
SBS Australia
an hour ago
- Health
- SBS Australia
Should you take a day off or work from home with a mild cold? What if you can't do either?
Whether it's your first or fourth cold of the season, many Australians are waking up at the moment with a sniffle, a sore throat or feeling more tired than usual. June to August is peak flu season in Australia. There are also high rates of COVID-19 circulating, along with other respiratory viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus and adenovirus. Sometimes it's clear when you need to spend the day in bed: you have a fever, aches and pains, and can't think clearly. If it's the flu or COVID-19, you'll want to stay away from others and rest and recover. But what about if your symptoms are mild? Are you sick enough to take the day off, or should you push through it? And what if you feel pressured to work? Here's what to consider. Are you likely to spread it? While it may seem like a good idea to continue working, especially when your symptoms are mild, going to work when infectious with a respiratory virus risks infecting your co-workers. If you are in a client-facing role, such as a teacher or a salesperson, you may also infect others, like students or customers. The risks may be even greater for those working with vulnerable communities, such as in aged care work, where the consequences can be severe. From an organisational perspective, you are likely less productive when you are not feeling well. So, whenever possible, avoid going into work when you're feeling unwell. Should I work from home? The COVID-19 pandemic normalised working from home. Since then, more people work from home when they're unwell, rather than taking sick leave. Some employees join Zoom or Teams meetings out of guilt, not wanting to let their co-workers down. Others — and in particular, some men — feel the need to maintain their performance at work, even if it's at the expense of their health. A downside of powering through is that workers may prolong their illness by not looking after themselves. Can you take leave when you need it? Employees in Australia can take either paid or unpaid time off when they are unwell. Most full-time employees get 10 days of paid sick leave per year, while part-time employees get the equivalent pro rata. Employers can ask for reasonable evidence from employees to show they are unwell, such as asking for a medical certificate from a pharmacy or GP, or a statutory declaration. The type of evidence required may differ from organisation to organisation, with some awards and enterprise agreements specifying the type of evidence needed. While taking a sick day helps many workers recuperate, a significant proportion of workers engaged in non-standard work arrangements do not receive these benefits. There are, for example, 2.6 million casual employees who don't have access to paid sick leave. Many workers, such as casual employees and self-employed people, often don't have much choice about whether or not to take a sick day. Source: Getty / FG Trade Similarly, most self-employed people, such as tradies and gig workers, do not have any paid leave entitlements. Although these workers can still take unpaid leave, they are sacrificing income when they call in sick. Research from the Australian Council of Trade Unions has found more than half of insecure workers don't take time off when injured or sick. So a significant proportion of workers in Australia simply cannot afford to call in sick. Why pushing through isn't the answer 'Presenteeism' is the phenomenon of people reporting for work even when they are unwell or not fully functioning, affecting their health and productivity. While exact figures are hard to determine, since most organisations don't systematically track it, estimates suggest 30 to 90 per cent of employees work while sick at least once a year. People work while sick for different reasons. Some choose to because they love their job or enjoy the social side of work — this is called voluntary presenteeism. But many don't have a real choice, facing financial pressure or job insecurity. That's involuntary presenteeism, and it's a much bigger problem. Research has found industry norms may be shaping the prevalence of 'involuntary presenteeism', with workers in the health and education sectors more likely to feel obligated to work when sick due to 'at work' caring responsibilities. What can organisations do about it? Leaders set the tone, especially around health and wellbeing. When they role-model healthy behaviour and support time off, it gives others permission to do the same. Supportive leaders can help reduce presenteeism, while pressure from demanding leaders can make it worse. Your co-workers matter too. When teams step up and share the load, it creates a culture where people feel safe to take leave. A supportive environment makes wellbeing a shared responsibility. But for some workers, leave isn't an option. Fixing this requires policy change across industries and society more broadly, not just inside the workplace.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
I woke up in a police cell fearing I'd killed my daughter in a drunken rage. The truth was almost as bad... but I still denied I was an alcoholic. Don't make my mistake: SERENA PALMER
Slowly I slid into consciousness and blinked, confused, at the cold, grey room in which I found myself. Where was I? A hotel? A stranger's bedroom? I had no idea.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
I Hate To Say It, But After Seeing These 32 Pictures I'm Convinced Americans Might Just Be The Dumbest People On The Planet
expiration dates: what cold really is: the invention of English: tattoos: Related: hospital bills: speeding: freedom: the weather: the future: soccer: Related: the 4th of July: transit: degrees: knives: beer: celebrations: Related: cars: naming a country: allergies: currency: Canada: ancient buildings: the Netherlands: colors: Related: French words: celsius: Texas: borders: speaking: the Autobahn: the NFL: on emergency cash: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds:
ABC News
13-07-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Queenslanders warned to brace for another chilly week as temperatures plummet
As school students return to the classroom from today, most of Queensland is being warned to brace for another week of widespread frost and chilly conditions. Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said cold starts and sunny days were the outlook across the state. "We're also going to see another round of widespread frost from the south-east coast, Darling Downs, Maranoa and Warrego, possibly even into the central western highlands, Coalfields and Wide Bay. "So large parts of the state are going to see another cold, frosty morning, but it will then be a bright, sunny day not only there but right across the state on Monday." Temperatures plummeted below zero around the Darling Downs and Granite Belt, as well as the Maranoa and Warrego, over the weekend. On Monday morning, residents in Oakey woke to an icy -3.5 degrees Celsius. "We saw temperatures around -3C through places like Oakey, Applethorpe, and Stanthorpe -2C, Roma -2C, Miles -2C and Warwick as well," Mr Narramore said. "That will be the focus again on Monday and even again into Tuesday morning as well; they'll be the kind of areas that will have the coldest temperatures. "But single figures extending well north as well, even up into Mount Isa, Flinders Highway even up through there, we're going to see temperatures get down into the low single figures as well." The weather bureau said the cold snap was due to a large high-pressure system lingering over much of the country that was bringing a cool and frosty start to the day. Maximum forecast temperatures for the week range in the low to mid 20s for southern parts of the state, while northern areas and the far west will see high 20s to low 30s. "It's typical winter weather for this time of the year and it's the story statewide for much of the week," Mr Narramore said. However, Mr Narramore warned that winds would pick up by week's end, as well as the chances of shower activity. "As we move into Friday and into the weekend, we're going to see those winds tend a little bit more onshore," he said. "This means we could start to see cloud and showers developing through eastern and south-eastern Queensland on Friday afternoon and [they] probably could be more widespread on Saturday, just in time for the weekend. "So cold mornings but a sunny week for much of the state Monday through to Thursday, then we could see some cloud and showers returning and warmer nights Friday and into the weekend."
Irish Times
02-07-2025
- Climate
- Irish Times
Laura Kennedy: Welcome to Canberra winter where I am wearing thermal long johns like an old man in a Western
The Irish immigrant makes two grim discoveries on their first winter in Australia – first, Australia actually has a winter and, second, Australians apparently decline to insulate homes. They may have some sort of moral objection to ensuring that it is warmer inside the house than outside it. Or perhaps they're a people of such hardy, summery constitution overall that they simply forgot to insulate their dwellings. I'm unsure of the lore which constitutes the basis of this national 'colder in than out' rule. I just know that Australians have come to accept it while the rest of us have not. They don't complain. Or if they do, I can't hear them over the sound of all the non-Australians wondering aloud how it could be four degrees outside, and also in the kitchen. This week alone, I have witnessed people from the Netherlands, Canada (yeah – the snowy one), China and the UK all complaining about being murderously cold inside their house or apartment. 'I go to the gym just so I can feel my own feet,' the Canadian said. READ MORE 'In Canada we expect it. Things are built with an understanding of the climate. But here, it's another kind of cold,' they said, their eyes affecting a sort of odd, glazed look, as though they had left warm feet behind in Canada. I nodded sympathetically. Incidentally, it is winter here in Canberra now, where temperatures hit below minus seven one night this week and where I am wearing thermal long johns to bed like an old man in a Western. Just as people at home emerge from, or are still stuck in, the heatwave you've all been complaining about. Naturally, having enjoyed an Australian summer already this year, it would be a very bad look for me to express jealousy of the fact that Limerick 'got a nice run of sunny days, in fairness'. And yet, here I am, sitting in an Australian apartment with my coat on, jealous of my niece and nephew (ages five and three) enjoying a whippy ice cream this month in the Mediterranean luxury of their Limerick back garden paddling pool. It's shaped like a turtle. I'm not proud of it – the jealousy, not the paddling pool. Based on reports from friends and family at home, I understand that Ireland has been managing the kind of heat my mother used to describe as 'oppressive' while puffing her cheeks out like a woman overburdened with it all. It's a word generally reserved for dystopian political regimes and the experience of just having somehow zipped yourself dangerously into a pair of jeans three sizes too small. All the messages from home these last weeks suggest a country in extremis. 'I've gone to the seaside to wait it out,' my friend's voice note said, in a tone that evoked someone faking their own death to evade arrest. 'The Londis has run out of Soleros,' came another message, like someone reporting from the frontlines of a devastating natural disaster. Everyone who has been in touch from home appears to have been felled by the kind of hot weather which during my childhood would have necessitated a dinner of cold ham, iceberg lettuce, half a boiled egg and a large, wet slice of posthumous tomato. A slice of Irish tomato of the 1990s, which slithers over the tongue and down the throat like a bad oyster. This kind of dinner is a beautiful (if gastronomically repulsive) tradition in our culture – one which has thankfully been obliterated now that we can order our dinner via apps when we're too tired or hot to cook. All cultures have their version. It's the sort of dinner the British call 'picky bits', except they get their picky bits at Marks and Spencer, and it's a dinner of olives and Manchego wrapped in prosciutto and artichoke hearts. Nobody has boiled an egg inside a nuclear reactor, such that throwing it at a person could knock them unconscious, and you eat this dinner on a picnic blanket on Hampstead Heath or off the Elgin Marbles instead of your mother's kitchen table as she says: 'Nobody could be cooking in this weather, you'd get Jaysus heat stroke.' As you can likely tell, Canberra's winter can make a person wax sentimental for an Irish summer. I find myself yearning for a time when 'June' or 'July' meant hot weather and weird, deconstructed, low-effort dinners containing not one shred of dietary fibre. For a time when I could feel my feet. This is particularly ironic, since attending a convent school in Limerick meant having chilblained feet and hands with blue fingernails for 12 consecutive years. Had they looked nice, the radiators would largely have been decorative. I've been told by some readers of this column that I'm too negative about Ireland and too positive about Australia. Others, naturally, have accused me of directly the opposite, so I suppose I'll have to put the whole thing down to journalistic balance and await my Pulitzer any day now. But I wouldn't want anyone thinking that I don't hear the feedback. That I don't listen. So for those who say I'm down on my deeply beloved home country, which I complain about and write love letters to in equal measure, like every Irish expat writer, I wanted to share this potentially libellous message about Australian buildings (many of which we probably built, to be fair, so it might be our own fault). They are constructed neither for summer nor winter, but rather to maximise a sort of homesteading spirit of personal toughness in the face of a vast, capricious and indomitable natural landscape. That's very poetic, but it feels a smidge less so when you're wearing your scarf and gloves while trying to butter toast. The Australians get a lot of things right – coffee; side servings of chips that are somehow one kilo of chips; the cost of electricity. But! If you want your living room to feel warmer than the street it overlooks in winter, I'm afraid you'll have to move to Limerick. Or one of the warmer parts of Australia. Sign up to The Irish Times Abroad newsletter for Irish-connected people around the world. Here you'll find readers' stories of their lives overseas, plus news, business, sports, opinion, culture and lifestyle journalism relevant to Irish people around the world If you live overseas and would like to share your experience with Irish Times Abroad, you can use the form below, or email abroad@ with a little information about you and what you do. Thank you
