Being ill is a pain in the ‘arris.

Hardly a profound philosophical statement, I’d agree. To be fair, it’s also inaccurate unless you have piles.

Which means it depends on the illness, or the consequences thereof in terms of personal productivity.

I have a serious head cold with an uncontrollable cough and a sore throat that seems to improve and then bites me back. I can lessen the quantity of coughing by taking a deep lungful of air but doing that aggravates the throat.

A lot of people (you know them, the ones you work with who get sick about World Cup o’clock) use the tiniest tickle to justify getting their spouse to call the boss ‘because I’m too ill.’ I knew one chap who only ever got sick on Mondays or Fridays, making nearly every weekend just that little bit longer.

Well, I also have a friend who had a serious, life-threatening cancer which required a bone-marrow transplant and he spent a month in an isolation ward preparing case files and related documents for an investigation he was involved in. Gawd Bless Wi-Fi.

Recollection of which suddenly made me feel like a fraud, hence the fact I’m blogging while coUGh9jbg my guts up.

It IS true that, in workplace terms, no-one notices you’ve gone when you leave (although I left a couple of big ‘you-sort-it-outs’ when I left). Within a surprisingly sobering and short lapse of time, they don’t need your input anymore. They learn to cope.

Maybe.

But that shouldn’t stop you trying to leave some kind of legacy.

Find opportunities to develop new protocols, to train others, to write professional articles and even books. The learning you get while doing that can be immensely useful, and you get a reputation. A GOOD one. And the opportunities that follow can be equally rewarding. The people I’ve met and the work I have influenced over the past 20 years because I did those things are my legacy, even if it all does get forgotten when the people I worked with float off into the ether. (And I read a book that suggested it, so it’s not entirely my idea.)

Until then, I say give it all you’ve got. Do more than expected and think outside the proverbial for ways to teach and influence others.

Like all those people YOU remember.