Sick Journalist

These days I find that I am so run down from everything I'm doing that my immune system isn't as strong as it normally is. This morning I woke up with a lovely cold - probably the third one I've had since school started.

Then I started thinking to myself, what would happen if I was working my dream job and had to be on air today with this gross stuffy nose, constant sneezing (okay, I sneeze a lot anyways) and weird voice. Would they let me go on or would I have to call in sick even though I feel pretty okay.

So my assumption of what would happen is I would probably let them know that I have a runny nose and itchy eyes and they'd tell me I can't go on air. (This is just my make believe scenario, I don't really know what would happen) Then I'd either be sent home or to the control room and people would shift around their jobs. Hopefully the producer is ready to go on air!

If I was sent home I would feel horribly guilty. Just from the one time we had to do mini newscasts in Broadcast J I realize how important every person is to the show and if I got sent home that would mean somebody else would have to do my job, and then down the road somebody would have to do two jobs. I can't imagine having to do two jobs at once during a live newscast.

What about if I was a journalist working at a newspaper/online/magazine? That probably wouldn't matter as long as I had a big box of kleenex because nobody has to see me - I'd have to make sure to do my interviews over the phone though.

So what is my solution to never having to face this problem? I'm going to drink orange juice every morning and have a lot of Vitamin C and if I feel a cold coming on, Cold FX is my friend.

What would you guys do if you had an annoying little cold and had to go out on the job as a reporter?