Should I stay away from the office with a non-contagious affliction?

Question

I've been dealing with a bout of laryngitis all weekend on top of allergies, which resulted in me staying home sick today. I expect the allergies will clear up soon, but I don't know how long it will be until I have my voice back.

I'm wondering if it would be best to work from home until my voice has fully returned. You're supposed to rest your voice and drink warm fluids while recovering from laryngitis, and I feel like both of these would be made difficult if I went into work. On the other hand, I'm not contagious, and since I'm a coder my ability to do my job is barely impacted at all by not being able to speak, except for when I can't speak in meetings or what have you. That makes me think I'm being excessive by wanting to stay home, especially since the company encourages face-to-face interaction with other employees as that makes it easier to collaborate and solve problems.

TL;DR I have a non-contagious medical affliction that doesn't really prevent me from doing my job, but going into work will make it more difficult to recover from. Should I work from home until I have recovered?

Answer 1

If you can get most or all of your work done at home, if your management is good with you working from home, then you should work from home.

You will heal faster if you can rest and take care of yourself at home, and that means you will be back up to 100% faster. And, just as importantly, your co-workers will appreciate you working from home. You say you're not contagious, and you probably are not, but since you can't talk, you can't explain that to them. They just see you sick and at work, possibly infecting them.