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Poor baby, you're sick! You worked yourself to the bone, caught a cold, and you just cannot bear the thought of staring at a bright screen all day while blowing your nose repeatedly. The old standard was that the next steps would be phoning the office to say you can't come in. Then email became acceptable as an alternate method. But now, what's that we hear? In your weakened state, you've been considering tweeting it in?? Lemondrop asked a few experts if using Twitter to call in sick to work is ever OK -- and the response was mixed.

"If you have a close relationship with your manager that involves a lot of communication on Twitter, or if you work in a Twitter-heavy environment that involves a lot of subordinate/manager tweeting, then OK, tweet your manager that you're not coming in today because you have the flu. Otherwise, you need to use the medium you and your manager predominantly use to communicate with each other, be that email, phone, IM, or something else. You don't want to risk looking too cavalier, inconsiderate or clueless by using a medium your manager doesn't routinely use. (If your manager doesn't use that communication medium at least three times a day, it's not part of his or her routine.) And you certainly don't want to risk your manager not even getting the message by using a medium that they don't check throughout the day. Twitter may be your main form of communication with your BFF, but that doesn't mean it's appropriate or smart to correspond with your boss that way. This isn't about what's convenient for you; it's about making your boss's life easier. It's about speaking their language technologically. And if their language doesn't include sitting on Twitter all day long, you're not making their life easier, which ultimately hurts you." -- Michelle Goodman, author of "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube"

"It absolutely is fine to send a message through Twitter to your manager that you're sick and won't be at work for your next shift IF your employer has told you in advance that she's OK with you communicating that type of information in that manner. The same applies to messaging your manager about any other issue through any other non-traditional means of communication so that includes Facebook, Linked In, cell phone text message, email, and even voicemail. The bottom line is that everything that you do at work, including calling in sick, needs to be done to help your employer increase its revenues, decrease its expenses, or both, so if you communicate that you're going to miss a shift because you're sick in a way that your manager is unlikely to see it or be able to take action on it, then your miscommunication will likely decrease revenues because you won't be around to do your work and they won't have someone else there to take your place, increase expenses as the other works will likely be less productive in your absence, or both." -- Steven Rothberg, CEO of College Recruiter job board.

"Only Tweet-in sick if:
1) It has been done before in your company and is well accepted.
2) You send a private message through Twitter to the appropriate person (H.R.? your boss?).
3) You're Ashton Kutcher and the world wants to know you're sick." -- Zohar Adner, life coach/stress counselor and author of "The Gift of Stress -- How to Act on the Urgent Message That's Trying to Save Your Life"





"Aim for speed and effectiveness when you're calling in sick. That means getting the word that you won't be in to everyone who needs to know as soon as possible. They may need to cover your work or change their own plans in some way. Also, you need to pass on the details about anything you're responsible for that will need action while you're out. In addition, let them know when you'll return, and how (or if) you can be reached while you're out. In most cases this will mean a call, followed by an email with details of where they can find the BLANK file, you'll call in at 3 to answer questions, etc.) Twitter won't work for this in most cases because; your message may be lost in a flood of tweets, since most people only check their direct messages sporadically, and you'll almost always need to send more information than will fit in a tweet." -- Phyllis Mufson, Catalyst for Personal & Professional Growth

What do you think? We know it's a modern age, but would you ever Tweet-in sick? Or have you already? What was your boss's reaction?