The Maine Millennial: Working while ailing is a pre-COVID relic New paid sick leave policies should survive the coronavirus pandemic. By Victoria Hugo-Vidal Share A few days ago, I woke up with a sore throat and one swollen lymph node – no other symptoms. After frantically Googling “single swollen lymph node,” “left lymph node swole” and “asymmetrical lymph node pain bad?” I alerted my supervisor at work. While we agreed that it was extremely unlikely to be anything serious – my guess is a mild virus, or possibly just another weird way my body responds to stress – the protocol was that I couldn’t come back to the office until I produced a negative COVID test.