Now that a lot of people work from home, are they expected to work when sick?

[impeeza]

With the pandemic a lot of people have switched to 'work from home' as default. So there comes a question...
(Just asking out of curiosity, I don't mean anything by it)

Do employers ask their staff to continue working even when sick? Since they're at home anyway.
Does sick leave mean anything anymore since the employee will be at home anyway?

I'm imagining a situation where an employee was in an accident and has both legs broken.
Previously, he wouldnt be able to come to the office so he would be on sick leave (or something) for months.
But with work from home, technically, the employee would still be able to use a computer and keep on working, right?

At my country, the "official" posture of the minister of health is: "if you are ill from COVID and can work from home, you aren't entitled to leave work, keep working from home, for any other illness you can get a pay leave."

 

[Marc_LFD]

At my country, the "official" posture of the minister of health is: "if you are ill from COVID and can work from home, you aren't entitled to leave work, keep working from home, for any other illness you can get a pay leave."

So much for caring about people's health, huh.

"You'll work from home, and you'll be happy."

 

[Choromatsu]

In my job, at least ... my manager got Covid right after New Years, and clocked in for half a day on our first day back after the holiday to make sure we all knew, and everything was running smoothly. Then she was available through Teams chat with a ping, but was not actively working.

So, I'd say it depends on your ability to carry out the job you're expected to do.

In the case you presented, if the employee is on pain medication, they won't be very capable minded to be doing their work, most likely, and need to relax.
If they are out of that neck of the woods, they should pro'ly judge for themselves if they'd be going into work w broken legs to do the job in general, or if the only thing putting them off doing so would be transport and stuff. If that's the case, they're probably just fine to work.

If an employer is not respectful of the fact we cannot always work from home just because our computers and phones are available, then they were probably the type to expect you to come in with the flu, anyway.