I’m dying over here.

I threw my back out yet again and little is helping. Yes, CareerDiva is beside herself with pain.

I just got back from the doctor’s office so hopefully the muscle relaxers will help. Well, I can’t take them now or you guys would be reading career gibberish.

Yes, I’m working through the agony. I’m a trooper. What can I say.

Actually, I have to work. I don’t have a choice. I don’t get paid unless I keep toiling. And I am speaking at the Massachusetts Women’s Conference next week so I’ve got more to do in less time.

Do you guys work through the pain?

One study talked about in an article on WebMD that was in the Journal of the American Medical Association and was conducted by Walter Steward, PhD, found that absenteeism makes up less that 25% of productivity lost because of pain.

According to Stewart’s 2003 study, over half of the almost 29,000 workers in the random sample said that they had headache, back pain, arthritis or other musculoskeletal pain in the last two weeks.
Traditionally, employers have focused on pain’s most concrete manifestation: sick days. If an employee doesn’t show up to work, it’s easy to notice.

But Stewart says that absenteeism is not the biggest problem for employers. The rest comes from people who show up to work, but who can’t work efficiently because of their pain. Stewart calls it “presenteeism.”

I’ve heard a lot of people talk about presenteeism so I’m not sure this guy Stewart actually coined the pharse.

This is supposedly a worker that goes to work because they have to but they really don’t have their heart or mind into the toil.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m trying to keep my heart and mind turned on, even though I probably could crush a bullet between my teeth.

I’m working on a story right now about the holiday blues and work. Just coincidentally, a good friend of mine from Richmond, Neil, sent me a bunch of Billie Holiday YouTube videos.

How can you be blue when you hear her entrancing voice:

OK, I admit, I don’t watch every episode of “The Office“. But in the few I’ve seen there is hardly any behavior that will get you canned in that fictitious office.

Sex, sexual harassment — that’s all okay.

I remember many years ago, when I worked for a popular fashion publication, there was an off-the-wall workplace episode that would have blown your mind.

The holiday party for this particular fancy pants publication was held at Studio 54. Yes, Studio 54! That lavish disco that was popular in the late 1970s and made a comeback many years later when I was sporting my fake ID.

Well, the party was going to be the event of the season and I found just the right outfit to make my appearance. So many of us got drunk, I admit it. But there was one story from the night that went down in fashion folklore.

A lower-level photographer that was trying hard to make a name for himself at this publication showed up at the gala and got hammered. He was dancing with a bunch of anorexic models and supposedly, according to eyewitness accounts, he had sex with one of them right on the dance floor.

I missed this particular event that night because I got there too late, but everyone was talking about it the next day.

The guy ended up getting fired, or being encouraged to leave the company. Either way, he was no where to be found after the party.

This is an example of an office party gone horrifically bad. Well, I guess it was probably a great night for him…until he came to work the next day I suppose.
Lesson learned: don’t drink too much and don’t get too horny at your company party.

Save it for after hours, when there aren’t any co-workers or managers around. Seems pretty obvious. Maybe. But alas, too many people lose it that one night.

Check out my column this Monday on MSNBC.com.

Do you think Steve Carrell’s “The Office” character Michael, could get away with these kind of office party faux pas?