… to be mad at ill colleague?

YANBU - this sort of thing drives me nuts. I say this as a family of 4 who are all sitting with a horrid cold and cough caught from a similarly selfish person. One DC only 3 months and he has had covid and now this - he’s hardly been out and about really but catches from others in the house of course. Hate it.

It’s really hard. Dh is still isolating due to severe health issues. I’m still being ultra careful about certain things I go to. I was slated recently for not going to a regular main meeting of 40 people in a very unventilated room, bearing in mind this is a hobby I was a lot 😳😳😳😳😳. I run a lot of the said hobby from home and am not needed to attend main meetings, I have an assistant who is at the meetings to be my eye and ears.

no one wants my job and to do what I do for the group but I can’t get over the fact that a few think I should put DH’s life at risk.

I get your frustration but its normal to come to work with a cold or flu. Different if its COVID or something lifethreatening but exposure to common bugs is what strengthens your immune system. You wouldnt be so healthy if you sheltered yourself from everyone whenever they had the slightest sniffly nose.

Robitussin cough medicine, the sugar free stuff was recommended to me as I had GD to.

You can’t take time off in a school because you’ve got a cold. I’m a fairly healthy and fit person, but I’ve got my third cold of the year. If I took time off for all three colds I’d be close to triggering a disciplinary. I’d also be massively letting my colleagues down, who would have to pick up the slack.

You stay at home if you are too ill to work in schools. Your colleague was able to work so she came in.

Exactly!!! The very obviously sick people should be the easiest to avoid - it's the strangers you pass on the street or stand in the queues that are the danger.

You work in a school but yet you are precious about illness? Sorry but schools are an absolute melting pot of germs. And not many headteachers or heads of dept would take kindly to a teacher/employee being off with just the sniffles, so your colleague did right by coming in. Shouldn't be whinging about it though. Where has the 'keep calm and carry on' attitude gone?

Tbh I have been ill for near exclusively 6 weeks. Toddler super spreader has ensured we are all permanently ill (think he’s picking up from others with siblings that have returned to school). It’s currently chaos for germs.

So yes I would love to sit at home. I really would. But then I would be sacked.

Wow is me brigade neads an injection in the arse.
I had 8 hours of Miss Sniffy Sniffing every 20seconds. Oh I don't feel well every 15 mins - well fuck off and either be off sick or WFH

Yes of course things have changed! Employees are no longer required to test for Covid, for example. Loads of people only have mild cold symptoms with Covid, but could unwittingly pass it on to someone else and knock them off their feet for a month. It’s just much more considerate to stay at home when you’re unwell (where possible, of course). I’m forever encountering people at work who brag about their clean sickness records and act the martyr by coming in sick / berate others for not doing. It’s just selfish and irresponsible.

Lol at all the people on here that state they know exactly who infected them........ (Im sorry that you are ill though)

So I think we can all agree that the workplace is a mixture of selfish workers, martyrs, horrendous management and people desperate not to lose their jobs or money.
I think there is privilege showing.

At my school other teachers covered when teachers were off sick. Even the head would get stuck in.

You could have caught it from anyone. Everything you touch, from doors, supermarket trollies, sat next to someone in a cafe or on a bus. There’s loads of colds and viruses doing the rounds atm.

I have a rotten cold this week. None of the people I came into contact with prior to this appeared to have a cold. No one on my train last week was coughing or sneezing. I haven't sat near a solicitor on a plane. I'm fuming that my week has been ruined and I have absolutely no idea who to call selfish, be disgusted with or report to their employer. I intend to find out though, and will start a thread about it as soon as i do!

There's no endless pot of money to cover teachers every time they get a cold.

Plus, if they sent the kids home every time they had a cold then the parents would have to leave work and go home too.

There are colds and colds. Most are of the feeling under the weather but able to carry on variety. The op would appear to have a particularly nasty, debilitating virus which her colleague had last week. How does anyone know that it is not Covid? The colleague should have stayed at home for a day or two to get over the worst of it and not to spread their germs to everyone else. I doubt that they were able to produce their best work in any case. The martyr is a particularly annoying type of person. They come in, coughing and spluttering over everyone; all with a pained expression on their face and a weak voice, expecting everyone to say what a brave little soldier they are. It is far better for everyone for this person to have a couple of days off work rather than infecting their colleagues meaning that half the workforce is too ill to perform their jobs properly. Nearly twenty years ago now I was in a waiting room for a non-urgent clinic, the appointments for which were all made well in advance. A woman arrived in a terrible state, shivering, coughing, spluttering and obviously quite unwell. She was in the martyr category as she explained that she had come down with flu and had been awake and suffering most of the previous night but could not possibly miss her appointment. It was proper flu and not a cold. I came out with it two days later and had to cancel a week’s work which, as I was self-employed, I was not happy about. So selfish and unnecessary.

Yabu its just a cold.

Or other teachers or supply teachers cover the lessons. I’d rather that than the kids get and pass it on to everyone else.

Well some places insist their staff come in with D&V. No wonder I'm looking for a new job.

It's a good job most schools aren't like this, otherwise you'd spend more time at home with your DC than you would at work.

You should not stay silent. Many children are looked after at some point by grandparents who may be older people and/or clinically vulnerable. It it not just you who is affected.

Coming in to work when sick is so, so selfish. The vast majority of us do not need to force ourselves into work at any cost when sick, the company will not implode. It's martyr-ish and self-absorbed. I especially can't stand when people seem to take a sort of pride in coming in sick, making comments like "if my legs work, I'm coming in to work". Like... good for you but what about everyone else who is now going to come into contact with your germs?! Illness affects people differently, too. What is mild and harmless for one person can be serious for another. So selfish.

If the 'vast majority' of us don't need to go into work , I'd say the vast majority are very lucky. I work in the public sector , and there are triggers that could put you various sickness processes , that could lead to dismissal. I've only recently started a new job so I have to drag myself in even if I am unwell with a cold or even worse. I don't want to, and I don't like to either, but I have no choice. I'd rather that than getting grief from hr and their policies and potentially failing my probation. Don't blame the employee , blame the sickness procedures and policies. Until recently support staff who work in school didn't get paid for the first two days of sickness. Thankfully following union vote, this will change from 1st November. If an employee has to decide between getting paid or spreading germs of course they'll decide to come in and get paid. If they weren't been penalised for not coming in , I am sure they'll gladly stay at home.