… to be mad at ill colleague?

I’m pregnant and recently had a cold- it was absolutely miserable because I couldn’t take any medicine. It really took it out of me, everyone’s saying the colds that are going around at the moment are absolute shiters.

I can see both sides. A simple cold can make me ill for three weeks - I'm very susceptible to them - so I do feel anger if I'm exposed to someone's cold because whereas it might be nothing to them, it will floor me.

But most employers aren't very sympathetic to taking time off with a cold. If you can't WFH I can see why you would want to go in, especially if you'd had other sickness absence in the last few months.

Not at all selfish to attend school / work with a cold, if well enough to work

I’ve been on here a lot for the last few days, as I tested positive for covid on Saturday.

Nobody in my social circle has it, nobody in Hubbies world has it,

I can only have caught this from work - and we all know who it is.

it is extremely unfair of this person to come in to work, because apparently our huge company can’t function and will be bankrupt without her!

it is extremely unfair of this person to infect a 65 year old, whose partner is jumping up and down at the directors, that this isn’t the first time her “elderly boyfriend” has caught something nasty from a selfish colleague.

Apparently, there is alot more people off including me, and it is causing a backlog now :-)

People like these, should be told, by their senior officers, if you are ill and you could hurt someone long term with your germy illness, self isolate.

I will be complaining next week when I go back in, covid can and has killed people with weakened immune systems, whilst others have been left with long covid.

I hope once your over this cold you will be in fine fettle and good luck with your new life xxx - I’d still give em hell though ;-)

Could you and some colleagues put together an anonymous note to HR asking them to reinforce please stay home if ill, covid is still circulating and may be serious for some staff sort of thing.

Lol. I don't work in a school, but from what I know of them, this would never ever happen.

Then why are you angry with your colleague if management didn't enforce their own policy?

You have a very unusual school where managers are happy for teachers to ring in with a cold every time they get one, and have it not trigger anything at all with HR.

Are they just as happy for parents to keep their kids home every time they get a cold too?

If not, it's pretty pointless really.

If she can't WFH then of course she was at work with a cold

Yes, it's miserable, especially when pregnant (between pregnancy and bfing I had several winters in a row unable to take anything decent) but you just get on with it.

Interestingly can cancel your annual leave and take it off sick according to gov.uk!

here

Depends what you mean by ill, to be honest. At my company it would be frowned up to take time off for a cold - you can’t blame the employees for not wanting to piss off their boss.
Same for places that only pay minimum sick pay, don’t blame the employee, they might not be able to afford the pay cut.

I’m lucky to be able to WFH, but some other teams can’t so it is either come to the office or take the day off.

Then tell her to not do that!

Give her a bag and tell her to use if for her snotty tissues and to stop being so disgusting.

Get a hand sanitizer and hand that to her as well.

I couldn't watch that and not say something

YANBU and I feel this sort of forcing yourself in when ill is getting worse and worse. I don’t know why people do it! It’s like we feel guilty for being out of action but it’s ridiculous. I had hoped covid would put an end to it- that’s the thing aswell now actually I think it’s possible people will go in if they have covid and to put it bluntly that puts people like you really at risk. Could you and some colleagues put together an anonymous note to HR asking them to reinforce please stay home if ill, covid is still circulating and may be serious for some staff sort of thing. If I were you I would probably get a sick note now which would at least nullify my annual leave that I had taken for this week - means you can take it at a later date and actually use the time. I am not in the UK though so depends on your policies etc but I would conserve my holiday. I would see if I could discreetly ask HR to lightly intervene aswell; I cannot stand it when I see parents dropping their coughing kids off at nursery. There are days when I say we won’t come today if I see that because actually yes I gain that day to myself but I lose the following 5!!! X

Are the children at your school expected to have time off if they have a cold?

If this is the case why didn't SLT make her go home?

If you're able to reasonably work from home in such cases then you should but I appreciate it's not feasible for everyone depending on your job. There are definitely situations in that case where you're under the weather but not ill enough to take sick leave.

On another situation, we have a mandatory 2 days out of 5 in the office now and I think the threat of disciplinary if it's not adhered to is frightening some people into the bad habit of coming in. Pre covid, they'd have WFH without any hesitation. I've got a rotten cold myself this week and I've told my boss I won't be coming in to share my germs so not to be surprised when I'm on the "naughty list" that HR send around.

I'm afraid I voted you are BU because, you could literally have picked up this cold from anywhere. Just because the symptoms are the same as your colleagues, and she wasn't very hygienic, it doesn't mean to say that it was her that you got it from. For example, the person that SHE got it from, could still have been in the school and have touched any door handle after having just blown their nose on a tissue, but not washed their hands, you then touched the same door handle, and voila!! The rest as they say is history! Personally though, I blame it all on the stupid attitude of employers who have put pressure on staff throughout the decades to come into work no matter how ill they are. My DH used to be a coach driver, he was forced to go into work however rough he felt, as he was under threat of the sack if he didn't, imagine the number of people who's holidays he ruined by passing on his germs??

it's annoying but TBH we all catch colds from other people being around us when ill, it's a part of life.

I think having a friend come round and not let you know they're ill is selfish, but sharing a workplace or public transport or any other public space with people who are sick is just one of those things.

At the very least, this colleague needs to be spoken to about their hygiene and infection control management!
Even Nursery and Reception children should be disposing of their own tissues (with reminders) without adults having to touch them, let alone adults working in a school!

The woman's a grown adult so she gets to decide if she's well enough to work, which is exactly what she did.

The ONLY issue here is her lack of consideration for her colleagues when it comes to sanitization etc.

Luckily our school is not one of those places and more than one of us had suggested this colleague go home and we would sort cover!

Is that an official policy? I presume you have a sick leave policy ie. number of days allowed before bells start ringing. Would it still count as a days sick leave if colleagues tell someone to go home, or does it need to come from management.

Definitely not in a school 🙈

I’m pretty sure that, if you’re sick during holiday, you can tell your employer and they will put you down as sick instead and you can use the annual leave days at another time. I don’t know if schools do that, but worth asking? Then at least you can have the days back when the weather isn’t so rubbish.