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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think that public facing workers should not be at work when obviously infectious

33 replies

Maggiethecat · 07/12/2024 09:25

I was in local charity shop recently and the woman at the till started sneezing. By the time I got to being served, her nose was dripping to the point that she was cupping her hands to catch it.

Surely she shouldn’t have been at work?

OP posts:
TheLightSideOfTheMoon · 07/12/2024 09:40

Many people don’t get paid for being off sick.

A day off can put a massive dent in your pay.

Original poster
Maggiethecat · 07/12/2024 09:40

Hoglet70 · 07/12/2024 09:39

Did you offer her a tissue? Yuk!

I didn’t have any on me!

OP posts:
Original poster
Maggiethecat · 07/12/2024 09:39

Perhaps it was an allergy.

I wasn’t being judgmental but I would expect employers to try to protect the public. So if it was an allergy fine to keep working but perhaps not at the till
where the sneezing/streaming is affecting her work.

If not an allergy then she shouldn’t be working.

OP posts:
Hoglet70 · 07/12/2024 09:39

Did you offer her a tissue? Yuk!

Wimberry · 07/12/2024 09:38

It's the public coming in with all their germs that make us sick though!

Id happily be off work whenever ill, but I've had about 8 weeks of being ill so far this winter and many of my colleagues are the same. I think the public would be annoyed if we were even more short staffed...

That said, there's ways of managing and having plenty of tissues, OTC remedies and washing hands is a must.

Bushmillsbabe · 07/12/2024 09:37

Absolutely agree. However, employees are under pressure from employers. I work with vunerable limited children for whom even simple infections could be life threatening. I have a semi managerial and semi clinical role, and when I get a cold/cough/mild sore throat and well enough to do my admin/managerial tasks on a day I am supposed to do clinical, the answer is almost always no. So then I have an option of using sick leave or potentially harming my patients, I try to use the sick leave option, but with 2 primary age children bringing home bugs, I have a mild viral illness around every 2-3 weeks, and if I used sick leave every time I risk loosing my job, and my and my children's home. Employers need to be a bit more flexible, but they won't do this for fear that people will take the mick, and waiting list targets will be missed, and we will be fined, depleting our already stretched budget.

BleachedJumper · 07/12/2024 09:27

It could have been allergies.

But generally, we live in a society where employers don’t have to pay sick pay. I try not to judge anyone who financially can’t afford not to be at work.

FelixtheAardvark · 07/12/2024 09:26

Agreed.