Where do you stand on going to work with a cold?

[LittleDisaster]

I was brought up to go to school or work unless you were really physically unable to. I did the same with my DC. I'm sure until recently that was the normal expectation. It was certain yrhe case in the industry I worked in for the first 25 years of my working life.

DS has a low level management role in a service industry and is very frustrated by the ease with which colleagues are prepared to take a day off.

Has there been a real step change or is it my/his upbringing that was weird?

Don't be silly.

Hi mum 🖐️
I agree, mine went to school ( mainly with limbs and heads attached ) and they don't go sick at work.
They're raising their kids with the same ethics.

I am the same as you, always went to school/work with a cold and ds does the same for uni/PT work.

BUT, we have never worked a job which is more physical where a bad cold could make it more difficult, or in hospitality where noone wants served or their food prepared by someone blowing their nose or sniffing constantly, or in care where you can pass your virus onto vulnerable people.

I can wfh and it is considered common courtesy to do so if you have anything contagious.

If I was physically able to work, then I would go into work.

I believe the basic premise of the immunity debt theory, that by hiding yourself away from germs that you make yourself more vulnerable to getting very ill from them.

Oh, and the world simply doesn't have resources for everyone feeling slightly off or getting + on an LFT to hide away & stop their lives.

I just thought to add that as some views espoused on here that anything short of a limb hanging off meant you can go to work is a damaging attitude and really shows just how little we as a society value health and wellbeing. It's not something to be proud of that you can cough up a lung but still make it in because after all the other lung is still in place.

If everyone took time off sick for a sniffle, the the country would come to a stand still. Plus, a lot of people would be swiftly fired for having too many occasions off sick.

Yeah go in just because you're a soldier and pass all your shitty germs on to everybody else and make them suffer! Selfish attitude

Your post proves the point I was making.

Can't afford to not go in.
I work in retail and if I have a cold it's probably the customers that gave it to me in the first place!
Can only remember calling in sick twice in my life, once for toothache, once for food poisoning. My body tends to fall sick on my days off on holidays 🙄

I have so many colleagues who have EVERY option and possibility to WFH (with no negative vibes or reviews from management ) and yet they CHOOSE to come into work and infect us all. WHY?
It pisses me off no end. Stop being a martyr. It's only a cold but I still don't want it thank you. Which usually means 2 night of crap sleep. And generally feeling shitty but still working (but from home) because it's just a cold!

Why are schools being so anal about absenteeism nowadays as well? Let the kids WFH for a day.
They were so frikkin anal about COVID why have become so anal about the kids being at school when they are not feeling great - when they could easily do online work in a restful environment- and get better sooner AND without infecting the rest of the school.

I think you're mistaking 'clerical/office-based' with 'middle class', and 'around 60%' with 'the vast majority.'

Like nearly 40% of people (source: ONS) in 2022, those in my workplace work to a hybrid model. That includes people of all income levels and social classes, and includes those who are in the field a lot of the time but who have to type up notes and do admin and previously would always have done it in an office environment.

It's certainly become frowned upon to come into the office with anything potentially contagious when people could WFH.

To me it’s depend on the sort of cold. If it’s the type that’s just a bit of a nuisance, runny nose, etc., then I’d go.

If a really bad cold, thoroughly bunged up, feeling rough, nasty cough, then no.
Mine are usually of the first type.

I hate people who martyr themselves like they're so important they need to come into the office and then pass their cold onto everyone else.
I'm so glad most people have changed their attitude on this, as yes it was seen to be that you must go in if sick which is such an old fashioned way of thinking.
Now with the ability to wfh (assuming you can), there's no need to spread your germs around, I do sympathise if you don't get any sick pay and so have no choice as some people have said that's different (is that even legal?)

This!

Great so you like to go in when you're at peak infectious phase. This really irks me, it's so selfish to then pass on and make others sick. It's probably my greatest pet peeve

I only ever seem to get one heavy cold a year and I haven’t had one now since before Covid. Even so, I went to work with a heavy cold because I know that if I was home I wouldn’t have been sleeping/resting, I’d have been doing jobs at home and I previously worked in a school so not a job you can wfh in.
New job now which is a hybrid job but they are incredibly inflexible about which days we are expected in. They wouldn’t allow me to wfh if I called in and asked, they would insist on me taking a sick day. I would get paid though. I’ve not had a day off sick yet there but I’ve only been there since august, I’m just basing this on what others in the office go by! Colleagues are frequently off sick for a week here and there.

What boss on the planet would say "yeah, fine have the day off" because you have a runny nose?

I would have faced disciplinary procedure (NHS) for taking the piss.

Can't abide the hero syndrome, coughing spluttering and moaning how ill u are but you've never had a sick day and spreading ur disease to others. Ffs stay at home and spare us all the heroics.

I go in with a cold. But I'm a teacher so I have to set cover work (which is a pita) and the kids do nothing useful anyway!

I stay off if I'm unable to walk, drive or think straight. My work are quite good about illness (eg didn't hassle me when I was off for a week with tonsillitis) as they know most people go in if they can.

I still think a bold is ok. statutory sick pay you don't get anything for the first 3 days anyway.

I think the attitude has been fostered by employers and by SSP being so low etc, not necessarily by people martyring themselves by soldiering on and wilfully spreading germs without a care.

Employers can and do discipline people for getting ill too many times, and that's without the financial implications of those who don't go and therefore don't get paid, those are likely the same people who also go to work with non contagious illnesses, very shortly after being bereaved or after upheaval in their lives when they'd probably be healthier and more productive if they had time to recover/deal with what's happening.

Because of Christmas double time (so I could afford it) I took one day off in December with this awful virus that's doing the rounds, which added to my days off gave me 3 days off to recover. Not long enough and I was obviously still unwell when I went in - I still had to do a back to work interview and still take the veiled warning that getting ill is unacceptable. Doubly so because it's December and our busiest time in winter and so it's even more frowned upon, and how much you're putting on your colleagues.
That's your issue right there, expecting humans not to be human and get sick sometimes.

Yes, some people take the piss, of course they do, but I'd guess far more go in unwell than pull a sickie.

That seems crazy to me. Anywhere I work people get sent home so they don't make other sick (pre-covid too). The last thing I want when I go to the hospital or something is having someone sniffing and coughing on me, gross. Your boss is an Ahole

A lot of people would fall foul of disciplinary action if they took time off every time they were ill.
Over the years, it's become more prevalent to do meetings with younger staff members who think the workplace is like school and they can go home if ill. They find out the hard way it's not, and if they want to keep their job, then crack on.
Covid hasn't helped people got paid, and it didn't count against sick records. Now that has gone, it's counted as normal sickness.

We recently had colds at work, a team of 10, 8 were ill. Only the 19-year-old went off sick. She now faces a meeting having triggered the threshold.