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?

Also, I avoid close contact if I've got a cold. I teach secondary so can stay away from the kids and I keep away the staff room. It is possible (though highly unlikely) I'd pass my cold to someone in the corridor I suppose, or if there was an injury so I had to get close to administer first aid. But I don't know a single head teacher in the country that would accept "has a cold" as a reason for being off sick, and the parents would probably kick off too.

He was an asshole. I faced getting fired from the NHS for too much time off sick in the end (I have MH issues), but they were fine with me giving notice instead and but they were an absolute prick for that 2 weeks. I was very fragile at the time, but in hindsight, I should have sought advice and sued. My manager was that bad.

Absolutely.
It also makes no sense, so instead of resting you come in and are not as productive, then make everyone else sick and also not productive. And so on. The productivity argument that so many make is completely illogical, when in fact it's counter-productive.

In the past, I have gone into work with a cold. I now have the option not to, I work from home so that I don't pass my germs onto other people.
My mum was one of those that insisted you went to school come hell or high water, I remember feeling like death on occasion but not being allowed to stay home! She has completely changed her tune now and at the slightest sniffle wants to know why I'm not laid up in bed! Weird!

Im not going in with a severe cld . Last time I went in I was told to go home and be I LL in my own time

I once caught a bad cold off a patient in a care home. I had about a week off.
sadly the patient never walked un aided again.

I’m getting over a bad cold and felt horrible today. I have my own office so I texted to say I was ill and I’d be working quietly in there-but best not to come in for a chat!

It drives me mad when clearly ill people come into work and spread their germs around. Some employers are much more conscious of it since the pandemic- DH’s employer absolutely doesn’t want ill people to come in. Luckily he’s on a hybrid model now so he could wfh the whole week when he had this cold.

Before covid I almost always went to work with a cold, now I don’t and I resent those around me who do as I don’t want to catch it. That said, I work in an industry where working from home is almost always possible - no doubt I would behave differently if not going in meant I couldn’t do my job or get paid but I think if you can work from home easily it’s selfish to go in and risk infecting people, I know a cold isn’t serious but it’s unpleasant and I don’t want it.

I’m a teacher and a sick day is a total PITA, even if the teacher who covers me is great it throws off my whole week. So unless I have d and/or v or a cold so bad I literally can’t think I go in.

We go to work - no sick pay, which means no pay and then bills don’t get paid. So we work.
Having said that, we’ve both noticed an increasing number of colleagues seem to take the maximum amount of sick time off, before they would be ‘interviewed’ about the why it’s happening. Guess they can afford to not be paid.

I can handle a cold and go into work just fine. But I had to leave work early the other day as I felt nauseous. Seven hours into my shift, hoping it would go away, it didn't. That's the only time I really can't function properly. Apart from the flu, but I've only had that twice in my life time. I'm still chalking it down to a cold (still have it) but the nausea was a new one for me and I had to go home

I'm in teaching and think the culture around staff illness is unhealthy. Schools pester staff as much as they do students and it's no wonder people are always ill with something.

I'd not stay off for a sniffle or mild cold, but wish more people would stay off work when they're quite clearly unwell and look horrendous instead of dragging themselves in, spreading their germs and making the rest of us unwell.

Meant to add, even when I said I need to go home as I feel like I'm going to throw up, it was still met with an "erm..and an err..." and almost weren't going to let me leave early (which was an hour before my shift was meant to finish anyway) they did eventually 🙄

It's very rare for me to get ill enough to need time off work. I don't remember ever having a cold bad enough to take time off work. Likewise, someone else going in with a cold isn't likely to affect me greatly, so I wouldn't care.

I think if you can WFH, you should. Your cold can become someone else's bad respiratory infection. It can take me weeks to recover so I'd prefer you didn't soldier on.

I go in. I seem to constantly have a cold - I'd never be at work 🤦‍♀️

I can work from home and so would not go in if I have one.

I rarely get them, I think because of no children now at home and also from having a regular sauna.

If I have a cold it can put me in bed, hardly able to breathe, for up to 3 days. I can sometimes work from home when I’m that I’ll, but generally jot. It often leads to a massive asthma attack when I need nebulising etc. So for some of us unlucky ones “just” a cold is quite a serious illness (for me, the possibility of bronchitis and pleurisy are always there).

OTOH, I am rarely off work with “stomach upsets” sore throats, tonsillitis etc etc - which seem to plague my colleagues. Swings and roundabouts re illness.

I work retail. I get SSP so unless I can't work I do.

If absence drops below a certain percentage we get put on a record of improvement. Husband also works retail. Recently had his first time off sick in 12 years and was told on his return that his attendance was unsatisfactory 😞

Today I've gone into work with cystitis which left me feeling lightheaded and generally poorly. Went in because my colleague had to go home because she could barely breathe due to the virus that's going around. We both need a week off but neither of us can afford it.

I work in the head offices for an aged care and palliative care provider. I work alongside people who visit care homes and hospitals as part of their role. The expectation is that nobody attends work if they have a contagious illness because in a vulnerable person ‘just a cold’ can turn into bronchitis, chest infections, pleurisy or pneumonia.

Many people in this thread ignore the fact that there is a whole spectrum of illness between a sniffle and the flu. It is not unusual to feel quite unwell for the first day or two of a heavy cold. Coughing and spluttering all over your colleagues is disgusting and selfish. As a manager I have always sent people home if they are sick, even before I worked with vulnerable people.

This is a really good point. I think it's selfish just because I hate being sick so wouldn't inflict that on anyone else, but I hadn't really thought about a cold for me can be something quite serious for someone else

I get myself to work unless I physically can’t, for example projectile vomiting or been in a bad car accident or something. I can’t afford to take sick days.

I don’t think it’s anything to be proud of though. I think it would be better if people could take appropriate sick time when they don’t feel well enough to work, without panicking that their illness might leave them unable to pay bills.

@silentpool Thaone of the reasons why my DH’s is now

Can I ask why you can't afford sick days? I thought it was a legal requirement to have a certain amount of sick days a year (pardon my ignorance)

The only legal entitlement is Statutory Sick Pay, which isn't payable until the 4th day of absence and is £95 pw