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Original poster

Why are some people f*cking scumbags

54 replies

SpottyDoll · 15/09/2023 22:20

I was in work all week long and surrounded by people who came into work, sick. Various different levels of sick. Many colds and one person even had the scutters.

Friday night, in time for the weekend and I am now ill. My only exposure of illness was from work.

Is it a right of passage just to pass on their infection diseases to anyone.

This stuff has to be banned outright from work places unless if you work in healthcare. It should be made illigal for work places to allow sick people in.

I went into work to work and to earn a wage not to get sick.

OP posts:
TomatoSandwiches · 15/09/2023 23:14

You have no idea where you got it from, you are human, you catch virus's get used to it.

StorminanDcup · 15/09/2023 23:15

I agree with the sentiment but it’s not the individuals fault rather the company’s who penalise them. No or low sick pay, deduction of overtime privileges, toxic cultures that promote overworking and being tied to the desk etc.

If someone gets full sick pay and they have a decent employer who understands that shit happens and won’t penalise their staff then I agree they should stay home, absolutely.

if they don’t have those things then I totally get why they chose not too. It’s completely dependent but I don’t think it makes anyone a scumbag, thoughtless maybe

thebear1 · 15/09/2023 23:18

I thought with the title you were referring to people who abuse children or animals, not someone who comes to work with a cold! Surely if you feel able to work with a cold you should? We need to come into contact with other people's germs to build our immune system unless it is suppressed.

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General health
vodkaredbullgirl · 15/09/2023 23:20

Last year I worked with covid, felt fine. I got it at work, as the residents had it.

whereaw · 15/09/2023 23:21

Just get a public sector job , you can take lots of sick leave, and also they need people to cover all the people on sick leave Grin

LakeTiticaca · 15/09/2023 23:22

What infectious diseases have they passed on to you?
Leprosy? Amoebic dysentery? Typhoid?

Bunnyhair · 15/09/2023 23:23

I’ll reserve my wrath for the scumbags who bring their kids over for playdates when they’ve all just been ill with D&V. These people need punishing.

Notamum12345577 · 15/09/2023 23:23

SpottyDoll · 15/09/2023 22:20

I was in work all week long and surrounded by people who came into work, sick. Various different levels of sick. Many colds and one person even had the scutters.

Friday night, in time for the weekend and I am now ill. My only exposure of illness was from work.

Is it a right of passage just to pass on their infection diseases to anyone.

This stuff has to be banned outright from work places unless if you work in healthcare. It should be made illigal for work places to allow sick people in.

I went into work to work and to earn a wage not to get sick.

A lot of jobs have a Managing Attendance policy. So if people are sick they get worried that they could be risking their jobs…..

givemeasunnyday · 15/09/2023 23:24

readbooksdrinktea · 15/09/2023 22:27

If I didn't show up to the office while working in England, I wasn't paid. Same for many colleagues. So, we went in with colds. There was rent to pay. I suspect that's even more relevant in this economy.

Don't you have sick leave in England? Genuine question - I'm not in the UK.

SoSadAboutIt · 15/09/2023 23:26

I couldn't afford time off work. So unless I had d&v, a migraine or recovering from an op I'd go to work. We only get SSP

vodkaredbullgirl · 15/09/2023 23:28

givemeasunnyday · 15/09/2023 23:24

Don't you have sick leave in England? Genuine question - I'm not in the UK.

Show quote history

Where I work you don't get paid for the 1st 3 days off sick. Unless you get a note from your GP.

SweetBirdsong · 15/09/2023 23:33

givemeasunnyday · 15/09/2023 23:24

Don't you have sick leave in England? Genuine question - I'm not in the UK.

Show quote history

Some people who are lucky enough to work for good employers and are normally in clerical and admin or supervisory/management jobs (or people who work for the council/Government etc in public service, etc) do usually get full sick pay.

They will get full pay if they're off for up to 6 months. I'm not quite sure. May be more. Someone I know got full sick pay (she worked for BT) for 12 months. Then she went back ..

However, in a lot of minimum pay jobs, unskilled labour, like in supermarkets, factories hotels, restaurants, etc, people just get paid for the hours they do ... The first three days they have off of any given time, they don't get paid any money and then they get around £97 pound a week sick pay after that!

A lot of people, if they're off for three or four weeks sick, will start to fall into financial trouble for the money they've lost. My niece was in a salaried job for 5 years and the time she had off sick she got paid in full for... And then she swapped jobs to one that wasn't salaried for the 1st year and she was off sick for 4 weeks. It took her about five months to recover from that loss of pay This was a while ago and she's on a lot more money now but she really did struggle at the time.

Oh and some people are on zero hours contracts, and some get NO sick pay, as they will just not be rostered on to the rota.

VeridicalVagabond · 15/09/2023 23:35

My immune system is wank, if I went off sick every time I had a cold I'd never be in work. I've got a cold right now. I work from home wherever I can but my boss insists on me being in the office X times a month so. If I'm sick on those days it's tough shit, I come in or I don't get paid.

Don't blame the victims of the shit system, blame the shit system.

oakleaffy · 15/09/2023 23:39

Occasionalsnaccident · 15/09/2023 22:46

What are the scutters?

The screaming Pschitts.

Hollyhobbi · 15/09/2023 23:40

Wear a mask op and use hand sanitiser.

lightisnotwhite · 15/09/2023 23:43

If they are well enough to work though …?

I mean it’s crap you are feeling ill over the weekend but people can’t not show up to work if they actually can do the job even if they are a bit unwell.

OnAFrolicOfMyOwn · 15/09/2023 23:46

givemeasunnyday · 15/09/2023 23:24

Don't you have sick leave in England? Genuine question - I'm not in the UK.

Show quote history

There are two types of sick pay - Statutory Sick Pay (government minimum) and Occupational Sick Pay (discretionary pay in excess of this).

Employers are not obliged to pay SSP for fewer than three days' absence - so you could get zero if off for up to three days.

SSP is £109 a week - about 1/4 of full-time min wage.

You can see why anyone on SSP only wouldn't want to be off sick.

Occupational sick pay varies but is usually much more generous.

However, in either case, employers often start absence management processes from as few as two absences in a rolling 12 months.

Snugglemonkey · 15/09/2023 23:48

I have been sick weekly since school started back a few weeks ago (scotland). I am not spreading anything as I work from home, but I need to work to earn money. So I totally understand why people go in.

BlueyInsideVoice · 16/09/2023 01:13

Calling someone a scumbag because they've gone to work with a cold is a bit much.

Some people can't afford the time off work, and colds are so minor in the grand illness scheme that they're just part and parcel of school and work life.
If I kept my daughter off school each time she had a cold/cough she'd never be in during winter.

I'd understand if it was a sickness bug, viral meningitis, chickenpox (something extremely contagious and potentially very dangerous), but a cold?

givemeasunnyday · 16/09/2023 02:16

Thanks to those who explained the UK (complicated) sick leave situation.

OP, I get your frustration, but really you can't expect people to stay away for the duration of every illness - except for D&V. I can have a cold for three weeks, and once had one for nearly three months - I can't stay off work for that long, and if I feel fine I go in. It is also very easy to catch something from a random person at, say, the supermarket - that's usually where I catch things.

Original poster
SpottyDoll · 16/09/2023 10:49

It was years since I had a cold. I knew my sore throat wasn't normal yesterday. It only ever progressed overnight into a full blown flu.

My only exposure was work. I was t out last weekend. I don't travel on public transport. My family is small and my circle of people are not sick.

My only exposure was from being surrounded by sick people going into work.

Work should be a safe place for all. It should not be a place where people go to work just to become exposed to sicknesses and become ill. Work should never be a place where your only bonus is sickness.

I am on a range of vitamins and minerals and probiotics to manage a gut condition. It's been years since I caught a cold. I always had a bag of tricks to ward off colds too like ginger and garlic and cloves and honey and plenty of fluids. None of them helped me yesterday to reduce the duration of this.

Work should never be a place where to go to get sick.

OP posts:
vodkaredbullgirl · 16/09/2023 11:10

SpottyDoll · 16/09/2023 10:49

It was years since I had a cold. I knew my sore throat wasn't normal yesterday. It only ever progressed overnight into a full blown flu.

My only exposure was work. I was t out last weekend. I don't travel on public transport. My family is small and my circle of people are not sick.

My only exposure was from being surrounded by sick people going into work.

Work should be a safe place for all. It should not be a place where people go to work just to become exposed to sicknesses and become ill. Work should never be a place where your only bonus is sickness.

I am on a range of vitamins and minerals and probiotics to manage a gut condition. It's been years since I caught a cold. I always had a bag of tricks to ward off colds too like ginger and garlic and cloves and honey and plenty of fluids. None of them helped me yesterday to reduce the duration of this.

Work should never be a place where to go to get sick.

It's a bad cold not flu, if you had flu you wouldn't be posting.

Do you get paid if you are off sick?

VeridicalVagabond · 16/09/2023 11:18

So will you now be staying off work until you're fully recovered from your cold? In 1-2 weeks which is the average amount of time it takes someone to fully recover from a cold?

If you can afford to do that, then that's great for you. Lots of people can't. That doesn't make them scumbags.

Dontcallmescarface · 16/09/2023 11:52

1 - if you had "full-blown flu" you wouldn't be on here
2 - Unless you live alone, in the middle of nowhere and never venture out of the house then you could have picked up your cold from anywhere
3- SSP for a week is less than a day's pay for me and bills have still got to be paid, so unless I am physically unable to work, then work I must. Or you can pay my bills for me.

blackheartsgirl · 16/09/2023 11:57

Most workplaces have a sickness policy if you are off for whatever reason .

id have been sacked 5 times over if I’d have taken days off everytime I had a cold or felt unwell (although I do agree with taking time off for a stomach bug)

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