Straw poll - WFH because you "don't want to pass it on"

[Dontpassiton]

Can I take a quick straw poll to help settle a robust debate.

Is your company fine with you WFH if you were due in the office and you have a bit of a cold, and you "don't want to pass it around"

My company frowns on it a bit (going through a tricky time and has been more or less proved that being in the office is vastly improving comms) and says if you're too ill to be in but feel ok to WFH that's fine, but if you just have a sniffle you should go in if you're due in.

confirmed covid different, we need to stay away for 7 days.

My friend thinks this is absolutely barbaric and is surprised I think its fair enough. I say I bet they won't mind passing it around their mates in the pub at the weekend 😬

What does your workplace do?

I find this approach strange. Why spread a virus if you are set up for working at home and don’t need to go in to do your work.

Personally I can weather through a cough/cold (though I’d prefer not to) but I have two young children so when they get it nobody gets much sleep, they get sent home from their childminders with a temp, it takes me ages to recover because I am tired and run down, etc etc. Its a domino effect of shit that can go on for weeks. So when someone comes in sneezing/coughing/talking about their really sore throat when they could easily do their work at home I find it pretty annoying. Whats the point? Surely it just ends up causing loads more sick days and lower productivity across the business.

As a caveat I do appreciate that some
professions (teaching/caring etc) are different and you have to be present. I am talking about standard office roles that do not specifically require you to be there in person and can be completed remotely.

If I can work from home and not spread the lurgy then why not?........ they get way more bang for their buck with me working from home....an extra 2 hours without having to commute for starters.....surely its a no brainer......

We are actively discouraged from coming into the office with anything transmissible, even a cold.

I encourage my team to WFH if they are slightly unwell or have a mild cold. I don't particularly want to sit next to someone sniffing and spreading their germs around, and some people have vulnerable family members.

My workplace is fine with people staying home. We're hybrid 2 days a week in the office.
Given that we work with teams all over the world being in the office or not is irrelevant.
But if the office is necessary for your workplace as you have found then you can't allow this. Obviously people who 'WFH' and not being as effective are then skivving without taking a sickie

My employer mandates wfh if you have any illness symptoms or know you have been exposed to a serious illness. They send out periodic reminders that fellow employees or their families may be vulnerable and everyone is responsible for doing their part to keep people safe.

As a person with a vulnerable household, I am incredibly appreciative of both my employer and my coworkers.

My work have adopted the 'if your too ill for the office, your too ill to wfh' stance with the exception of covid.

I find it really annoying because sometimes you might be well but have a bit of an upset stomach and could do a good day's work at home but just wouldn't cope in the office. Or if you have a rotten cold, you could be sat in your dining room with a blanket and a hot drink and manage your work perfectly where as in the office it would be much more of a struggle.

I understand why my work have done this though as we have quite a few piss takers that have ruined it for everyone else.

I agree, but it also depends on the workplace sickness policy I guess. If they offer little or no paid leave and the alternative to WFH is people dragging themselves in to work, sick (where they're going to be unproductive anyway) then the employees have a point.

But if they just want to get out of the office then it's another story. we did have chancers who had an excuse every week - even with hybrid working they ended up not coming in for months. Workplace threatened disciplinary action which seemed to have some effect. Individual managers still let people WFH when sick but they don't allow the chancers ... as they'd get pulled up on it.

We have 2 months sick leave with full pay so no issues there...

My department is full of germophobes so if I dare go in with even a whiff of illness I get sent home for a week minimum. I’m also considered the resident germ carrier because I’m the only one with DC 😂

Professional office. We're not supposed to go into the office if we're unwell, although if it's just a sniffle no-one would mind. But definitely not with a bad cold or Covid, you would be sent home. Most people WFH most of the time, we have regular set days when we're all in for in-person meetings and training etc.

Pre-Covid people were more likely to struggle in, but we were able to WFH so if someone had been ill but was recovering they might WFH for a day or two before coming back in. I much prefer not being around ill people.

We've been told to WFH with any respiratory illnesses as we have vulnerable colleagues and people with vulnerable relatives - me included.

I am very grateful for this and we've not found people have taken advantage - possibly because we've got fairly robust absence policies and a lot of illness would trigger it, WFH or not there'd still be a wellbeing conversation I think.

Our jobs can be done from home, but I like the 2 days I do in the office, it's nice to see people face to face. Less nice when they're full of cold and you walk out knowing you're on countdown to getting it yourself...

Yeah my company would be fine with that. The rule is to be in the office at least 40% of the time (so 2 days a week if you're full time, but lots of people aren't) but it doesn't have to be 40% every week. It can balance out across weeks, and if, generally speaking, you're in 2 days a week, no one will care/notice if one week it's not.
Plus we don't really have days you're "due" in, you can choose this, so if I was planning to go in on a Monday, felt a bit rough and like I could do without a long commute, I can move it back a day or so and it makes no difference anyway.

Yeah, be off sick or come to work. WFH for non-specific “being under the weather” is a skiver’s charter.

Depends on the situation. If I was feeling a bit rough so decided to wfh on a day I'd planned to go on, my manager wouldn't know this. He's in a different office and I wouldn't make a point of telling him "I'm feeling a bit off so working from home" because he doesn't know my working location on a general day to day basis anyway. I wfh regularly and my manager would pick up on a lack of output fairly quickly.

We're expected in twice a week, if we've been good with that for a while noone will care if we miss going in for a mild cold. Make a habit of it and it may be frowned on.

Proper coughs and sneezes stay away.