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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wish people wouldn't come to the office when ill.

47 replies

Snapperz · 27/01/2014 11:52

There's a guy on the desk opposite me who has such a bad cold he's literally groaning in pain. His desk is soaked in snotty tissues and he's sneezing everywhere. I am in his direct sneeze line. We are allowed to work from home whenever we like.

AIBU to be really annoyed with him and offer no sympathy?

OP posts:

Thetallesttower · 27/01/2014 18:10

If he can work from home/hotel, no excuses- he should be at home. I only go into the office when I'm ill if I really need to or have meetings, I certainly don't go in otherwise precisely because I think it's very inconsiderate and I hate it when people snivel all over me whilst discussing an extremely trivial unimportant matter that could have waited or been discussed by email.

MeepMeepVrooooom · 27/01/2014 18:11

If you can genuinely work from home whenever you want then he probably should of stayed home.

I work in an office and I have gone in throwing up before because I physically cannot afford to lose a days wages.

tallulah · 27/01/2014 18:15

YANBU. The amount of coughing going on in our office on Friday was ridiculous. The sort of cough that means the individual is really unwell. Not only is it horribly disruptive it also spreads germs.

Like the OP we also have the option to work from home, so nobody needs to be taking sickness into work.

ElenorRigby · 27/01/2014 18:17

I was sick recently and had to take 3 weeks off.

This resulted in a displinary process being triggered.
For the next year I will have to go into work whether I'm infectious or not or face possible dismissal.

QOD · 27/01/2014 18:18

I crawled in and snotted my way thru all my pre arranged call backs (sales) then sodded off home.

It's a dog eat dog environment, if i don't hit my monthly sales target, I won't get my £600 commission. If someone else completes my sale, I lose that sale.

curiousuze · 27/01/2014 18:21

I am off today with D&V. Have been wondering if I can justify a second day off - surely I'm still contagious?

SauvignonBlanche · 27/01/2014 18:22

It doesn't make any sense, if he could work from his hotel.
I'm dying with a hideous cold at the moment and shouldn't be at work but I have an operation coming up soon so can't afford any sick time.
If I had the option of working from home, there's no way I'd go in.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 27/01/2014 18:42

Some years back I had my appendix out. The firm paid full sickness for a month, dropping to 50% for 3 months, then dismissal.

BUT: more than 2 weeks out, and you lost your outplacement. So I went back in once the incision had stopped oozing, to find the customer had an internal policy on major surgery of six weeks off. Not surprising, given the heavy lifting.

There was a long multisided argument, and they gave me some money to go away.

Those were the days. Now it's zero hours, P45 after a week and unpaid retraining to get back in.

grumpyoldbat · 27/01/2014 19:01

It's a disciplinary offence to call in sick in my workplace :(.

However I think the man described in the OP is BVU because he has the valid option if working from home.

ilovesooty · 27/01/2014 19:35

Like many others here, I go in when I'm ill if I can get there. I'm not prepared to risk disciplinary action or redundancy.

If he could have worked from home though he should have done so.

BuggersMuddle · 27/01/2014 19:36

OP YANBU in your office environment.

We have home working as required at a certain level of seniority in certain roles. A colleague who regularly works from home & travels came in with a snotty cold that lasted a few days.

We were working very closely, planning meetings etc. Small meeting rooms, crappy aircon. I actually did have to be in that week.

Unfortunately despite looking the picture of health, I had just finished a course of medication and was told I was likely to have lowered immunity. Cue 2.5 weeks out the office for me...

Of course it might not have been that bug I caught, but on balance of probability / timing of me getting sick...I was raging!

People need to think. You don't necessarily know the health conditions of those around you at work.

BuggersMuddle · 27/01/2014 19:37

Agree with others though - some roles are not so accommodating and in that case both the sick person and the poor bugger at risk of catching it have the right to be pissed off that their employer is an arse.

EnlightenedOwl · 27/01/2014 20:39

Limited OSP and short staffed at the moment. When I had a cold last week I literally had no choice but to go in. Sorry.

FannyBazaar · 27/01/2014 20:48

I have a colleague who likes to make sure everyone knows she has a cold, she enters sniffing loudly and will blow her nose as loud as possible close to me when I'm on the phone. Unfortunately she has already used up her very generous sick leave allowance for this year so can't take any more time off because of this she wants everyone to know how much of a martyr she is by coming in with a cold.

ginmakesitallok · 27/01/2014 20:53

If its just a cold then I wouldn't dream of taking time off. Anything worse then I'd stay at home, especially d&v, flu etc. But if everyone took time off every time they had a cold there'd never be anyone in work!

ThePinkOcelot · 27/01/2014 21:06

I got a stage 1 sickness record (couldn't be off for a yr without disciplinary) after being off sick 4 3 wks after tearing the cartlidge in my knee and undergoing repair surgery so I would have had to go in with a cold. Your colleague should have been at home though.

Alisvolatpropiis · 27/01/2014 21:09

Yabu.

A cold is not reason enough to call in sick, particularly given the penalties involved with doing so.

JenBehavingBadly · 27/01/2014 21:13

I've been in work all week with a lousy cold, wishing I could be off. But I've had time off for a chronic condition so I'm already under attendance.

Its shit.

Thetallesttower · 27/01/2014 21:19

How can the OP be unreasonable when the man can work from home/hotel?

She is saying they are not penalized in their workplace. I'm not in mine, I just work at home if sick. I've only been too sick to work probably 3/4 days in several years- if you are sitting up in bed you can always check emails/type a bit and mnnet

ShadowFall · 27/01/2014 22:22

Given that this man can work from home, in this particular case, YANBU.

But working from home isn't an option for everyone.

We have a lot of contractors in our office who get zero sick pay, so understandably, the contractors will come into work if they've got bad colds.

Staff members get statutory sick pay, but in addition to this being less than normal pay for most people, taking too much time off sick will result in disciplinary action. And we had a round of redundancies a couple of years ago, and the amount of sick leave taken was used as part of the redundancy scoring criteria. So again, most staff members will also come into work if they've got bad colds.

DuskAndShiver · 27/01/2014 22:26

YANBU but it is usually not the fault of the individual.
But yes I wish germy people would stay at home.

I was waiting for a dr's appointment with dd1 just before Christmas (she is 4 and had earache). the waiting room was full of pregnant women waiting for the mw's clinic. Some of them had toddlers too. There we all sat, when a young woman came in wearing PJ's, a parka, uggs, carrying a bucket, with loose hair with vomit in it. She headed for a seat and I didn't even let her bum cheek hit the upholstery before I was out of there with dd1. I hope all those pregnant women didn't spend Christmas Day puking. I bet some did

ProudAS · 27/01/2014 22:52

Where I work the number of people coming in with colds shot up following cuts to sick pay and the threat of redundancy.

2 years on though I don't get colds any more often (despite desk sharing) although a number went round at first.

I can't stand people making martyrs of themselves though. If you have a cold and cannot take time off work dose yourself up on lemsip or similar. Suppressing symptoms will (I'm guessing) help to stop the spread as sneezes are a key culprit.

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