AIBU to go to work with a cold?

[hectoronthehill]

I have a stinking cold atm. There's very much an expectation by management where I work that you should turn up and do you work anyway. Everyone else though makes noises about it being selfish to bring something infectious into the office.

Personally, I would like not go into work when ill. There's a strict sickness policy though and I wouldn't want to 'waste' any days on a cold when I might come down with a more serious illness later in the year.

So, AIBU to go to work with a cold?

No, there would be hardly any workers if everybody stayed home when they had a cold. Flu or sickness bug then yes it's better to stay home as too ill to work.

Try and get yourself better for tomorrow. Take some lemsip (both for your comfort and to stop your coughs and sneezes from spreading diseases), have a pack of disposable tissues to hand and disinfect your desk if possible.

Poor you for being in this situation.

YANBU. I'm another one who drags myself out of bed when I'm feeling rotten rather than stay home. If I wasn't in my colleagues would need to take on my tasks for the day and I feel too guilty. Managers are also less than supportive of sick leave for a cold.

I do, however, have a close colleague who is extremely annoyed at people who come into the office with a cold and spends the majority of the day avoiding people and tutting when they cough/sneeze (despite it being an open office of around 40 people). I can see her point of being a 'germ spreader' but I dare say come winter the office would grind to a hault if we all stayed home with colds.

Thanks for the sympathy Proud

I would pay soooo much money for a cold cure

Can you not work from home? I wouldn't take sick leave for a cold either, but spreading germs around the office is frowned upon in my workplace, in a big open plan office it spreads like fire and then everyone works at half capacity.

YANBU. I feel sympathy for people with a suppressed immune system, but every employer I've worked for for the last 15 years has had a sickness monitoring policy, and if I can physically get to work and do a productive day's work with a minor illness then I will do so rather than risk ending up on an attendance improvement programme with my job at risk.

I'm very rarely sick. I went into work with a cold, which actually was the start of the flu. I stayed home a day, came back in and the next week everyone in my area was out sick. My boss told me to just stay home next time I had a sniffle since I don't get them often.

DH only stays off if it's not safe for him to drive there due to lack of sleep or poor concentration (public transport is out of the question).

There's no point everyone bitching about you - it's a common cold. Clue is in the name.

I'm very mindful of limiting spreading any germs with frequent hand washing, not disposing of tissues in the office, disinfectant wipes, but the fact is these things spread and unless you live in a bubble you're going to come across germs out in public. Not to mention employers aren't exactly sympathetic about general maladies resulting in time off (as I recall getting noro and having to point out to my manager that working in an office off a hospital ward probably wasn't the best idea till I was 24 hours clear - like their own policy stated )

Tell them to get off their high horse and possibly entertain the idea of getting a grip. If they're that bothered why don't they raise their concerns with the company and see where that gets them?

Where I work it is far more common to see I'll people in the office now than it was three years ago due to changes to sick pay, monitoring, threat of redundancy etc (although some if us are able to work from home). About the same time we started desk sharing.

Strangely enough we don't have any more bugs being passed round now than we did previously. I think that the desk sharing has made us careful about hygiene.

Bloody hell I can just imagine the reaction from my boss if I tried to phone in sick because of a cold. I'd imagine it would be something like "are you taking the piss?"

Do people really phone in sick simply because of a cold?

YANBU.

It depends how sick you are really doesn't it? Sometimes I get a cold and I'm fine to work if I take lemsips etc. but sometimes it develops and gets worse and I need a day in bed.

I hate the culture of presenteeism.

I'd go in with a minor sniffle/head cold, but definitely avoid spreading it if I had a fever/flu. One of my martyr colleagues insisted on coming in with full-blown flu once and the result was that half the office was confined to bed the following week. Agree that this whole culture of presenteeism is pretty sickening, if you'll pardon the pun.