To think people shouldn't come into the office when they're sick??

[Thelittleredhead]

That's it really.

It REALLY annoys me. The woman I share an office with is full of cold. Sniffing and coughing and sneezing. Not only is it gross, but I am 14 weeks pregnant and therefore more susceptible to colds and stuff, and really don't want to catch it from her. I hate when people come in sick, it's like they don't want to be seen as 'weak', or think it's impressive that they're 'struggling through'.

Would IBU to ask her to work from home for a couple of days (I'm senior to her so could probably get away with doing so) or to move to a different office? Or would that be over reacting and offensive? I normally wouldn't be so sensitive to this stuff but...while pregnant I feel like I should take better care.

WWYD?

Thing is, a cold, for most people, doesn't equate to needing time off sick.

It wouldn't cross my mind to have time off sick if I had a cold. (In fact, I've just had a stonker)

S'kind of like pregnancy Doesn't make you special.

That's a happy coincidence though isn't it, that your colleague has asked to go home. Perhaps she was sick of the deadeye.

Are you allowed to do much private internetting as part of your job?

I haven't seen any vicious comments, you asked on AIBU (where people are going to be blunt) for a selection of opinions. You got them.

Imo "suggesting" to a colleague who is feeling unwell that they go home, can be seen as making an unreasonable demand /putting pressure on her, especially if you're senior to her. She's under no obligation to go home and for you to come over and "suggest" it would probably piss me off a bit if I were her.

As another pp has said, don't ask for people's thoughts if you can't handle the possibility that some of us may think you need to get over yourself.

You sound like my friend who became so precious when she got pregnant I hardly saw her as my children always had sniffles. You can't avoid cold germs. You could touch a door and get them.
If you're worried keep cleaning your hands but seriously, don't worry and relax a little.

But a full-blown cold, while not dangerous, can be a thoroughly, utterly miserable thing. I think it's really sad that people can't have a day or two off to recover without being seen as 'shirking'.

I work in education. If every teacher with a cold who felt a bit miserable took a day off there would be pretty much no one left. What happens then?

If people are too ill to work they absolutely should be able to take time off without fear of disciplinary action. But seriously, if people just feel a bit under the weather it is pretty precious to ask them to work from home so you don't catch it.

Well, I can see your point op. Nobody really wants to sit in an office with a colleague who has a cold.

However, the consequences of taking (even legitimate) time off sick are really quite serious. If someone in my old office was off sick, the first thing the boss would say was "he/she was perfectly ok yesterday afternoon, I am sure they are not ill". Then, having mounted up these imaginary "sins" when it came to the time for him to dish out bonuses, you'd get penalised. He would be given a pot of money and he was to divide it up between 15 people as he saw fit and it was all completely secret as to who got what. So he might see fit to give one person £300 and the next person doing the same job £5k. One year, I got nothing. I had been ill a lot. Says it all really as the previous year, I had got £2k. Anyway I quit .

Oh not this again.

Some people cannot afford to have days off. Some people can't afford to have another sickness on their record.

In a perfect world people would be able to stay off with no repercussions, but we don't live in a perfect world.

Just make sure you practice decent hygiene - wash your hands etc if someone has a cold near you.

I'll go against the grain here. I understand that for most people, a cold is just a cold. For me, a cold 100% of the time leads to a hideous bout of sinusitis and quite often a chest infection. A cold, for me, is never "just a cold" and can knock me sideways for weeks.

I was like a rottweiler when it came to germs in the weeks leading up to my wedding/honeymoon and did ask a colleague (who is a good friend!) to leave my office because he was loaded with the cold and coughing at me.

I work in an open plan hot desking office, I have a stinking cold, this is off the back of me being off with flu for two weeks and then another infection for two weeks.

I've just told my manager, who offered appropriate level of sympathy and then we cracked on for a working day.

You don't go off work for a cold.

YABVU - stop being so precious. You are only pregnant - as are millions of other women around the world. Its going to be a long 9 months if this is what you are like now.

YABU, unless your jobs involve kissing each other there's no guarantee you would get her cold anyway, be religious about using hand sanitiser and don't touch your eyes or your mouth unless you've just cleaned them and you'll probably avoid it.

Just reading all these responses here about the various "sick" policies in workplaces, and am thinking that not enough of these workplaces have any form of trade union, as some of the practices described by PP's in regards to sick absences seem blatantly unreasonable.

I would not stay away from work for a cold I'd go in armed with my paracetamol and my honey and lemon!

If you send me home on full pay every time I have a cold, I would love you but you wouldn't see much of me and your management might not be too impressed!

I have never worked for a company not paying full pay for sick days, but that would probably change quickly if employees disappear as soon as they have a bit of a cold.

OP, it's people like you who make it so difficult for women to be taken seriously when they are pregnant.

Depends on the severity of the cold though surely? At the risk of everyone loathing me, I've taken time off for them before. (Not "oh, a sneeze, I'm off", but when it's totally debilitating and Lemsip doesn't help - stabbing throat, head pounding, ears ringing, aches all over, sneezing, not actually able to do any work). Seriously, am I the only one??

Referring back to my previous post about the 'good old days' the thing was that there were checks in place to try and weed out malingers.

One employer 'allowed' up to 10 days uncertificated sick leave in any 12 month period but no more than 5 days at a time (in the days when most people needed a med cert after 3 days). If you subsequently got a med cert for an illness those days did not count towards the 10 day limit.

If you reached the 10 day limit you then had to have a med cert for every period of sickness until you dropped below the 10 day limit.

Also if you were sick immediately before annual leave you had to submit a med cert to prove you were ill.

These measures weeded out those taking odd days off regularly and/or extending their annual leave.

Nowadays in my eyes it seems to amount to bullying on behalf of employers to keep people working until they drop.

Merrida, it depends on my diary. Some days, I can so some of the work from home, other days have deadlines and specific meetings so I have to be there. Unless you have been hospitalised, clients don't take you seriously if you have a duvet day.

When you have a team working for you, you also have to show your face. You can't expect people to take you seriously either if you are off sick every week.

If you're in Germany, then yes, it does appear to be unreasonable to be in work from the first hint of sickness, going by my German colleagues, who appear to get signed off for a week for the slightest germ.

We have someone who has been off over a year - after a month (I think) the health insurance pays the sick leave, rather than the employer, and after 18 months, there are state benefits which kick in. Health insurance is still paying for some treatment, though. It is really very. different from the UK.

I think if you work somewhere that working from home is possible, then it is better if you've got a streaming cold or similar. If I had D&V , I doubt I'd work at all, but it's unusual for me to get it anyway. Also, we do get paid sick leave, and our manager has a good idea of who takes the piss with it or not.

Not sure why you are getting such a hard time. If everyone just stayed at home and had time off for colds obviously that's ridiculous...
But it doesn't sound like that is what the OP is suggesting.
If I worked somewhere where working from home was possible and my boss asked me if I would prefer to work from home I would definitely say yes.
I understand that you can take time off for every tiny sniffle and that some places are very strict but surely no one relishes in sitting next to someone with a streaming cold?