New job, unwell with high temperature... WWYD?

[AngeloMysterioso]

I started my new job 3 weeks ago after redundancy... I began to feel quite unwell yesterday afternoon and have woken up feeling pretty awful with a temp of 38.5°.
I’ve emailed my lovely HR woman so see what she advises... on the one hand I don’t want to have to take time off so soon, but at the same time it might be the kind of office where they think people who go in when they’re ill are dickheads.

WWYD?

If you have to ask permission, you’re not ill enough to stay home.

Just reas your employer’s sick absence policies, decide what to do, and notify your manager as per the policy if you’re taking sick leave.

Do not go in. Making your whole office sick is not the best way to make a good first impression. I would be pretty angry with a new staff member who did that. Stay at home and see how you feel tomorrow.

In hospitality it seems awful to be working when sick, did it involve food?

Gwenhwyfar

"She has to tell you to stay home because if she said anything else, she’s opening up the company to liability. It shows you’re not that sick and you’re cowardly."

Also means they can't tell her off for not coming in now. Quite clever really.“

It’s not clever at all and your employer cannot “tell you off” for illness. Unless they fancy going through a grievance procedure.

She wanted HR to unofficially tell her what the unofficial office “thing” is to do because they’re “lovely”. HR aren’t your buddies, there to hold your hand. They’re there to make sure the company follows procedure and doesn’t leave itself liable.

I'm a restaurant manager, if I'm ill I stay away from food but the restaurant can't open without a license holder on site so I have to go in. Most restaurants and pubs run on am exact amount of staff anyway so losing one team member has a huge effect. At 33 weeks pregnant last year a chef phoned in sick and noone would cover it so I had to. It's just the nature of my job, it doesn't bother me.

OP I think you're getting a hard time on here for being too ill for work.no one wants to sit by a colleague with a temperature, swollen throat and green phlegm. Especially pregnant colleagues.
None of us know your medical history or how well you fight off infection. I have very very mild asthma but struggle to clear chest infections "unaided"

Call doctors for telephone triage and they will decide if to see you or not.they are the medical experts

Seems odd to email HR. What if she hadn't got back you by the time you were supposed to be starting work?

I managed to get a phone consultation with a GP, gave temp, symptoms etc. He said viral chest/throat infection (he said definitely viral) and then “drink plenty of fluids and go to bed, and don’t get out of it until you feel better”

Of course self employed people can be off sick.

Sick leave and holiday leave need to be factored into the business plan, no?

I definitely don’t think the op should be given a hard time over phoning in sick. The HR thing... hmmmm... not great, but then if you’ve been made redundant, (and sometimes your sick record is taken into account when they are deciding who to make redundant). And if you’re not feeling 100% you sometimes make strange decisions.

Just curious ... how would dr know for certain its viral thro phone consultation?
If it were that easy to tell (without even seeing the person), maybe we wouldnt be in such a bad antibiotic crisis (because people would only have been prescribing antibiotics in situations where they were sure it was bacterial

"I'm pregnant and have had those symptoms for 5 weeks now. I work in hospitality and sickness isn't really an option so I've been in everyday"

You really need to go to the GP if you haven't already, this is exactly what I did and ended up very ill indeed.

Dose up and go in. Ypu can leave early once there, at least you have made the effort.

how would dr know for certain its viral thro phone consultation?

I’m no HCP but taking into account the length of illness, what remedies have been tried before antibiotics, the amount of patients you’ve seen with the same/similar symptoms and presentation in the past week or so I’d imagine are just some of the things you’d take into account when thinking viral vs bacterial. You can only really diagnose a bacterial infection by a swab or other testing. If the patient is feeling better within a week, the temperature has been controlled adequately then it’s more than likely viral. If the patient is feeling worse in a few days and can’t control the fever with paracetamol and ibuprofen then it’s pikely bacterial as a bacterial infection won’t just go away without help.

The reason we’re in an antibiotics crisis is because people aren’t patient and demand antibiotics for everything which puts HCPs in a really tough situation and then they go on to not finish courses, demand more antibiotics because they ‘don’t work’ and generally don’t understand the difference between viral and bacterial.

Jeez this place can be brutal sometimes!

Can anyone not remember the first few weeks of starting a new job? Op will still be finding her feet and is quite clearly unaware of the sickness policy ( unofficial ) of course.

In some places I've worked you have to be at deaths door before it's ok to be off, other places you would be frowned upon for going in sick. It also depends on the nature of the job I suppose.

Op is clearly not well. She is also still new and wanting to make a good impression. Her decision to stay off was probably causing her a lot of worry which I completely understand.

This is one of thise situations where you can't win either way.

Hope you feel better op

10FingersOnTheFender 38.5 is a high temperature, anything above 38 is. Most people with a temp of 38.5 will feel like shit.

Lordsugar I completely agree with your comment. OP I can completely understand your anxiety about calling in sick to a new job, I'd be worrying about that too. However, it really is just one of those things and will soon be forgotten about. You can't choose when you become ill unfortunately! If you are clearly feeling unwell and have a temperature you do just need to dose up and go to bed. I hope you feel better soon.

I would go in. I try to go in generally and get sent home. The only time I don't go in is if I have vomiting or diarrhoea, or feel really dizzy.

@PinkyBlunder yes I get that there are clues as to whether an infection is viral or bacterial... but how can the dr be so categorica/certain? That was my questioj!
And if you're not certain, surely you shouldnt suggest you are!

LordSugar I don't think the sickness policy will work like that - either you're sick or you're not, it's not about what others in the company do. But you don't ask someone else who hasn't even seen you ill in HR to make that call!

If the OP wanted to go in to work, she'd have gone in. Wanting someone else to make the decision for you does not look good for her in work.

Regardless, hope the OP feels better soon.

@tampinfuminragin

Could you take some paracetamol for the fever and go in? Better to go in and be sent home.

roflmao. I used to work in retail and they wouldn't have sent anyone home if they'd collapsed on the shop floor. I'd be in, staggering around, barely able to stay upright with customers telling me I should go home and the most I'd get is the offer of keeping a bottle of water behind the till in case I needed a drink.

They phoned someone who was in hospital once and persuaded them to come in.

Where I work, they will never send you home ill as then they'd have to pay you so, once you're there you're generally there for the whole shift.
As an example, the receptionist lost her voice but still came in. In the end she did get sent home (she was also rather poorly, not just voiceless) but it created a bit of a war with payroll.

If noone can cover me then I can't open and that's not really an option.

Of course it is! Of course it is also unfortunate, but it is an option. Are you seriously saying you'd carry on working through norovirus? Because that is barking, and if you are actually working in food preparation, completely irresponsible.

Of course you can’t be certain 10Fingers they’re doctors not mind readers and walking bioscience labs Diagnostics is pretty much guess work until you have the gusto to back it up. In the case of the OP where would you swab?! She has general flu virus/common cold symptoms.

HCPs also go to school for a very long time to work these things out too