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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU if you have a cold, stay at home...

283 replies

kateskates · 05/01/2018 05:15

... and don't bring tour germs into work. Everyone at my DHs office has caught a cold and are sneezing and coughing. My three month old DS has caught it. :(

OP posts:
Whatsforu · 05/01/2018 08:29

OP you do not deserve the bashing you are getting on here. I understand what you are saying. The common cold fair enough people are able to carry on but there are some fairly nasty viruses and in that case people should use common sense. I used to be a soldier on regardless but since being floored by a 3 month post viral illness I am more cautious. Hope your Lo is better soon it is so difficult when they are unwell.

TheDailyMailIsADisgustingRag · 05/01/2018 08:30

Aw op! I feel for you, as I remember dd at that age and how it was when she caught colds! It can definitely make you feel a bit U about the germ-spreaders.

But, YABU. Who the hell takes time off work for a cold? Unless you’re working with very vulnerable people whose lives would genuinely be at risk if you spread it to them.

Tell your dh to practice really careful hand hygiene and do the same at home. There’s always that immune system argument to console yourself with when the baby’s poorly.

TheQueenOfWands · 05/01/2018 08:30

I don't get sick pay.

I have a mortgage, bills and a child and pets dependent on me.

Cold, D&V, the plague, I have to go to work. That's how it is.

WitchesHatRim · 05/01/2018 08:31

The common cold fair enough people are able to carry on but there are some fairly nasty viruses and in that case people should use common sense

Even with a nasty virus some peoole are able to carry on and their common sense would tell them to do so.

Not for OP to dictate when people should or shouldn't work.

Battleax · 05/01/2018 08:32

Bless you OP, what you have is a bad dose of the PFBs Smile

It wears off slowly Wink

chocolateiamydrug · 05/01/2018 08:33

Cold, D&V, the plague, I have to go to work. That's how it is.

seriously, you go to the office puking nonstop and having to sit on the loo for hours? When did you do that the last time and what and how did your co-workers react.

LashingsOfHamAndGingerBeer · 05/01/2018 08:36

Anyone that goes to work or elsewhere with D&V, regardless of their personal circumstances, is appallingly selfish. Losing pay is completely crap but it doesn't justify spreading the discomfort amd inconvenience of a D&V bug to potentially many others. A cold is one thing - D&V quite another. Height of selfishness.

Whatsforu · 05/01/2018 08:36

Yes witches I was that person carry on regardless then having a post viral illnesss made me rethink. Some people dont use common sense.

Battleax · 05/01/2018 08:40

Snufflebabe is marvellous stuff BTW. Get some of you haven't already. He'll be fine in a couple of days.

Sirzy · 05/01/2018 08:41

The trying to differentiated between “common cold” and “nasty virus” doesn’t work though as a lot of the time it is the same thing that causes them.

One of the major causes of the common cold is a virus called Rsv. It is also the cause of bronchiolitis which most children get before they are two and for some like my ds it can be very serious. Most adults wouldn’t even be aware they are carrying the virus though or would be feeling nothing more than a bit “Bleugh”

As I said before sensible precautions of course but these things simply can’t be avoided.

TheDailyMailIsADisgustingRag · 05/01/2018 08:44

seriously, you go to the office puking nonstop and having to sit on the loo for hours? When did you do that the last time and what and how did your co-workers react.

I have an acquaintance who in the past year has had to vomit into a bin at work and also into his lap on the commute home from work. He claims he’s just pukey, so every illness makes him puke, but I imagine his fellow commuters and colleagues wish he wouldn’t come to work.

RedForFilth · 05/01/2018 08:52

I don't get paid for sick days. I'm a single parent and have already lost 2 stone through only being able to afford to feed my son and not myself. If I was to be off with every cold I couldn't afford to feel him either, is that what you would prefer OP

MilkRunningOutAgain · 05/01/2018 08:58

This is a complete side track but reading the daily mails post made me remember a tube journey with a colleague years ago - he put his briefcase down next to him, picked it up at the end of the journey - when he opened it at the client’s office, someone had been sick in it! This was in the middle of an ordinary working day! Back on track I go into work unless completely floored by sickness and unable to get out of bed. I have to take time off from work with migraines, it’s a real problem and I get into trouble for taking time off most years and have done throughout my career. No way can I afford to take time off for colds as well, I really would be laid off. I hate letting my team down too, and taking days off generally does this. You need to be reliable at work and being available to work is a basic. But having said all that I was upset when my PFB got his first cold, he was just so miserable! So I do sympathise.

strangerhoes · 05/01/2018 09:00
Biscuit
19lottie82 · 05/01/2018 09:00

LOL 😂 YABU

How would a workplace function if everyone stayed off when they got a cold? I’m self employed now but when I worked for a large company I would have got the sack if I called in sick every time I got the sniffles!

Can you imagine how the economy as a whole would work?

People get colds and pass them on, inconvenient yes, but that’s life.

Letseatgrandma · 05/01/2018 09:33

I do have a job

What job do you do, if you don’t mind me asking? One that lets you call in sick every time you have a cold on full pay? I’d like to switch jobs.

I think that virtually every single teacher at my school had a cold on Wednesday at our inset-coughing, sneezing, tissues everywhere. Maybe we should have all phoned in sick on Thursday.

RavingRoo · 05/01/2018 09:36

I agree with OP. An idiot at work came in with ‘minor flu’ symptoms. Not only did he have to leave early, he gave it to me and now I’m on the 4th week of a horrible flu / chest infection.

Sirzy · 05/01/2018 09:44

And of course you haven’t left the house for 4 weeks then?

WorraLiberty · 05/01/2018 09:45

Sorry to hear that RavingRoo

But if (god forbid) your symptoms worsened and you had to be admitted to hospital, how would you feel if you were turned away because the staff/ambulance crew were all at home with colds?

WorraLiberty · 05/01/2018 09:46

Or if god forbid your house caught fire and the fire crew were all at home with colds?

RavingRoo · 05/01/2018 09:52

Hospital staff can’t work with patients when they have colds though - half my family is in the nhs (paramedics, nurses, consultants) and if they have a cold they do non-patient duties. Most trusts also insist on them having the flu jab.

And no @sirzy I haven’t.

Sirzy · 05/01/2018 09:53

I know no hospital staff - or anyone else - who would be able to take time off with a cold Hmm

WorraLiberty · 05/01/2018 09:55

So they do non patient duties

But how would you feel if everyone did because they had a cold? Where would that leave people who need urgent treatment?

Also, what about fire crews and police officers?

PinkSquash · 05/01/2018 09:55

If the NHS made all people with minor colds do non-patient duties there would be no NHS at all for 6 months of the year.

YABU

WorraLiberty · 05/01/2018 09:56

Sorry, meant to add.

I'm not sure what having the flu jab has to do with staying home with a cold.

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